Page 42 of Finn
Finn’s smile grew, that familiar warmth filling his eyes.
“I trust you,” he said simply, his voice soft but steady. “I want this. With you.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. There was no eloquent response, no perfect words I could give him.
I had nothing left to offer but my heart, and that was his for the taking.
But I still had so many questions, still so much fear, lingering in the background.
What did this mean for us? For him? What future could we have?
But in this moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was the way he was looking at me, trusting me, loving me. There was no hesitation, no fear in his eyes.
And maybe that was enough. Maybe it would have to be.
I kissed him softly, my lips lingering on his, tasting the last traces of the blood he’d freely given.
He kissed me back, just as softly, his hands resting on my chest as if he were grounding me, reminding me that I wasn’t alone.
For once, I didn’t feel like a monster.
CHAPTER TWELVE
FINN/ ASHER
FINN
I took a deep breath and asked Gabriel, “Will you tell me how it happened?”
The soft lighting in the room made Gabriel’s face look even more striking, but his expression was shadowed, haunted by memories he hadn’t wanted to relive.
His eyes held mine, steady, but with a trace of vulnerability that I’d rarely seen.
Gabriel’s lips pressed together for a moment, but he nodded.
“It was supposed to be a straightforward mission,” he began, his voice low and filled with a bitterness that cut through me. “My team and I were sent to a nest in the mountains. The intel said it was small, only six vampires.”
He paused, and I could sense the hesitation. I shifted closer, willing him to continue.
“We went in prepared for six,” he said, sound matter-of-fact. “But the reports were wrong. There were at least a dozen vampires waiting for us, maybe more. They had set traps. We fought like hell. But it wasn’t enough.”
He exhaled a shaky breath, his gaze hardening as he relived it.
“Three of my teammates died within minutes. I... I was gravely injured,” Gabriel said.
A chill ran down my spine as he spoke. I could picture it. The ambush, the desperation, the betrayal that followed.
“We’d all sworn to stay together, but the survivors... they abandoned me.” His jaw tightened. “Left me there to die.”
My hand reached out instinctively, covering his. “Gabriel...”
“The worst part wasn’t the physical pain,” he continued, a hollow look in his eyes. “It was the betrayal. After all we’d been through, they left me for dead.”
He laughed bitterly, and it was a sound that twisted my heart.
“And that’s when Beric arrived. He came to investigate the attack on the nest.” Gabriel’s tone grew colder. “Turned out, that nest was an ally of Beric’s.”
I could sense Gabriel’s pain, but there was something else simmering underneath. Rage, perhaps, or a wound so deep it had never healed.
