Page 78 of Slay Me

I stiffen, emotions at war inside of me. Fear? Panic? Joy? Relief? I’m not even entirely sure what the hell I’m supposed to feel because, up until last week, I wanted nothing but to escape this place.

To leave and never return. Though, I suppose, if I’m honest with myself, that had a lot to do with fear versus actual desire to be free.

“Do you have any comprehension of the danger that puts you in? I have enemies, and should they find out just what you mean to me, they will have everything they need to bring me to my knees.”

“What enemies?” I question. “Ernesto—”

“Is a fucking pest in need of squashing,” he replies. “I have bigger problems should anyone from my clan ever find me.”

“So you have enemies where you’re from. Is that why you don’t want anyone to know what you are?”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

He shakes his head and closes his eyes as if withdrawing into himself.

“Dante, tell me.”

“My father,” he replies. “I am the eldest heir of my clan, and because of that, he seeks to terminate my life so that I will not challenge him.”

I gasp, covering my mouth with both hands. I know all about asshole parents, but I never would have expected that. “He wants to kill you? But why? Do you want it?”

“I don’t. But in our culture, the head of the clan must battle the heirs to keep his rightful place. I left because doing so meant saving the lives of my brothers. If he cannot kill me, he won’t harm them.”

Mind reeling, I try to cling to what he’s saying. “Because he needs to fight you first?”

He nods. “It must be done as tradition states it, which means the eldest goes down first.”

“So you’re hiding from him in hopes it keeps your brothers safe.”

“Yes.”

“That’s fucking awful.” Honestly, makes my parents look like award winners. “What world are you from?”

“Arcadia,” he replies.

“No one ever comes from there,” I remind him. “Do you really think he is a threat?”

Dante doesn’t hesitate to nod. “If anyone can find a way here, it’s him.”

My heart aches for the man before me. A man forced to leave his home to save his siblings. While our circumstances are quite different, I know what it’s like to be alienated from family. To feel completely shut out by those who should have been there for you.

“How long have you known? What I was to you.”

A muscle in his strong jaw twitches. “I felt it before I ever found you in that alley. The first night you came to my circus. You were withhimthen.” He growls the word him as though the sheer mention of Ernesto pisses him off.

The memory is one I remember easily enough. Then again, I can recall all of my time with Ernesto like it was yesterday. Haunting memories have a way of clinging to you that way. Sneaking out of the dark when your mind is calm to torment you all over again. “So when you found me—”

“When you were attacked, you were close enough that I could feel your fear. You’d been so fucking terrified, and I wanted to slaughter them.”

“Yet you asked for my permission.”

He offers me a nod. “I needed it.”

“Why?” A tear slips down my cheek. All this time he lied to me. Kept the truth hidden behind a velvet curtain and a pair of white fucking gloves.

“So that I could keep you,” he whispers.

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