This was the question I had been pining for. “Because your bastard of a father tried repeatedly to take it away from me. And every single time he failed. I’m far older than you, I know how to maneuver in ways you’re too impatient to grasp. I know my love is real because he forbade me from ever telling you how much I cared. Forbade me to woo you, to be kind to you, to even touch you unless it was to draw your ire.” I pinched a strand of her hair, the way I had for ages. The way that always pissed her off. Only this time, she looked down at my fingers and saw what they were about. “All he could do was forbid. Take small moments from my memory… but they always grew back. They grew back because since I held you in my arms, all I’ve ever thought of was how to love you best.”
Narrowing her eyes, it looked as if she’d react as she had thousands of times in the past to my touch. Shove me away and hiss that I was beneath her notice.
But that wounded bird resisted, fighting the urge so hard her eyes closed from the effort. Brow tight, several deep breaths expanded her chest. More of my fingers stroking her hair, pushing her to try.
She whispered, “Vladislov is far worse than my father. Do you grasp that?”
“I think you misunderstand him.”
“I drank from him. I saw what he was.” Eyes opening, she gave me a look. A look that spoke more than the words that followed it. “He stood with me in the sun.”
Ancients were different than other immortals. God-like, and necessary to keep our numbers in check. To rule hordes of bloodthirsty beasts. And one day both Jade and I would stand amongst them. We too would be changed by time, altered, blood black as death. But we would do it together, whole of mind, and sound of heart. The same soul, in two separate bodies, reunited.
Fated.
The reason I never took another wife. No female flesh as spoils of war.
I had recognized her from the moment she’d been delivered into my arms. And should I die, I would be reborn to find her again. For eternity. Over, and over.
Because there was no such thing as heaven or hell. This I knew. There was only with or without one’s soulmate.
But she was too stuck on other issues for me to breach such a weighty subject. “It doesn’t matter what he is. What matters is what we have.” I needed her to understand that the trivialities, the cost to be together, was nothing. I’d destroy entire countries, burn them and all living things in their borders, laughing, if that’s what I had to do so I might claim this female. “Your father envies me for what I achieved in finding you. Vladislov envies just the same. All those doomed to endless life who have not discovered their other half covet this, whether they know it or not. Recognize what is before you and forget the rest. It could be so easy, Jade.”
So easy to just sweep her into my arms and carry her off to the place I had prepared. Lock her away from all things dangerous, where she would be only mine until she grew stronger. Until she understood and accepted what this was.
“You’re not listening to me!” A sigh, one heavy with frustration, and she swatted my hand from her hair. “Talk of love, if you want to. Talk of”—she gestured between us before she began to pace—“all of this. But you’re ignoring my point because you know I’m right. That creature will eat us on a whim.”
Her panic was… unfortunate. I’d hoped these days might have cleared her head. “He and I have an arrangement.”
“He created my father.” The confession spoken with awe and terror.
That I had not known, though such knowledge only gave me faith that soon all I had sacrificed and all my darling had suffered would reap us the ultimate reward. So I got to my knees before this woman, and startled her all the more.
Before she might dart back, I took her hips in my hand. Held her before me as I groveled for her love—for more effort from my lady, even though I know she suffered. “And your father made you. Once a toddler who could cast gates without chanting, so powerful in magic that he fractured her mind so she might never move against him. Darius wants you to think as little of yourself as possible. Degraded you into dust. I did all I could to shield you; though it might not have always appeared that way, I did. And I have gathered such splendors to please you. Every desire that’s truly yours, I can fulfill.”