Page 35 of Fated In Forever
And, if I wanted to be honest, I’d still been holding onto some of that same hope when I’d arrived in France. Some foolish optimism that we’d emerge from this mountainvictorious, beating the odds, tempting fate and winning, one last time.
But with every step towards that room, the edges of myself flaked away. Thoughts that were once sharp and colorful became dim smudges, memories diluted like salt in the ocean. Names tasted like ash on my tongue.
I knew I wouldn’t be coming back.
I was too much the monster—too far gone.
And gods, I was so tired of pretending I wasn’t afraid of losing everything. Of leaving Evangeline behind and never seeing her again.
As if I’d conjured her up, her voice brushed against the edges of my mind, featherlight.
Malachi?
I shut that door before it could open. If she sensed what I was becoming, if she knew it was already too late—she’d grieve me before I was even gone. No, she’d risk herself to save me—again—and I would not allow her to endanger herself. Not for a lost cause.
She deserved so much better.
She deserved the life Riordan could offer her, a throne and a crown and a kingdom. The family Blake dreamed of. She deserved slow days in the garden and laughing beneath the stars and late mornings in bed.
Of all the people I’d ever met, Evangeline deserved happiness the most, and I wished I had the power to give that to her, on a silver platter, on my knees.
But all I had left to offer was the gift of freedom, and I meant to cut her loose.
Today.
16
MALACHI
Ahundred feet later, Blake stopped, raising a fist. We froze. The corridor ended in an intersection, one tunnel half-collapsed, the other two dripping with tree roots and lichen. The air down here was colder.
Moreaware.
Finn moved forward to inspect the trap, Riordan following, the flickering torches casting long shadows across the wet stone. “Pressure plates,” Riordan explained, jerking his head to the right. “Some kind of trigger here…and over there.”
“We’ve seen this shit before,” Blake crouched low, “There. Three tiles in. Pattern is slightly different. I can’t read the runes like Eldric, but I recognize that one. If we step wrong, we die, badly.”
Nash whistled low. “Delightful.”
Vicious stayed close to Riordan as they picked their way through the deadly maze. I watched every fucking move she made until she reached the other side. Riordan kept one hand on her elbow, Blake inches behind her, and when she was finally safe, I let my head fall forward.
They would protect her.
Once I was gone, she would never be alone, and these two…
I had never cared much for either of them, but theywould take care of Evangeline. In fact, I realized, with no small amount of surprise, these two males were the only people on earth Iwouldtrust with her.
Which was a total mindfuck.
My feet—my entire body—everything was too wide for the safe path. I crouched low, planting my hands carefully, then pushed off the stone walls to leap over the tiles, launching myself into the safe zone, everyone scattering out of the way.
My landing shook the walls.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
“Are youtryingto get us killed?” Finn muttered. “Because I have no fucking desire to be buried beneath a mountain, listening to you assholes smother to death around me.”
“Well, that’s a pleasant thing to say when we’re all standingthree hundred feet underground.” Evangeline muttered, giving me the side eye.Seriously? How rude. I think you need to teach him some manners.
