Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“You are both being dramatic and you know it.”
“Dramatic? You urged Wynter to not only run from him but to run to me. You didn’t care that it might have caused trouble between myself and Cain. You didn’t care how it would have made him feel. You didn’t care about anything but soothing your wounded ego. You want Wynter to reject him just as he rejected you. How much of a hypocrite does that make you, given you reject people all the time? You never care how those men feel about it. You’d never believe they have a right to be angry with you for turning them away.”
“Mortals, I turn mortals away,” she specified. “I made the mistake of getting a little too attached to one of them once-upon-a-time, as you may recall. I offered him immortality. He refused, and so I lost him. I had to watch him grow old with another. I will not put myself in that position again.”
“On the surface, it sounds like a tragic love story in which you were an innocent victim,” said Seth. “Maybe you did love him in your way. But if so, it was a selfish love. You hadn’t offered to make him your consort. You wouldn’t even consent to exclusivity. You expected him to be faithful to you, but you wouldn’t offer him that same loyalty. The main reason you wanted him was that he was so desired by everyone in the city. You treated him poorly, like a mere shiny bauble, and you know it.”
She looked from Seth to Cain, sneering. “As if either of you are better in how you treat your bedpartners. Neither of you agreed to exclusivity when I requested it.”
“Because you wouldn’t agree for that to be a two-way street,” Seth reminded her. “I wasn’t interested in offering you more commitment than you would offer me. I suspect the same applied with you and Cain. But I won’t ask him for clarification on that because, again, you’re simply trying to change the subject.”
“No, this topic is very much related to Wynter.” She glared at Cain, her chin jutting out. “You may treat her well, but you do it for the wrong reasons—to appease her, to keep her sweet, to give her a false picture of yourself.”
“If you truly believed I held so little regard for her, you wouldn’t care about my involvement with her,” said Cain. “You see that she matters to me, and you don’t like it.”
Ishtar shook her head. “You may have fooled her into believing she is important to you, but you will not make me believe that.”
“I don’t care what you do or don’t believe.” Cain took yet another step closer to her. “All I want is to make one thing perfectly clear.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m to stay away from the witch, I suppose.”
A growl built in Cain’s throat. “Do not cross me on this, Ishtar. You will not hurt what’s mine; I absolutely forbid it.”
She pinned him with a furious glare. “What’s yours?”
“Yes, mine. Wynter belongs to me.”
“Your monster—”
“Would wipe your existence from this planet if you took her from it,” he finished, his tone clipped. “I am not fucking around here, Ishtar. She is off-limits to you in every respect.”
Her eyes hardened to stone. “Is that so?”
“Yes, it is. No more games, no more visits to her house, no more making this about you. I won’t allow it. Work through whatever shit is going on in your head, and move on. If you don’t, if you ever again try to fuck with her, I will return the favor. You know I don’t make empty threats. Focus on your own life and stay out of mine.”
Her face red, she slowly stood, the image of composure. She sauntered to the door and swung it open, but then her gaze flicked back to Cain. “Such a shame that mortals have a short lifespan, isn’t it? Oh, I’m sure it feels long to them. But, really, their lives are over in a blink. You won’t keep her for long, Cain. You won’t want to. She appeals to you now, but it will not last. She will soon show signs of age that repulse you.”
Seth exhaled heavily. “Ishtar—”
Ignoring him, she continued speaking to Cain. “I will not kill her because I need her alive if I am to get what I seek. But something will kill her eventually. Age, illness, an accident, an attack. Mortals are so fragile. Any number of things can erase them from this world, and it can happen at any moment. So be braced to lose her, because you will. And you will not get her back. An undead soul can return to a body only once. After that, it is game over. They never come back again.”
*
Fuuuuck, that hurt.