He took a weary step back, trying to put distance between them. To ignore the energy that blasted and raged. His voice twisted in emphatic sincerity. Praying she’d get it. Finally understand. “You matter, Faith. Who you are and who you’re going to be. And I won’t stand in the way of that any longer.”
He nearly buckled and told her the truth when he saw the tears gather in her eyes. “No,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you, but that seems to be the only thing I can do. What happened last night is proof of that. It ends right now.”
Jace forced himself to turn around, to move, to leave.
He felt her panic slamming him from behind. “Jace . . . please, don’t do this. Don’t leave me.”
Fingertips brushed down his back. Fire crackled from the connection. The way it’d always been. Since the second he’d seen her.
He tried to ignore it, to run, but he whirled around and grabbed her face in both of his hands. His eyes traced every line.
Every inch.
Memorizing.
But it wasn’t enough. And he was nothing but a thief. Needing one more taste.
He dipped down and captured her mouth.
Fighting his own tears.
Wishing he could tell her how much he loved her.
Cherished her.
That last night had meant more to him than any other moment in his entire life.
Feeling like he might collapse, he dropped his forehead against hers, his eyes tightly closed as he breathed her in.
Vanilla and roses.
As if she’d been dancing in a bed of them.
That was the way he would remember her.
Blowing her belief on the wilting petals. Breathing new life into them. Praying it would be enough to sustain him.
Then he gripped her by the shoulders, physically having to pry himself away.
Then he turned, and he left her standing there.
In their spot.
Hoping he wasn’t a fool to believe when he returned she might still belong to him.
Thirty-Three
Faith
Through the shadowy darkness of the old house, Jace carried Bailey up the sweeping stairs. I’d almost wanted to argue with him. Tell him I was capable. That I wanted to do it. Needed to do it.
But it was the look on his face when he’d pulled her from the backseat of the rental car that had silenced every question begging to be released from my tongue.
That hatred that had blazed in the depths of those coppery eyes as he’d searched the property as if he were prepared to run into the whipping shadows with a sword drawn.
A warrior who was preparing for war.
A fight to the death.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, and that menacing, terrifying boy who’d do anything to protect his family had been zapped back to life.
Born in that accident.
Or maybe he’d just been there all along, waiting to be released.
The presence of it crawled the walls and buzzed in the atmosphere.
Crackling.
Snapping where it struck.
I could feel it, flames against my skin.
Inciting a terror inside me unlike anything I’d ever known. Not of him, but of what was to come.
I could feel it. The threat of it rising in the air. Clouds that rained disaster.
I struggled to breathe against it. Everything up to this point had felt as if whoever this was wanted to scare me. To warn me into handing over whatever it was they wanted.
Didn’t they know I would if I could?
But now . . .
A shudder tumbled down my spine, the trauma of the accident so fresh it was the only thing I could see when I closed my eyes.
This had to end.
Jace stepped over the gate at the end of the hall, and I followed him into Bailey’s room where he carefully laid her onto her tiny bed.
His hands were shaking when he pulled back the covers, his jaw clenched when he tugged off her shoes.
But what destroyed me was when he knelt beside her, when he kissed her forehead and brushed her hair back from her face and looked down on her sleeping form as if she had become the focus of his world.
As he tucked the Beast doll into her arms as if it were a promise to watch over her all night long.
Terror shivered through my being.
The what-ifs.
What if they’d hit a little harder or a little differently?
What if they’d backed up and slammed us again?
What if they returned?
But my tiny girl? She was safe.
Safe because of Jace, the man so stupidly brave when he’d faced down that car as if he were invincible.
Dragging his attention from Bailey, he turned the force of that gaze toward where I stood uneasily in the middle of the room.
Right then, he was wearing the same expression he’d worn this afternoon.
Devotion and love and hate. A glow in his eyes.
It pinned me to the spot.
Energy blasted.