Page 25 of Cruel God

“I’ve sent you the guest list,” she said, all the smoothness gone from her voice. “He’s on the list as you requested.”

“Is he coming?”

“Yes.”

I smiled. “Excellent, thank you, Lilith.”

“Tell me, Rex. You had one favor, and you chose something as simple as adding a name on a guest list. Why?”

“It might be a simple request to you, but to me, it’s another move closer.”

“Closer to what?”

I strolled across the room to my bedroom door. “Closer to checkmate.”

I hung up and placed the phone in my pants pocket. Everything was starting to fall in place just as I had planned. Now I just needed to make sure Colton was on board. I needed his skills and connections for this plan to work. Without knowing, Colton had already passed two tests—completing the job he had been given last night, and fucking Piper like he didn’t have a moral bone in his body. Now there was only one more test to see whether Colton’s need to find his sister was as strong as I suspected.

I closed the bedroom door behind me and glanced down the hall to find Hope sleeping by the window. I took the time to drink her in, to fully appreciate how fucking perfect the picture was of her sleeping so peacefully. The morning sun shined in, basking her with its warmth and painting her face with its colors. Hope was a canvas to the light, a flawless beauty who seemed untainted by the cruel world that swallowed her whole.

What was it about her? It was like nature itself tried to wrap around her. The moon, the sun, it all made her shine brighter than any light. After all this time, I still couldn’t figure it out—how she managed to keep the light when she had been a prisoner in the dark for so long.

How did this woman manage to have such power over me that I’d start a war for her? Paint my hands with the blood of my own for her? Risk my legacy for her? Feel like I could be a good man…for her?

I walked over to where she lay and crouched down before gently tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. It was times like these that my affection for her burned the cold armor around my heart to ash. Times when I saw a beautiful woman instead of an obedient slave.

“Butterfly,” I whispered. “Wake up.”

She moaned softly, and the sound had a direct line to my cock. Fuck, even the way she breathed turned me on.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she squinted as she stared directly into the sunlight. “Did I fall asleep?”

“You did.”

She turned her face toward me, eyes downcast. “Forgive me.”

“For what?”

“For not going back to my room.”

“You did nothing wrong,” I cooed, stroking my fingers through her hair. “I gave you permission to stay here as long as you like, remember?”

She nodded, then looked out the window. “I just couldn’t go back to my room without seeing it.”

“Without seeing what?”

When she looked at me, her brown eyes glowed and sparkled with something that resembled…happiness.

“The sunrise.”

My heart slammed against my chest. “The sunrise? You stayed here to see the sunrise?”

“It was the first time in years that I saw the sunrise again.”

This time I swallowed hard as guilt made its way into the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t remember the last time I watched the sunrise. Most days, I was up before dawn, yet not once did I ever think of taking the time to watch the sunrise—something this woman stayed up for hours to see.

The remorse grew stronger, louder, screaming and reaching out to me with its sharp claws.

I hated that I felt guilty. I didn’t start all of this. I didn’t create this world. I just continued living in it and ultimately ended up ruling it. This way of life was all I knew—shewas all I knew. And if it weren’t for my place in this world, I wouldn’t have had the means to keep her, and in turn keeping her safe from a much crueler fate.

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