Page 77 of Reckless Covenant

“It didn’t feel like it from our side. Madds was worried that Holt was going to lash out at you… the outlet for the anger we were causing.”

We stop in a clearing, my feet sore, since we’ve been walking for quite a while. But the smells of the forest, the crisp night, the starry sky… they make up for it.

“And you?” I turn, craning my neck to look into his dark eyes, and he faces me, his chest almost pressed to mine.

“Morrigan… when I look at you, I see something that most don’t. I see exactly what you saw all those years ago in me. And I in you. A darkness that matches mine, the fury you subdue, and the resilience that makes you a survivor. I was terrified. Fucking riddled with guilt for what that asshole could be doing to you, and it would have been all my fault. Yet somehow I knew you would be okay. Even through my inability to help you, through the prospect that I could make things worse for you, I trusted in your strength. I trusted that you knew how to care for yourself. I had to trust that…” He shakes his head, eyes phasing out as his mind seems to go somewhere else, whispering a few more times,“I had to trust that… I had to trust…”

Fuck…I never expected this, any of this… his reaction to it all. His faith in me, the pain in him.

I grab his face, pulling him to me and out of that daze, and kiss him so hard that it hurts.

Because it hurts our souls too.

It hurts to know what could have been and how much he would have hated himself for it.

It hurts to know this man is exactly what my soul needs—not the one to save me, but the one to help me save myself.

It hurts… seeing how much we have lost, but it’s such a good hurt, knowing that we have found our way back now.

He presses a hand on the small of my back, the other on the back of my head, holding this kiss longer and longer, the feel of it penetrating my fucking soul, my heart aching for it to never end.

A gust of wind pulls us from the spell, bringing with it a humid scent that usually means rain through these parts. We both look up, but the skies are still clear. And then I skate my eyes around us, releasing him when I realize where we stand.

“The crossroads!” I exclaim.

“Did you really not know where you were that night?” A smirk pulls at his lips.

I shake my head, inhaling that scent of wildflowers. “I just took a turn and drove. I guess… it was meant to be in some way.”

“I thought about that quite a lot. For a while, I was convinced it was intentional. I guess you’re right, it was meant to be.”

“So this is part of your land as well?”

“Yes, you missed the private property and private road sign that night…”

“So you really were just out for a run that night. Here I was thinking you were some creepy ass guy stalking through the forest.”

“Well… just because it’s my forest, it doesn’t mean I’m not.” He shrugs and I feel a rumble of laughter growing in my chest.

“You know, I’m still not sure what the price was for the deal I made with you.”

“You sold your soul to me that night, right here, in this spot.” He grips my waist, pulling me against his warm body. “Little by little… and you became mine. Such a beautiful, beautiful gift…” he murmurs.

“My soul is mine, Sir, thank you very much.” I lift my nose and quirk my eyebrows as I regard him, palms pressed on his chest.

“Oh, my darling Eve, it’s so very charming that you believe that.” The grin he gives me, with those devious dimples, is devastating. Truly and utterly devastating.

He presses his lips onto mine, his arms wrapping me in a possessive hold, and I fear that my soul has been his long before we struck a deal at this very crossroads.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

VINCENT

She taps her fingers, one by one, on the marble top of the coffee table, making me a bit uneasy.

“And you’re sure this plan will work?” Morrigan asks me for the second time, after I run through the details, most of which I’ve already discussed with the rest of The Sanctum. All but one—a backup plan that I had to discuss with her first. A crazy… fucking crazy backup plan.

“We’ve weighed as many risks as we could think of. We have them in a tight grip now. All of them,” I confirm yet again.

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