Page 88 of Beneath the Starlight and Storms

“I want to destroy whoever caused them. I want to rip them apart with my bare hands and make them suffer infinitely.” He shakes his head as my heart races in my chest.

“Sono, Tink. If I can protect you from everything that’s fucked up in this world, I will.” His dark eyes settle directly on mine with the silent vow slithering beneath them.

I swallow hard as knots twist and turn in my stomach. “Even if others suffer for it? Even if they get hurt or worse?”

Hook nods. “I don’t care about others. I’m not the hero. I never said I was, nor do I want to be. I’m selfish. What I want is you, and I’m not willing to give you up or put your life in danger.”

No, he’s not the hero, but he’s also not the villain everyone says he is either. He was just a man. One that would go to great lengths for those he cared about.

But I couldn’t let him pick me over those innocent people. My hands were already tainted with blood.

It wouldn’t make up for my past mistakes. But if I could save at least one person, one Fae, I had to do it.Wehad to do it. Because I couldn’t do this alone.

“What are we Hook? You and me? Are we not equals? Because I thought we were. And equals work together.”

His eyes darken with pain. “That's where you’re wrong, Tink. I’ve never seen you as my equal.”

My heart drops to my stomach, thinking I’ve assumed too much and got everything wrong.

And then he looks directly at me, and I know I’m not mistaking the soft, vulnerable look in his eyes for something cruel. A look that tells me he cares more than he should.

“You’re more. So much more.” He shakes his head. “There’s nothing good about me. I have a dark heart and a twisted mind.” His eyes sink as he sighs.

The knots in my stomach unravel as I shake my head at his skewed view of himself.

“You really don’t see yourself clearly then,” I tell him. “Ryland and Cash are your family. The people that work here would also do anything you ask of them and not because it’s their job. They’d do it because you’ve earned their respect and loyalty. They know you care about them. You’ve even gone so far as to protect the people you don’t know. And you still think there’s nothing but darkness in you?”

A flash of surprise lights his eyes as he watches me.

“If you’re dark then so am I. So is everyone else here. And maybe that’s okay.” I take a step closer to him. “Without the dark we’d never see the stars. And without the stars nothing else exists out there.”

Hook’s eyes soften. “Tink—”

“I understand that you want to protect me. But I also don’t want to go back to the way I was. To when I didn’t have a voice or a say in what happened to me. You can’t hide me from all the bad things, Hook. Because keeping me blind to what’s happening around me is really just taking my choice away. I don’t want to go back to being in a prison. No matter how pretty or appealing it is.”

Hook’s eyes widen as he takes the last step to me before taking my hands in his. “That’s not what I want. That’sneverwhat I wanted.”

“I know. So let me make my own choices. Let me be the one who decides what I can and cannot face. Don’t let your fears take my choices away.”

The thick, stagnant air in the room slowly fades away as Hook releases a harsh breath. He pulls me into him, wrapping me in a tight hug.

“Promise me you’ll do everything I ask? Promise me that you’ll follow every instruction, every—”

“I promise,” I tell him, and I mean it. I wanted to help but I also wasn’t as naïve as I once was. I knew this was going to be dangerous.

But I also now know what it feels like to be surrounded by people who care about you. Truly care without any strings or motives attached.

And I don’t want to ever risk losing that.

The world was dark enough without having someone by your side. But it is even darker when you have nothing to fight for.

CHAPTER23

The market spreadout before me is nothing like anything I’ve seen before. Most are small but open, blending in nicely with the modern design and layout of their Realms.

But this one is nothing like that. This one looked like it was slowly rotting away.

And even though it was still daylight, there was a shroud of darkness cast over it.

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