INICIAR SESIÓNI was already shaking my head. “No, don’t do that—”“Cel’theren gave you this opportunity, Baevera. He forgave you—"“He did not forgive me,” I reminded her.“—and he was right, the two of you could never work.” She went on like I never interrupted. “There’s too much bad blood between you. Too much history.”And there goes an ache in my chest. “I know that.”“Do you?” Her voice was even softer now, though her words were anything but. “Because you are pining for him.”“I am not!” I protested.“You miss him. You long for him.” There was pity in her eyes. “When you stand in the courtyard, you look toward the gate as though you expect him to appear any moment.”“I don’t do that.” The denial sounded weak even to my own ears.“And when you drift off into your thoughts, and start smiling like a fool, I suspect you are remembering being folded in half in his bed while he does unholy things to your body.” “Helory, please,” I groaned, heat rising to my face.“And then there is the sadness,” sh
PART 3: Four Months LaterLADY BAEVERA“Has this been inspected?” I asked, resting my palm against the coarse fabric of one of the sacks in the storehouse.The younger of the two laborers straightened immediately. “Yes, my lady. Threshed and sealed yesterday.”I untied the nearest sack and dipped my hand inside. The barley was still warm from recent drying. I sifted it slowly through my fingers. Too much husk.“Master Hollin oversaw this?” I glanced up.“Yes, my lady.”“Send for him when he is free.” I tied the sack closed again. “The grain will store better if it is sifted once more. I do not want spoilage in winter.”He bowed. “As you wish, my lady.”I moved further down the rows, inspecting the goods that had just arrived. Everything entering the storehouse had to meet standard before it went into the market.“There she is!” Helory’s voice carried from the doorway. She entered holding a transparent sheath that protected a garment inside. “I have been looking for you everywhere.”
LORD REVANDRELI stared at Baevera.Every instinct inside me fought to pull her up and hold her, to smother the misery radiating from her in waves thick enough to taste, even from the small distance I had deliberately placed between us. But this moment was long overdue.For most of my life, the only question that ever mattered was why. Why did she ignore the screams? Why did she laugh through the chaos? Why did she sleep while my mother bled? Why did she take such pleasure in every wound her friends inflicted?Now, even those questions had answers too.Hearing it soothed something deep inside me. They pacified something in that boy who had spent almost every day hunched in dark closets, seated on a butt that was always hurting while rocking bruised knees, and listening to screams that never ended.Her explanation did not justify, nor did it erase, that part, she got right. But hearing it, hearing her reasons, eased something I had carried for centuries. And though I would never say it
LAST CHAPTERS OF PART 2.LADY BAEVERASleep would not come.I felt heavy in the way I always did after speaking about my past, when every suppressed demon was dragged into the light, staring back at me one by one. I was also exhausted, emptied out.I sat with the blanket wrapped around my knees, my legs drawn close to my chest. The room was empty and dim now. Lord Alaric had stayed for a while, speaking quiet words of comfort, but even he was only mortal. After hearing something of that magnitude, he needed air.Phantom hands still ghosted my skin, refusing to allow me rest. Ever so often, a flash of white-hot pain cut through me, and when I blinked, all I saw was the red of my cage.The outer door opened. A moment later, the inner door did the same.Revandrel stepped inside.My heart lurched in my chest as I stared at him. My fingers tightened around the sheets.In silence, he walked to the window and looked out into the dark. Then turned to me.I moved before I could think, knowing
Hours later, I sat underneath a tree just outside the estate, limbs heavy from running what felt like the whole of Urai through the night. My beast-form had carried me far until exhaustion finally slowed me.Now, returned to my male shape, I leaned against rough bark, chest still heaving, mind quieter but not quiet. The rage was no longer boiling, but a deep, heavy melancholy remained inside me.And with the calm came the memory of the day it had ended for me. The night my world was torn apart, the night I broke free from the Eldareth cage…•A long time ago…I could not sit still. I could not lie down.Mama was screaming.Usually she was careful. She swallowed the sounds, stiffened them in her throat so I would not hear. She knew I worried, so she tried to protect me even from her own pain.But tonight she could not hold it in, her screams carrying through the entire manor. Even from my bedroom on the far side of the house I heard them clearly.Something was wrong.I sat on the edge
SECOND TO LAST EPISODE OF PART 2.LORD REVANDRELNo one spoke, yet there was a roar in my ears.Her words replayed over and over, striking harder, carving deeper with every pass. She sat small and forlorn on the bed, trying to hold herself together, blinking too often to keep the tears at bay. Brave. So painfully brave.Inside me, everything shook. Every ridge of muscle quivered. My fists had been clenched so long I felt the sting of nails buried in my palms, smelled the faint copper of blood. I stood motionless, rooted to the spot. Alaric moved first, crossing to her and perching carefully on the mattress edge. His mouth shaped gentle words I could not hear through the roaring in my ear.Baevera reached out one trembling hand. He took it, tentative, as though she were glass that might shatter under too much pressure. That small contact was all she could manage.I wanted to go to her. I wanted to lift her from that bed and fold her against my chest until her visible shaking stopped.
By the time I finished, her breathing was still uneven, but the panic was ebbing.She stilled.I straightened, brushing my hands together, and turned toward the door.“Evan…” she whispered behind me. “Evan, I am so sorry.”I stilled. My back went ramrod straight, fingers curling into fists at my si
After I gave him the same version I had told my aunt, Philip was deeply sympathetic. Like her, he raged at the idea that I had not brought the identities of my captors home so he could hunt them down himself.The Sunsprings were an old, powerful bloodline, so wealthy and well-connected. Though Phil
“Stop calling her that,” I snapped. “There is no relationship, absolutely no blood between Baevera Eldareth and I. Her father’s union with my mother was not even strong, they did it the human way.”“What the hell does that even mean?”“It means they made some idiotic vows before some sacred entity
CENTURIES AGO…LADY BAEVERA“Let us do it tonight,” Thorian, my boyfriend, whispered into my ear, grinding his erection against my lower belly as he pinned me to the wall. “My parents are on a journey, the maids are off tonight, so we will have the house to ourselves.”Then he kissed me.I moaned i







