“But prophecies can be changed,” stressed Clarence, eyeballing the seer. “Now that I’ve sentenced Jonas to death, you foresee me as king indefinitely.”
After the barest hesitation, Larissa inclined her head and the king looked satisfied. “I’d have found the poor creature in her next life, too, thanks to Larissa, and did what needed to be done,” said the king. “Oftentimes, rules must be bent slightly to preserve the integrity of the Order.”
Ginny’s stepmother had been watching Ginny with an uncomfortable expression, but started at the mention of her name. “Yes,” she said, voice raspy. “It took quite a while, this time around. But if she came back in yet another form, the patterns left behind by her soul would be easier to follow.”
“Please, no,” Jonas rasped, bowing his head in contrition. “Please take me now and let her go live her life. If I’m gone and unable to take your throne, you’ll have no need to harm her. The prophecy will be void.”
“Unbelievable,” murmured the king. “You came here prepared to willingly sacrifice yourself to save her humanity. Is separation from her so favorable to Silencing her?”
Jonas thought he knew the answer to that. If someone had asked him yesterday, he would have given an unequivocal yes. Nothing was worth stopping her exquisite heart from beating. But now he could hear her pleading with him to Silence her. Could hear the bravery in her voice and he wasn’t so sure he’d done the right thing denying her. A future together. An endless future with his love. Had he honestly rejected one without even considering Ginny’s wishes?
The words scraped his throat raw. “I…refused to take from her what I gave up without knowing the hell that followed.”
Again, Clarence seemed to blanch before retreating into his shell of hatred. “Well.” His face arranged itself in a sneer. “I find myself in a magnanimous mood. Jonas, since you’re so enamored with humanity, why not mimic one of their most ridiculous practices, shall we?” He met the eyes of each member of the Order. “It’s only fair Jonas be allowed a last meal.”
Clarence’s smile was sinister as he gestured to the suited servant.
“Bring him his mate.”
“No,” Jonas roared, even as his fangs descended, his appetite gathering like hurricane clouds. He watched in horror as the servant seized Ginny beneath her arms and began carrying her toward Jonas. Eyes wide with fright, she fought—and he couldn’t move. His mouth salivated with hunger, already tasting the pure, perfect flavor of her. The flavor he required. The animal inside him wailed to life, demanding satisfaction. Mine. Mine. Mine. He could already feel her softness giving way in deference to his bite and the rush of life on his tongue. Ginny. My mate.
This lifetime’s worth of yearning took place in a split second and then all he could see was her pain. Another vampire daring to place a finger on his love? The lights in the great hall dimmed and flickered. Hold it in check. Hold it.
Jonas caught Ginny before her sudden lack of balance made her hit the floor. He gathered her close, moaning at the feel of her in his arms. She struggled against him and his brain demanded he let her go, let her go right now, but he couldn’t.
Oh God, he couldn’t.
The High Order laughed at his weakness, but he ignored the grating sound and focused on the precious beating of her heart. Just one second more. One second more and he’d let her go. Jonas’s mouth moved in her hair, inhaling her scent like a greedy miser, his hands tracing every inch of her back. “You don’t know this, love, but I would kill, steal and die for you. There is nothing to fear.”
Ginny pulled back just enough to make eye contact and what he saw in their beautiful depths turned his world back to color. Furthermore, her pulse beat true once more. Trusting and steady.
She…knew him.
She knew him and loved him.
Her memories were intact.
“I know,” she whispered. “I have no fear, Dreamboat.”
Then in the subtlest of movements, the reason for his existence tipped her head to the left, exposing her neck.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They really, really didn’t have time for a reunion.
Ginny wished the opposite were true. That she had endless hours to bask in the return of Jonas, because he’d gone missing the moment she pretended not to know him, lost to grief, the light extinguishing in his eyes. She would have nightmares about the last ten minutes forever, they’d been so painfully horrific, but she’d followed Elias’s plan to a T. If Jonas would stop staring at her like she’d come back from the dead, it might work.
No, it would work.
“I love you,” she mouthed, still trying to free herself from his grip and thankfully, being unsuccessful. “Now compromise.”
A ghost of a sound puffed out of him, such love shining down at her, she would have buckled under the weight of it if he wasn’t holding her up. Very slowly, his attention moved to her neck and he swallowed, fear tightening his features—and she remembered what he’d told her about Silencing.