Page 70 of Revenge & Ruin

I swallow back another round of tears.What happened?I want to yell at him.

But I know already, don’t I?

I died. Twice.

And he’d had to watch.

“If I die, my death can be on your hands,”I quote back to him.

His entire body freezes.

“You said that to me once,” I continue. “Not so nice, is it?”

For a moment, I think he might have become entirely paralyzed. But then his shoulders begin to cave in and shake. His laughter is stunted, almost watery, but the sound of it warms up the sterile room by a hundred degrees.

“Did you just…” he splutters out into laughter again. “Tell me off?”

“Laugh all you want, Vitale. I wasn’t the one crying over my enemy’s deathbed.”

He shakes his head as he pushes himself up, stalking over to my side of the bed and sitting on the edge.

I can feel his warmth through the thin sheets, and I have to restrain myself from curling around him as he reaches out to tuck my hair behind my ear.

His hand lingers, cupping the side of my face gently. It's so soft I can feel my insides melting at the touch.

“Where is she, Isabella?”

I close my eyes. “I can’t tell you that.”

“I did this to you.”

“Teo,” I protest.

“Butshedid this to you, too.”

I shake my head.

“Look at me.”

I do. And he’s there, hovering over me, mere inches from my face. We’re practically breathing the same air, and I savor thetaste. The overwhelming buzz of his nearness fills my ears as if there is nothing else in the world.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you again,” he promises, serious as death itself.

I take a steadying breath. “And that includes my mother, does it?”

“You could have died.”

“She didn’t force me to drink it,” I argue back. “This is not the point.”

“Then what is the point, Isabella? Because I’m so damn tired of running these circles with you.”

It’s my turn to laugh. It’s an awful, bitter sound. “Then maybe you should have just let me die! It would have saved you the trouble of killing me.”

I watch as his jaw muscles jump beneath his skin. Those precious inches between us get shorter and shorter, and then his nose is on my cheek, almost nuzzling me.

“I can’t do it,” he whispers his dangerous secret into the non-existent space between us.

And my heart simply breaks.

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