Page 150 of A Bond in Blood

The door to the beach slammed open and my steps grew even slower against the heavy sand. I was mere feet from the water when his hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me against him.

“Let me go!” I begged. “Let me go!”

To my surprise, he released me, and I continued my determined path, flinging my body into the water. I gasped and the cold liquid flooded into my lungs.

I fell, allowing it to envelope me. Begging the Gods of the sea to cleanse me of my sins.

My body grew weightless around me. My sins lifted away from me.

The sins I welcomed—him—he was the sin. He was the poison. The tonic I consumed daily. The green eyes that held me captive. The inked skin that hypnotized me in his bed. The smooth voice—terrifying me and calming me at the same time.

I opened my eyes, barely able to see under the dark surface even with the bright moon above us.

Until he was before me. I pulled my head from the water, gasping in my breaths while he rose slowly.

His shadows were still wrapped around his face, a mask of his own making. Still blocking me from seeing his features, but it was different.

Alive.

“I have hurt you,” he said quietly.

I nodded.

“I do not know how to reckon any of this, Ulrich,” I replied. “I do not know how I can ever return to who I was before I met you.”

He was silent. Just like before. No emotion. No sound.

Until a brief flash of what appeared to be a genuine emotion went across his gaze. A moment of vulnerability.

Despite the weight the expression forced against my lungs, I could not reply. I could not acknowledge it. There was no empathy in my heart for whatever it was he had felt in that moment. Not when he had done all that he could to beat my former empathy, and who I was before out of me.

Not when I was unsure of when the vulnerability would change.

Or even more terrifying: that I did not know if I wanted anything inside of him to change.

“Banishment,” I whispered, voicing my choice for Bjorn’s consequence. “I choose banishment.”

Ulrich remained quiet while I backed away, swimming through the water until my feet were in the sand once more. I only looked back once, finding him staring at me with the moon high above him.

He was a magnificent image at that moment; almost godlike, perhaps somethingmorethan a God stared at me.

I let out a shaky breath, retreating back to the safety of my prison, leaving him in the frigid water.

When I reached the clock room, Olen was there, holding a cloak out for me. I fell into the strength of his embrace as he wrapped it around my shoulders.

I stared up at him, tears running down my cheeks.

“I chose banishment,” I cried.

He nodded his head, patting my shoulder. “Yes, princess.”

“Olen,” I whispered.

He bent, scooping me into his arms. Cradling me gently.

“Yes?” he asked as I laid my head on his chest.

“He has poisoned me,” I cried. “He has gotten into my veins.” I met the beast-man’s eyes. “Why do I want more?” I asked.

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