Page 119 of The Demon Court

He shook his head in denial. “There is something. We will figure it out. One of your sisters gave me a letter that claimed the symbol on the back of your neck is the marker for the curse.”

And because he couldn’t not touch her, Lust tunneled his hand underneath her hair and traced the dark mark. He knew exactly where it was. The damned mark was one he’d looked at many times. He’d even imagined tracing his tongue over it, wondering if that would give her pleasure.

Now he hated it.

“How long have you known?”

Oh, and he hated that expression on her face. The one where she disappeared from him. Dipping into the darkness of her own mind as she struggled to get away from these emotions. “Not long. Otherwise, I would have figured out how to break the curse.”

“It’s not your job to do so.”

“It is.” He surprised himself with the ferocity in his voice. “It’s my job to keep you safe. You are mine, Selene. And I would do anything to keep you.”

“You might not be able to.” She seemed so resigned. As though the words were all she had been waiting for before her soul could let go of all the pain. “Minerva wants me dead because I disappointed her. We should make good use of the time we have left.”

The snarl that erupted from his chest wasn’t human. Not at all. “You will fight this, Selene. You will battle and rage and tear at the world until this curse is broken. Do you hear me?”

Her features smoothed, the vacant expression he hated so much like a mask of ice over her face. “I’m tired of fighting, Lust. I’m tired of all this.”

Panic turned his heart into a drum. He framed her face with his hands, smoothing his thumbs over the high peaks of her cheekbones as his thoughts scattered to the winds. “No, no, that’s not you. You’re the sorceress who stood in the wake of a demon king and bent him to your whims. You’re far too brave to give up that easily, Selene.”

He expected some kind of reaction. Tears. Anger. A fight in her that should be there even through all this. But there was nothing left at all. She’d hidden herself from him again.

And it made him angry.

After all he’d done, all he’d proven to her, she thought she could recede into her mind? No, he wouldn’t let her. He’d drag her kicking and screaming into this world if he had to, but at least she would be here.

“You’re not dead yet,” he snarled. “I know Minerva wants you to think that she has everything planned out, but all she did was give us another obstacle.”

“Some are too big to crawl over.”

“This is one we can beat together. You’re a sorceress. You grew up in her home! Selene, you have to know more than I do.” Had his voice become frantic? He couldn’t focus on what he was saying in his desperation to reel her back in. “Get mad at me. Hit me if you wish, because I brought you here. I showed you what this world could be and broke through that ice in your heart. I made you want to change. So take it out on me.”

“I don’t want to be mad at you, Lust.” Finally, something in that gaze softened, but it wasn’t the way he wanted. She didn’t look like she was coming back to him. If anything, this felt like goodbye. “You showed me what I really wanted, Lust. You made me feel like a person again.”

“You aren’t this,” he whispered, drawing her forward so he could press their foreheads together. “Where did you go, little moon?”

“Somewhere you cannot follow.”

“There is no such place. I will shatter this realm if I lose you.”

“Don’t put that on me.” Selene shook her head, slowly rotating back and forth against him. “Don’t make me the reason this kingdom falls.”

“It’s already at your feet.” Didn’t she understand? How did he tell her what she wanted to hear? How did he use words to explain to her that she was his heart, and it only just begun to beat?

After a thousand years of life, he had finally started to live. He couldn’t lose that. Not now.

She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I do not know of a way to fix this. There is no spell that can remove the mark on my neck, just as there is no way we can convince Minerva to spare me.”

“I will give them the castle.”

“You will do no such thing.” Her voice deepened, snapping with anger as he’d hoped. Selene ripped herself away from him.

His arms fell empty at his sides as she glared at him, the wind thrashing her hair against her cheeks like the lashing of whips. Her eyes sparked like an avenging goddess and he’d never thought her more beautiful than in this moment.

“Your kingdom comes first,” she said. “Your kingdom over a single subject. Your court above one person. You cannot, and will not, give up everything that you have fought so hard to build.”

“I would lay it at your feet if it will keep you alive.”

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