Текст книги "Desire in His Blood"

Автор книги: Zoey Draven

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

Chapter 46

Gemma

It had been five days since my father’s arrest.

And nothing would have ever prepared me for the aftermath of it.

Every day, it was waking to a fresh hell. Whether it was my sisters’ sobs behind the closed doors of their room. Or the United Alliance messengers who had arrived on our doorstep the following evening, threatening us to keep silent about the circumstances of the arrest. Or the news breaking across the Quadrants, a scandal that others could gawk at and whisper about, snickering and lapping up every detail as speculation had run rampant. Or the crowds that had begun to gather outside our gates. Residents of the Collis who had come to offer their sympathies to the Hara daughters, though they’d just wanted to pry the truth from our lips.

We’d begun locking the gates. Keeping others out.

The news shocked New Earth and its colonies. That much was clear. And it was only the beginning of a long road ahead.

“They’ll stop coming to the gates. They’ll move on eventually,” Fran assured us on the fifth night when we were all sitting around the—mostly empty—dining room. Sorj was here too. Mira’s friend, who looked like something more now. The Killup male was holding her close, her face tucked into the gills on his gray neck. I was thankful for him. I was thankful he could offer Mira comfort and support.

Watching them made me miss Azur. It made me miss him so much that sometimes it felt like I couldn’t breathe.

Piper…Piper, on the other hand, had surprised me.

My youngest sister had jumped into action.

“What do you need?” she’d asked me the morning after Father had been taken off planet. “What do you need me to do?”

She’d contacted our grandparents on New Inverness without me telling her to. My mother’s parents, who had, truthfully, been pulling away from our family since her death. Secretly, I’d thought they’d always blamed my father for it in some way. And I couldn’t help but wonder if my father had asked them for money in the later years, because they’d stopped taking his calls entirely.

But they’d answered Piper’s without question, and they were traveling to the Collis even now. To help us.

“I’m so sorry, Gem,” Piper had whispered raggedly one night as we’d been standing at a darkened window, looking at the crowd beyond our gates. “I never knew how bad it truly was. What you must’ve had to deal with all these years. And I was…I was such a spoiled bitch to you. When you were only trying to help us.”

I’d finally come clean. About everything. The loans. The collectors. The debts.

It had felt like a giant weight off my shoulders, being honest with my sisters.

Only, that burden had been replaced with a new one. Guilt. Guilt that I’d pushed my father into his confession, causing this turmoil within our family, causing this grief and uncertainty for our futures, even though I logically knew that it had been the right thing to do. It had been the only thing to do.

“Don’t blame yourself,” Piper had told me, her tone harsh but sad. “He did this. Him alone. You just held him accountable. I…I don’t even know if Mother had the strength to do that. But you did.”

I’d left a Halo message for Azur the night of my father’s arrest, speaking into the orb he’d gifted to me. I’d told him what my father had told me: the location of where they’d buried Aina’s body on Pe’ji. In a dense jungle to the northeast of the town, at the base of an ancient black tree about one mile down the road where she’d been killed. I’d told him that my father had been arrested, that he was being transported to the High Quadrant Council.

“I…” I’d trailed off when I’d recorded the message, blinking back tears. I miss you, I’d wanted to say. I need you. Instead, I’d said, “I’m sorry. I truly am, Azur.”

I hadn’t heard from him. I assumed he’d immediately gone to Pe’ji, or perhaps one of his brothers or even Kalia had, or he’d sent a team there to recover Aina.

We were all sitting at the dining room table this night. Fran. Sorj and Mira. Piper. My grandparents would likely be here tomorrow.

And there was still so much to do. It was like a death in our family. I had to make sure my father had no other outstanding debts he was hiding, no other collectors waiting in the wings to swoop in. I had to find the deed for ownership of the house or if the property could be claimed by the United Alliance or the Earth Council. I had to organize the management of the blue salt mines—the manager I’d hired on, I’d learned, had stepped away from the position. The workers needed their wages, and I’d already dipped into the 200 vron I had in my account to pay them in full. Most of them had decided to look for work elsewhere in the Collis, and truthfully, I couldn’t blame them.

I had to figure out what the hell to do with the estate. I felt restless in its hall. An aching wound and memory. A disgusting reward for a tragedy. I didn’t want to be here, but I had to be. I needed to be strong for my sisters. For Fran, who had nowhere else to go too.

We had to clear the media that had been lining up at the gates every single day. The circumstances of my father’s arrest would no doubt leak soon. Everyone would know what he’d done during the Pe’ji War, and soon, the Collis would turn against us. I wondered if it was even safe to remain here. We would have to leave eventually.

But this is where she’s buried, I couldn’t help but mourn. We cannot leave her behind.

“What are you thinking?” Piper asked me quietly, reaching over the table to take my hand. She was different, I noticed. I hadn’t been gone long, but it felt like years had passed since I’d last been within these halls.

I managed to muster a small smile for her, one that didn’t reach my eyes. It was getting late. We were all going to turn in soon, knowing nothing more could be discussed tonight. And frankly, we were all exhausted.

Just as I opened my mouth, a loud banging came at the front door.

Boom, boom, boom!

My heart froze in my chest.

“Oh no,” I breathed. “They’ve gotten past the gates, haven’t they? Sorj, you checked the lock, didn’t you?”

I rose from the table, already striding from the room.

Behind me, Sorj called, “I did this morning. They were locked up tight!”

They must’ve climbed the fence. Getting desperate for a statement, though trespassing was against the law in the Collis, punishable with imprisonment. We would become a clip in the intergalactic news coms. A human hero, fallen from grace, his family in hiding.

I steeled my spine. Piper was behind me. Mira and Sorj and Fran too. We could do this together. We would just tell them to leave or else we’d called the Collis Patrol unit.

The door handle was within reach.

With a deep breath, I tugged it open, a quick burst of movement, already opening my mouth to tell the trespasser off.

Only a gasp left my lips instead.

My nostrils burned.

My throat went tight.

Relief and happiness and shock mingled inside me.

“Laraya,” Azur rumbled, those red eyes connecting with mine and burning. His wings were flared wide—likely to shield the onlookers’ views from the gates, since I could hear the shocked gossips from here—impossibly large. I’d forgotten how big he was. When I made no movement, not a twitch, he drawled, “Are you going to invite me in?”

I launched myself at him.

I felt like I could finally breathe again.

Azur grunted and caught me, those warm arms embracing me tight. His scent. His familiar heat. The hard press of his black vest against my cheek. His wings coming around me like a blanket on a cold day.

His head dropped. His lips brushed my ear.

“You’re here,” I choked out, letting myself fall apart against him. My hands shook when I reached up to clutch his vest, holding him to me. “How are you here?”

“Have you already forgotten who your husband is? I’m an heir to the Kaalium. I can go anywhere I please,” he murmured in my ear, as arrogant as ever, and I felt affection burst through me, a laugh of disbelief escaping my throat. The first time I’d laughed since…since the night of the lore harvest ball, perhaps.

His words belied the gentle press of his lips to my temple, as sweet as honey. I savored his embrace, nearly forgetting that we had an audience.

“You’re here,” I whispered, wiping my tears shamelessly against his vest, “and I feel like such a mess.”

His arms tightened.

Softly, Azur said, “You don’t have to worry anymore, kyrana. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

Chapter 47

Azur

Gemma finally pulled away from my chest, her eyes shining up at me. I felt the tight band in my chest loosen at the sight of her. I’d been worried. I still was. But she was in my arms. I was here, in the Collis.

I would make every drawn line around her eyes and mouth, the furrow between her brows smooth away. It was my duty. As her mate. As her husband.

“Come in,” she rasped, tugging me forward. “Come in.”

I hadn’t truly known what to expect in greeting from her, given that some of her last words to me had been that she didn’t feel like my wife, that she’d thought distance between us would be good.

But I was done waiting. I’d felt the strain of the distance, the lack of her presence on Krynn, the emptiness in my bed, and it had taken all of a few moments to decide that I wanted her. I needed her. She was my wife, regardless of how she’d come to be my wife, and I was bound to her. We were bound. Always. Bound by blood.

Judging from Gemma’s reaction at seeing me on her doorstep, I was optimistic that she felt the same way. Hopeful, even. And hope was not a sensation that regularly sang through my veins.

“Azur, these are my sisters,” Gemma said, wiping at her cheeks. By the looks on the two human females’ faces, I wondered if they’d ever seen Gemma cry. “Mira and Piper.”

I inclined my head to them as they looked at me with wide eyes. They’d never seen a Kylorr before, at least in person, since I knew they’d spoken often with Gemma in the mornings through the Halo orb. They must’ve seen Ludayn, though females of our species were much, much smaller than males.

The golden-haired sister—Mira—looked on with shock, her eyes running up my bulk and height. I couldn’t help but think that her eyes would pop out of her skull if she saw me sated on her elder sister’s blood. The other—Piper—studied me with solemn observation, though it was her that stretched her hand out to me first, stepping forward.

“Welcome,” she said softly. “Though I’m sorry to be meeting you for the first time under these circumstances. In this place.”

The home of my enemy. The home of the man who had killed Aina.

Yet also where my wife had lived. She’d been happy here once, hadn’t she?

I took her hand in the way I’d seen Gemma do with other humans throughout Laras, giving it a firm pump.

“Hello,” Mira said quietly, meeting my eyes before they darted away as she took my grip next.

“And this is Fran,” Gemma said, moving me forward to the last remaining human female in the room. A human with freckles across her nose and wide hazel eyes. “My dear friend.”

Gemma had told me about Fran, who was like another sister to her. I nodded at her, taking her hand when she stretched it out.

“And Sorj,” Gemma finished. “Mira’s friend, who has been much help to us since…since…”

Since her father’s arrest, I knew.

I locked eyes with the Killup male, whose own narrowed on me with mistrust. Grunting, I inclined my head to him. The Killup and the Kylorr didn’t have the best relationship. An ancient battle, long ago, and the old pains of that had never been mended, though we both pledged our loyalties to the Uranian Federation.

Then I wrapped my arm around Gemma’s waist, pulling her more firmly into my side, flaring my wings out to tuck her close. Her hand grasped my wrist, curling over my metal gauntlet. I didn’t want to be parted from her. Not even for a second.

“I am honored to finally meet all of you,” I said quietly. My eyes came to Piper’s. “But yes, I do wish it were under better circumstances.”

“Did you…did you go to Pe’ji?” Gemma asked quietly, capturing my attention again. “Did you find her?”

“Kaldur is landing there soon with another excavation team set to arrive on the planet for the search,” I told her, unable to express the emotion that had risen in me when I’d first received her message. Rye Hara and his unit had buried Aina, after all. She’d always been on Pe’ji and so close to town. “Kythel and Kalia stayed behind to look after Laras. My other brothers returned to their territories but are waiting for news.”

She nodded. “Good. Good—I hope they find her. I know they will.”

My hand squeezed into her hip. Our eyes held. So much to discuss. So much to do until we might have a semblance of peace again. But I wanted to savor this moment. A simple moment of looking into my wife’s eyes and knowing that we were together again, after nearly two weeks apart.

Piper cleared her throat. “There’s nothing more to be done tonight. How about we all try to get some sleep? We can talk more in the morning,” she said, meeting my eyes with a small nod. She wanted to give Gemma time with me, I realized, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

“Good idea,” Fran chimed. Mira pulled Sorj away by the hand. Piper trailed behind them, heading deeper into the house. “Gemma?”

My wife looked to Fran.

“You need anything?”

She shook her head and then leaned against me. “No. Get some rest, Fran. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Fran sent her a small, knowing smile. The human female’s eyes flitted to mine. She nodded to me. Then she turned and followed the sisters and Sorj down the foyer and up the dark staircase.

I looked around the home for the first time. The home Gemma had lived in before coming to Krynn. The home of Rye Hara.

I could see how it once would have been a beautiful home. The architecture was grand, with sweeping ceilings and intricate moldings. The bones were good. But then I saw the cracks. It felt empty. Furniture missing…or sold, perhaps. Cobwebs cowered in the high corners and dust pooled on the surfaces I could see.

An estate this size would need at least six or seven regular keepers to maintain it. According to Gemma…they’d had Fran, the poor female.

When we were alone, Gemma turned into me and I took my eyes away from a stain on the wall next to us. She buried her face into my chest and I held her tight.

“How are you?” I murmured down to her. “And don’t lie to me.”

I felt her lips quirk up, though I couldn’t see her tired smile.

“It’s been hell,” she told me, making a brief growl rise from my throat. She lifted her head and tilted her neck back so that her chin was resting in the middle of my chest. “But then I saw you and I knew that I was through the worst of it.”

Her words made my wings want to puff out and flurry. But I tamped down the instinct. Instead, I leaned down and took her tempting lips in a soft kiss, which she seemed to savor like I was.

“I’ve missed you,” she sighed into the kiss. “I wanted to tell you that. When I sent the message. But I…I didn’t know if I should.”

I pulled back, my brows drawing together. “Never doubt yourself with me, laraya. You never need to.”

“This is when you say you’ve missed me too,” she whispered, her eyes going soft. Warm and sweet.

I growled. “I’ve missed you so damn much, Gemma.” Was that relief I saw in her gaze? Like she hadn’t been certain that I had? “Did you find your answer? Because I know mine.”

“My answer?” she asked softly.

“You thought distance between us would bring you clarity,” I reminded her. Her lips parted in realization. “You said our marriage felt wrong to you. But I knew in that moment that even with all the mistakes I made when it came to you, even with the way our marriage began, I do not regret making you my mine. We were fated from the very beginning, for reasons I will likely never understand. But I don’t need to understand to know that it’s you. That it will always been you.”

Wonderment entered her eyes.

“And whenever you wish to return to Krynn,” I said, my voice gruff, “I’ll have our Nulaxy marriage contract nullified.”

“What?” she breathed, panic entering her gaze. “No, Azur, that’s—”

“So that I can marry you again,” I told her, making her breath hitch in her throat. “And we can begin again so that you will always know that I want to marry you because…because you are my heart, Gemma. My heart’s blood. My laraya. Not for any other reason.”

“Azur,” she whispered, her eyes going glassy again.

My lips quirked up in a wry smile. “I didn’t plan on discussing this with you in the entrance hall of this home, Gemma, right when I stepped through the door, but you always have a way of scrambling my mind until I can’t think properly.”

She smiled at me. She liked that, the maddening little female.

“And in case it wasn’t clear, that was a proposal,” I pointed out to her gruffly, knowing I was making a mess of this. But I knew that Gemma wouldn’t mind. In fact, I thought it would be what she preferred. To have me tongue-tied with a muddled brain and crazy for her. “I want to marry you, kyrana. I want to be with you until our souls enter Alara. The after realm. Together. Forever. I knew the moment that you said you wanted to leave Krynn that I never wanted to be without you again.”

And I still let you go, I added silently. Because it was what she’d wanted.

Gemma stared at me.

“You don’t have to answer me now. In fact, I think—”

Her lips were on mine, muffling my words, her hand firm on the back of my neck, pulling me down as she went to her tiptoes. I sighed against her, relief and joy spilling in my soul. I cradled her close, our kiss sweet enough that it made my fangs ache.

“Yes,” she whispered, gasping into my mouth. She smiled. “Yes, Azur, I’ll marry you again.”

“Good,” I growled.

“I missed you as soon as I left,” she informed me. “And I’ve missed you every day since. I thought I was doing the right thing. Stepping away for clarity, to see if we could move on from the past when it’s still so painful.”

I sobered. I ran my hand down her spine and then up again, before I curled my hand in her thick, black hair.

“I want to marry you,” she said. “But we are married now too. You are my husband. And you have been since Nulaxy. My mate. I’m sorry for doubting that.”

“Don’t apologize for that,” I told her.

“Thank you for coming,” she said, reaching up to cup my face. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

She looked tired. Her eyes were bloodshot. She’d had to be strong for her sisters, I knew. But I wanted her to be able to depend on me. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to put on a brave face for me.

“Oh,” she said, her eyes trailing to my lips. “Are you…are you hungry? You must be. Unless…unless you’ve fed from…”

“Never,” I growled, my brow furrowing. “Only you, kyrana.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “I’ve been gone almost two weeks. I wouldn’t have blamed you for needing to feed.”

“We have synthetic blood rations for situations like this,” I informed her. “The mere thought of drinking from anyone else left me sick. I didn’t want to. I don’t even think I physically could. I only want you.”

She liked that. My possessive little mate. Seeing that little flare of satisfaction light up her eyes made a growl rise in my throat.

Her lips parted. We were close. Incredibly close. I could smell her. I could hear her blood begin to rush under her skin.

Gemma seemed to realize it too.

“Come,” she beckoned, with a small knowing smile, tugging on my arm. “I want to be alone with you.”

Chapter 48

Gemma

My room in the Hara estate had always been my safe haven. When the doors closed, I could forget…or at least try to forget what lay beyond the room. This room had been my only reprieve when I’d lived in the Collis. This room and my sisters, of course.

When I pulled Azur inside, it was like that switch going off in my brain. I let every worry melt away until all I saw was him. I could almost imagine that we were back on Krynn, in Laras, in our rooms with the windows wide open and the moonlight dappled across the stone floor, salt on the breeze from the Silver Sea. I hadn’t realized how free I’d felt there. Not until I’d returned to the Collis and old memories and fears and worries had begun to flood back in.

I took Azur’s hand and pulled him to my bed.

“We don’t have to do this, Gemma,” he told me, shaking his head, though his red eyes were burning. “This is not why I came. I would drink synthetic blood rations for the rest of my life just to prove that to you.”

I sat perched on my high bed and pulled Azur to stand between my thighs. I was settled a little higher than I normally would be when standing next to him. Yet he still towered over me.

“I know,” I told him truthfully, moving my hair away from my neck and tugging him even closer. He couldn’t help his reaction to seeing my bared flesh. His ivory fangs elongated in a rush, his nostrils flaring. “But I missed this. I want this. I want to satisfy you and make you feel good too. Nothing would feel more right.”

His swallow was audible.

I was wearing a dress today, and I slid the material up my thighs, Azur’s muffled groan following as his eyes were glued to its rise.

“I’ve missed you, husband,” I told him, my heart beginning to pound in my chest when my hands went to the clasps on his pants, tugging at the metal, making him hiss. “I need this, Azur. I need to feel you again. Don’t make us wait any longer than we already have. Please,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his jaw before brushing them across his neck.

His deep growl made my spine tingle. He leaned his head back, allowing me access to his exposed throat, an intimacy in itself that I knew he’d only give to me. His hands came to my thighs and he trailed them up, his touch sending fiery sparks across my sensitive flesh.

“Tell me you’ll never leave me again, little wife,” he rasped, hovering.

“I’ll never leave you again,” I promised, gasping when his fingers teased between my thighs.

I kissed his neck as I freed his cock from his pants. He hissed when I wrapped my hand around him, tight.

“Gemma,” he groaned. And when I nudged him closer, teasing the head of his cock between my thighs, he cursed, “Vaan, I need you.”

“Then take me,” I pleaded against his skin.

Then, knowing that it would spur him along…I bit his neck.

Hard.

A sharp bellow rose from his throat, strangled and needy, and his hips punched forward with one brutal thrust, sliding that cock so deep that his knot, his seal, nearly seated itself within me.

Whimpering with want, I bit harder, squeezing the thick flesh between my fangless teeth. It broke his skin. I tasted the hot tang of his blood, and somehow, it made me even wilder with need.

“Raazos,” he huffed, groaning. “Yes, kyrana!”

Gods, he liked this. I wondered if it felt like I was claiming him just as his bite felt like a brand on me. His hard, quick thrusts pushed me into a delirium. A fever of madness and acute feeling where I was entirely focused on the spine-tingling, aching slide of his perfect cock and the taste of his blood sweeping across my tongue.

I needed him so deep. I needed him so deep, imprinting himself inside me, the burn of his seal like a brand, so that I would always feel like he was there.

“Harder,” I keened, licking at the bite, the laps of my tongue spurring him into a frenzy. “More, Azur! Gods, yes, just like that!”

He hit that spot inside me that made me see stars. Then he was leaning forward, never letting up, the subtle shift in position making his seal begin to stretch me.

“Going to come, wife,” he rasped. “Going to come so fucking hard in your perfect cunt.”

“Oh gods,” I whispered, my eyes going wide, feeling his own fangs tease at the column of my throat. “W-Wait.”

Frustration crashed down on me, his words making me remember.

“Wait, Azur, I don’t have any marroswood here,” I cried out, even as I bit my lip, struggling not to climax as he continued to mercilessly pound and thrust into me, my bed creaking and shuddering with the ferocity of it. “Ohh!”

“Good,” he growled, making me gasp. “I shouldn’t have given you that damn tea! I should’ve gotten you pregnant that very night. Shot my seed so deep and stoppered every drop inside you with my seal. And that’s what I’m going to do right now, little wife.”

It wasn’t the right time for me to conceive, I realized belatedly, but his words unleashed a fire in me.

I’d never given much thought to children, but I knew right then that I wanted as many as Azur would give me. Little Kylorr-human hybrids with budding horns, sharp adorable fangs, human eyes, and black wings, so they could fly in the moon winds with their father.

Just then, Azur slid his fangs deep and the pleasure snapped like a tether. It had been so long. The days had passed slowly, each one an entire year without him. The warming sensation of his venom spread, and then I was orgasming. On his cock, with his fangs lodged deep, drinking what I could only offer him, his words ringing in my ears.

“Tell me you’re mine,” he ordered, muffled against my skin. “Tell me, wife.”

“Yours yours yours,” I huffed and whimpered, squeezing him tight. “I’m yours, Azur!”

I heard his whispered curse, felt the way his muscles tensed, and the way his thrusts became even more frenzied, sinking deep as he continued to drink from me, each dizzying pull of my blood making me gasp. The addicting burn of his seal stretched me. The way the ache mixed with my sublime pleasure made a strangled cry burst from my throat. I orgasmed again, spasming around him as he slotted deep.

Azur came, the hot lashes of his seed bursting into me, filling me up. The world went white. Bright and white. I couldn’t breathe. All I could feel was him. All I could smell was him. All I could taste was him.

I was his. He was mine.

When reality returned, when I could see again, I was up on the bed, cradled in Azur’s arms. His pants were still around his thighs. My dress was still bunched around my waist. His cock was still seated deep, the swell of his seal holding me tight.

I was still huffing. The familiar burn on my neck felt like a relief.

“You want me to heal it?” he rumbled, his voice rich and husky. I nearly shivered.

The bite, he’d meant. So my sisters wouldn’t see?

“No,” I breathed. “I want your mark on me. And mine on you.”

That pleased him. The deep, rumbling purr threading up his chest brought a flush of delight, knowing I’d satisfied my husband, knowing he’d satisfied me, very, very much.

“Rest, my laraya,” he murmured to me. When my hands clutched tighter, he said, “I’ll be here. I would never leave.”

I was exhausted. I’d hardly been able to sleep since the night I’d confronted my father. Even before then.

But I was safe in Azur’s arms.

That alone made me close my eyes. I finally let myself let go.

In the early hours of morning, before dawn, I woke to the bleary view of Azur standing out on the balcony of my rooms. The crisp morning air made goose bumps pebble my flesh, but I slid from bed regardless. My feet landed on a cold floor. I dragged a thick blanket that was draped across an armchair and tucked it around me. I was naked. Azur must’ve undressed me during the night.

And himself too, I realized, lips parting at the sight of his firm, dimpled backside, naked as the day he’d been born, standing out on my balcony.

There was a pleasant ache between my thighs. I’d been well used, well pleasured. Every step toward him made me remember him, and I loved it. I craved it.

Coming up behind him, I wrapped my arms around his torso, squashing his wings, which he kept tucked close.

A rumbling sigh left his throat. “I’m sorry, my love, did the cold wake you?”

My love.

Hearing that was like eating a warm steam cake, straight from Yeeda’s bakery. Sticky and sweet and piping hot, leaving me satisfied and wanting more.

“You not being next me woke me,” I informed him. I pressed my lips to his muscled back and to a panel of membrane of one section of his wings, feeling him shudder. Sensitive? I wondered, fighting a smile. “I still can’t believe you’re here. It feels like a dream.”

When these last two weeks have felt like a nightmare, I added silently. But I left like I could finally wake up with him beside me.

Azur guided me from his back, shuffling me to his front. It was a chilled, misty, quiet morning. There was a fog rolling off of Mount Hara—the sight of the mountain accompanied by a sharp pang of sadness—descending into the pine forests in the valley beneath it, crawling over the land. It was beautiful. A beautiful morning in the Collis as the season began to change.

“I hardly ever come out here,” I admitted softly, feeling his arms drape around my front, warming me better than the blanket could.

Azur shifted. “Because of the lake?” he asked.

My rooms looked toward Mount Hara. But to the right of us, I could just make out the edge of the large, oval-shaped lake toward the back of the house. If I craned my head around to the left, I might’ve been able to make out the front entrance gates.

Strangely, it was silent. I couldn’t even hear voices or sounds coming from around the house. There were always people at the gates. With Azur’s appearance last night, sending them into a speculative frenzy, I thought there would be even more this morning.

“Yes,” I answered him, even now avoiding looking in that direction. I kept my eyes on the foggy forest and turned my head the opposite way, brushing my lips across his arm.

“I shouldn’t have left the bed,” he told me. “But I couldn’t resist this view. It’s beautiful here, Gemma.”

My chest ached.

“It is,” I agreed quietly. “And yet…I think I would be all too happy to never lay eyes on the Collis again. On this house. On this estate.”

Azur pressed his lips to the top of my head, breathing me in as I sank deeper into him.

“There’s so much pain here. In these walls. It feels haunted but not with souls. With memory. With grief. With lies,” I said, voice soft in the quiet morning. “But my mother will always be here. I didn’t even want her buried on the estate, especially next to where she died. Neither did my grandparents. But my father was so…so broken. He was adamant about it. Now she’ll always be here.”