Page 116 of Our Sins in Shadows (Coven of Sin 2)

He’s shifting back.

His wings retracted into his back. His beefy muscles shrunk as if being sucked back into some black hole within his body. The pale wash of his skin expanded as his inky veins shrunk to their normal size.

For several moments that seemed to last forever, we just laid there. Everyone went deathly quiet. Vincent was back to his old self, and he looked exhausted. Spent. Ashamed.

“I won’t bother asking for your forgiveness. But know I will earn it back. Along with your trust,” he said, his voice waif thin.

“I don’t know if you can. You almost killed Sterling.”

His dark brows pinched together, and his gaze grew distant. “I acknowledge my transgressions. If either of you wishes to deliver my true death as punishment, I’ll accept this.”

My heart ached in anguish at the thought. “You’d let us kill you?”

He gave me a weak, one-shoulder shrug. “You saw me. What I’d been before I was turned. I thought I could maintain my control for the time it would take to get to Fairie and back. Clearly, I was mistaken. By indulging in my old self, the monster I’d been before, I endangered you and my brothers.”

“You deserve an ass kicking, Feral. Not death. You made a vow to me. Don’t you remember it?”

His gaze found mine, and my breath stilled in my lungs. “I could never forget, Princess. I meant every word I said to you the night I promised to protect you. That means if I have to protect you from myself, I will.”

“I don’t need you to protect me from yourself. That’s what started this whole stupid thing. I need you to let me in.”

Vin sat up, pulling my chest flush with his as his arms gathered me into an embrace. He winced as I brushed against his wounds, but this didn’t stop him from holding me as if I was the cure to his injuries rather than the cause.

For the longest time, I let him hold me. He had a lot to prove to me before I fully forgave him. But I didn’t have the strength to pull myself out of his embrace. His bare body against mine felt too perfect.

“I understand,” he whispered in my ear as he stroked my hair. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness. Just know I will do better. I overestimated my self-control over my base instincts. I was wrong. I understand my limits and that I can’t keep holding you at arm’s length. It’s thanks to you that I understand now, Ruby Renada.” He kissed me so tenderly on my nose, holding my stare so reverently. “Iunderstand.”

“You’d better, Vincent Feral. Break my heart again, and I’ll tie you to the ground outside and watch as the sunrise burns your corpse to a crisp.”

Despite the sincerity of my threat, he smiled. “If I break your heart again, I’ll hold you to that, Princess. And if your love for me prevents you from making good on that promise, I’ll have Eros secure my bindings for you. Won’t you, brother?”

Deathwish snorted from the other side of the room. “In a heartbeat.”

Chapter forty-seven

No More Secrets

AspissedasIstill was at Vincent, I didn’t have the energy to argue or fight anymore, not tonight.

All I wanted was for him to hold me.

Tears rolled in thick streams down my cheeks as I laid on his tattered chest, feeling his skin fuse shut beneath me. My claws had shrunk back to my usual nails, along with the strength and the chaos of my monster as she receded back inside me.

Everything was eerily calm now.

“So...are you going to tell me why you went to Fairie?”

Vincent combed his fingers idly through my hair as he stared up at the ceiling. “I told you, I was getting something for you.”

“That can’t be the only reason.” By the look on his face, I knew I was right. He was hiding something. “Tell me, Feral. You can’t keep hiding shit from me.”

His chest caved with a tortured sigh of concession. “I wanted to see my mother.”

I blinked. I knew about Vincent’s father and how he’d passed, but I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t considered the notion that Feral probably had other family in Fairie. Any of Sterling’s relatives were long dead. Corry’s family had been mesmerized to think he’d run away to Europe, and as a kid raised in the foster care system, Eros hadn’t had any to begin with. So I guess I’d just lumped Vin into that same assumption that his family wasn’t in the picture.

“I imagine it was a shock to see you alive. In a manner of speaking,” Sterling said, sitting on the edge of his bed while Eros hovered beside the window, glaring out at the ocean.

“It was. Last time I saw my mother was before I’d been turned.”

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