Page 101 of The Shadow Fae Rhapsody
I bite my inner cheek, unable to escape the question or his gaze.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” I whisper, fearful of my own voice.
I hold my breath as he leans forward. “Hurt me? How?”
My heart squeezes in its cavity. I don’t want to have to answer that. But I’ve avoided this long enough…
“I know Lilith wants you.” I force the words out through the tightness in my chest. “Do you—”
Do you need time?
The question stalls in my throat. Because I know I’m a curse bearer. I know I’ll always be a reminder of the disgusting things they’ve done to him. There is not enough time in the world to erase that.
I try to make another impossible escape again, pushing against his chest. I may as well be pushing a dwarven-made wall.
I can’t run now. Heavens help me, please.
His dark eyes are staring at me, and I feel like I’ve lost the ability to breathe. “What did you want to ask me, Rhianelle? Do I want her?”
No, that’s not it…I shake my head.
“I never saw her—or any of them that way,” he says before I can explain myself. He pauses for a long beat. “But that did not stop them from trying.”
A painful ache takes root in my heart.
“I know,” I say with a shaky breath. “They showed me.”
Bile coalesces in my gut as I remember the way the curse bearers flaunt their revelation with wicked glee.
“Tell me exactly what they showed you,” he says, his jaw clenching.
I don’t want to say anything more. I want to run away, but his body is like granite against mine, cold and hard.
My lips tremble as I try to meet his demand. “I’ve seen the curse bearers torture you, abuse you. They chained you and poured boiling water over you and…”
What the Vulture did to him next was so vile I don’t dare speak of it. I rub my eyes with my fist at the memory.
His head jerks back in surprise. “You saw that…?”
I nod.
The Vulture fooled Svenn into believing she would release him from the Rhunhraefn if he—
“Did you ever finish watching what they did to me?” His voice interrupts my thoughts.
I shake my head.
“All my secrets are at your disposal,” he says, his breath fluttering against my skin. “Go on. Take a look, Rhianelle.”
My heart threatens to stop. He wants me to see his past?
“It’s all right,” he reassures me, but I hear it in his voice. The pain, the hollowness.
The memories are hard for me to watch. I know it has to be even more painful for him. Yet Svenn wants to share this with me.
“Look,” he persuades me gently.
I take a deep breath and close my eyes. Svenn opens his mind to me, and I enter freely at the invitation. This time I will force myself to witness the rest of the Vulture’s torment on him.
