Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84072 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Compelled to seduce, designed to kill.
What do you do when your love destroys the only person you are designed to be with?
For centuries I've been trapped in a curse with my soulmate, only she has no idea… until history finally repeats itself.
The Matchmaker of the Fae felt wronged when we both chose our own destinies, and now, we're forced to relive our fate over and over again.
I try like hell to fix the curse, but I remember nothing after each death, only that I'm lonely and heartbroken.
The small town of Orca Cove, Oregon, doesn't help matters.
Filled with paranormal lore from all over the world… if anything, they're just as trapped as I am.
My only help is the large library on my estate.
If I can just find the notes I know I would have hidden, along with texts, maybe this time will be different.
The house groans with need for its mistress.
My heart breaks with sorrow that she doesn't recognize me until it's too late.
Her blood will always be on my hands, just like her heart is in mine.
The path to your soul mate isn't a fairytale—at least ours isn't.
My Fae queen thinks she's nothing more than a normal college student. She believes that the world is just as she sees it, without a clue that the darkness lurking in the shadows, the man she'll fall for once again, the man who will be her demise…
Is me.
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Prologue
New York, 1918
It was a close walk.
That was what I repeated over and over while I sat by her bedside and tried to bring her fever down with cold rags to her forehead. It hit us overnight, or so it seemed.
I was immune.
She wasn’t.
I’d stupidly made the mistake of waiting too long to ask forgiveness from my family, and now, I was here with my wife as she coughed and coughed until I was afraid she was going to either throw out her back or fracture a rib.
Death seemed to constantly follow every step I took. Regardless of how many years I’d avoided her, it still found me—us.
“Benjamin,” she rasped, raising her wrinkled hand to my strong jaw. “Maybe it’s just time…”
“No!” My blood heated in outrage. Time was never supposed to be against me, and it sure as hell was never supposed to be against her.
I knew, though, didn’t I? In the deepest recesses of my mind, I knew that I was cursed. And then I justified my desire for her and lied to myself, told myself love could cure all.
She was mine!
Mine to claim.
Mine to own.
Mine to save.
And now, I could see her breaths weaken, hear her cough worsen, I could fucking feel her blood slow its flow to each individual part of her body where it was needed most.
But at least it was a close walk.
To the small local hospital.
To the people who were already so overrun by the sickness that it would be impossible to even get seen.
My heart cracked a little more as her blue eyes twinkled with the same mischief that had attracted me to her the first time so many years ago.
Her playful spirit.
Her huge heart.
And her ability to make anything and everything seem amusing even when it wasn’t.
I was powerful.
And even I couldn’t save her.
Because I was cursed to watch everyone, everything I’d ever loved, die.
And I knew, when I made that short walk—neither could they.
“Addie.” I fought like hell to keep my emotions in check, but they’d always been hard to contain—after all, once you give your heart to someone—your soul—it’s nearly impossible to hold back everything, and for me, it was harder than most. Hadn’t I learned that fucking lesson years ago? Was I cursed to repeat the same mistake over and over again for eternity?
“You’re going to be fine, just let me—” I lifted my hand… she knew what it would mean.
It didn’t matter.
I just wanted more time with her.
Even if it was five more seconds versus five more years, I just needed more, and it was the one thing I didn’t have the power to give, but I would try even if it meant sacrificing everything I fought so hard to resist, to protect.
Visions of her blood on my hands had me rocking her back and forth, back and forth. Always the same ending—always.
“No.” A solitary tear ran down the paper-thin skin of her gaunt cheek. “No, love, not this time. You need—” She hesitated as another coughing fit took over. Her hand clenched mine. “You need to let me go.”
“I can’t.” What was this pain? This out-of-body experience that threatened to rip my heart from my chest? The fire in my throat was unbearable, the helplessness in my soul excruciating. “I can’t lose you.”
I can’t lose anyone else.
I wouldn’t be the same.
I would be undone.
“Ben…” Her smile spread across her face as I tucked pieces of gray hair from her cheeks. “We always knew.”
I ignored the truth of it.
I had for the last few years, hadn’t I?
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” I whispered. I had promised her this time would be different; this time I’d burn the world to make it right. “Not like this.”
“Then how?” She gripped my hand. “I think.” Another tear fell. “I think I’d like to take that walk now.”
“It’s a close walk,” I reminded her… and myself.
I reminded the universe.
My ancestors who tormented me. Who had done this to me.
I reminded them all with my words because words, when said out loud, had the power to define, and I wanted them to see my wrath, to know my anger.
“Yes.” Her smile gave me strength.
Years ago, I would have laughed.
Not today.
Today, she was the most powerful woman in the world.
The most powerful person in the room.
So, for the first time in my life, I used her strength, the way she moved to her feet, and gave me a look of pure love.
Pure magic, wasn’t it? The way love worked.
And I took her hand.
It wasn’t long before we were walking down the street, hand in hand like we’d done for so many years, passing the new bookstore—her favorite place in the world.
I remembered the day we met, how angry I was that she’d so easily seen through me, and then the hunger I felt when she touched me, the way my soul felt like it had split in two, giving her one half and leaving me with the broken, bloody remnants.