Page 124 of Fated In Forever
Death might even be a relief.
My eyes were closed when Ravok's footsteps approached slowly, deliberately. “Now,” he said, his voice soft and satisfied, “now you understand what real power looks like. What it means to be truly helpless. I accept your gift. I will take your lives, and your kingdom and your clan. Your magic will serve me, and perhaps, if you serve me well enough, you can keep your souls.”
But I couldn't hear him anymore. All I saw was Evangeline's face, the light fading from her eyes. All I could feel was the crushing weight of failure, of a love confessed too late, of a promise to protect her that I'd broken in the most terrible way possible.
In that moment, I knew the truth.
Death would be a blessing.
Because living with this—living with the memory of watching her die while we knelt helpless before her killer—was a fate worse than death itself.
59
MALACHI
The blood oath writhed through my veins like chains of molten iron, binding me to stillness as I watched Ravok's masterpiece unfold. His glamour was flawless—weeks and weeks of endlessly feeding on thralls had made him stronger than I'd ever seen him.
Than I’d ever seenanyvampire, even the Elders.
To Blake and Riordan, his illusion was perfect: they saw me dead, saw Evangeline with a knife to her throat, watched their worst nightmare play out in horrifying, brutal detail.
But I was very much alive, bound and gagged in the shadows, forced to watch as my Maker orchestrated psychological torture with the precision of a virtuoso. The real Evangeline was trapped beside me, her silent screams lost behind Ravok's power, her tears carving tracks down her face as she watched Blake and Riordan's anguish.
Submit,the blood oath whispered a constant loop in my mind, Ravok's will binding my consciousness as tightly as iron manacles.Obey. You swore away your soul to me.
I had obeyed for so many years.
Centuries of helpless submission.
The blood oath was absolute—dominion over flesh and bone, muscle and voice. But watching Blake collapse to his knees, listening to his broken confession of love, seeingRiordan beg for Evangeline's life... those unbreakable chains began to crack.
I shuddered, all the way down to my soul when Ravok's illusion showed him slitting Evangeline's throat. Shuddered again when Blake and Riordan's screams of grief echoed off the concrete walls, when Evangeline’s muffled sobs tore through my heart as she watched the people she loved suffer, believing this tragedy was her doing.
But this twisted, grotesque display of cruelty had been two millennia in the making, and none of this was her fault.
No,the word sparked in the darkness of my mind.This ends now.
“Now you understand,” Ravok told the two broken males, his voice thick with satisfaction. “What real power looks like. What it means to be truly helpless. I will take your lives, and your kingdom and your clan. Your magic will serve me, and perhaps, if you serve me well enough, you will get to keep your souls.”
I saw the greed in his eyes. The glamour had been the appetizer—now came the main course. He would either kill them while they were defenseless, or force them to submit and he would savor every moment.
Or…he might make them swear the same demonic blood oath that made me a prisoner.
I would not allow either of those scenarios to happen.
My shoulders strained, muscles popping as I raised my head, Romulus making a little sound of distress behind me. But I kept going, until I saw everything. And knew this was the last time Ravok would ever control me again.
The blood oath tightened around me like a vise, trying to force me back into submission. But something had changed. The sight of Evangeline's tears, the sound of myfriends' anguish, the knowledge that Ravok's cruelty knew no bounds—all of it crystallized into one burning truth.
I was fucking Orcus. God of the Underworld.
I wasn’t his slave, or his creation.
I choose.The words echoed through me.I choose who I am. I choose who I serve. I choose who I protect and I choose who I love.
The blood oath convulsed, the shackles splintering, not because Ravok was weak—he was stronger than ever. But because I had found something stronger than he could ever be.
You are my world, Evie.
