Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Tell me.” I took a step in her direction, but paused just before reaching for her chin. Touching Avianna was something I’d only done once, and that had been to help her up after she’d fallen on her cute little ass in the middle of an ice storm.
Her eyes flashed open.
“I agreed to marry Samuel,” she whispered.
“No.” I staggered back, gravity shifting beneath my feet.
“I had to,” she cried, her hand reaching toward me, only to fall just before touching me.
“What kind of Stockholm-syndrome-level bullshit are you speaking right now?” Fuck the distance and her rules. I grabbed her by her shoulders. “You are not marrying Samuel. He kidnapped you!”
“I know!” Her face contorted and her eyes filled with tears. “Why do you think I’ve been silent! I didn’t know how to tell anyone! How to tell you!”
My head shook violently. “No. Nope. No fucking way. We’ll get you out of this.”
“Hawke, it was the only way to save Alek. They’re coming for the crown. That’s been their intention since we woke them from stasis. Saint is….” She trembled slightly. “I heard his plans through the door. He’s mad, Hawke. He wants Alek dead, all of the Assassins dead. Samuel convinced him to let everyone live, because if we’re married, then he has a direct line to the throne.”
“The. Fuck. You. Say.” My vision went in and out, pulsing with thermals as I fought for control. “You’re not ending up with that fucker. I forbid it!” Alek would find a way out of it. He had to. The vampire was the smartest male I’d ever known.
“You don’t get a say!” She pushed me away and stalked across the room, spinning back toward me once she’d almost reached the other side. “Don’t you get it? This was the only way to save everyone! To save you!”
“I don’t give a shit about me!” I shouted, my chest heaving as my stomach soured.
“I do!” She furiously wiped an escaping tear. “So you have to eat! You have to feed! You have to live, Hawke, because I did this all to save you!”
“Avianna,” I whispered, not understanding.
“I waited for so long, Hawke. Decades and decades after that visit from you and Alek at my finishing school. I thought you’d realize it once I came home, but you didn’t!” She reached for the top of her elbow-length glove.
“What are you talking about?” I headed for her, my strides eating up the distance between us.
“I thought I had time to make you see, to accept it, but now I don’t, and it’s too late.” She shook her head and stopped me in my tracks by holding up her hand, palm out. “I have to marry Samuel to save you,” she repeated, drawing the long glove down her forearm and dropping it to the ground. “I’m so sorry, but it was the only way.” She flipped her wrist, showing me the back—
Where my mating mark covered her hand.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
2
Avianna
Hawke’s usual addictive scent of freshly cut tobacco, vintage leather, and violets was much fainter than it had been the night before. Every night he came to see me, the scent that haunted my dreams seemed a little less potent.
Maybe the fear of him wasting away was why I took off my glove and showed him his mating mark branded over the back of my hand.
Maybe I just knew my time was up.
Maybe I simply wanted him to understand why I made the promises I did.
I inhaled deeply, trying like hell to stop my heart from racing so damn hard as I waited for him to say something.
Anything.
His eyes were glistening black, the pupils blown out so much I couldn’t even see the thin ring of blue-green that should be there. He shifted those dark eyes from my hand to my face and back again.
“No,” he finally said, breaking his statue-like stance as he spanned the distance between us. He leaned down, scooping my silk glove off the floor, the motion putting him so close to me I could feel the warmth radiating from his body. Could smell the faint scent that made me ache in so many ways.
He gently gripped my wrist, gliding the glove back over my hand as easily as if he’d done it a million times before. The simple touch sent electric tingles all along my skin, a delightful jolt that made my core heat. “You can’t tell anyone about this.”
And then my heart fucking shattered.
He might as well have slid one of his blades into the center of my chest for how painful his words were.
I straightened my spine, resisting the urge to unravel my power and disappear entirely. I could do it. Hide from the world, from my duties as a royal princess, from the promises I made in order to protect what’s mine.