Demon's Trust (The Chronicles of Arcayos #1) - Raven Dark Page 0,58
been stolen from me. Something I will never really get back.
If he’s telling the truth, he didn’t have a choice. But it’s impossible not to feel as if he had a hand in this. And I want to strangle this wretched Goddess of his.
My throat tightens, but I refuse to fall apart in front of him. I march to the door of the room, holding it open for him.
“Get out, Arcayos.”
He’s a blur of movement. Suddenly in front of me, he shoves the door closed, pushes my back against it, and puts his palm on the door, pinning it shut. He’s almost pressed against me, the heat of him pounding into me.
That awareness of him flashes in a corner of my mind, that familiar bright nimbus in my thoughts. It tingles across my skin, bringing with it an unwillingly pleasant feeling of belonging.
“Please leave.”
“Not yet,” he growls. “I’m not leaving until you hear this.”
I roll my head back and deflate.
Arcayos pushes off the door and stalks to the bed. With his back to me, his shoulders drop. “You have no idea how much what I did to you in that bed is eating me up inside. If there had been another option, I’d have taken it. I would have taken my own life rather than hurt you this way.”
There is something about the urgency in his voice that makes me absolutely certain that, at least in this, he is telling the truth.
“What would have happened if you hadn’t had sex with me?”
He doesn’t look at me, but his head turns to the side. “You’d have gone insane.”
“Insane? You mean, like, drooling in a padded cell, insane?”
“Yes. When demons who are Gidan Hudar do not finalize their bond, they go mad.” He turns to me. “After I saved you that first time, I vowed that I would do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I would not have been able to live with myself if you had gone insane, clawing your own eyes out with madness and eventually killing yourself to end your own pain.”
“It gets that bad?” I slump against the door. “So, you did save me. Again.” I have so many questions that it’s hard to know where to start. “Would you have gone mad too?”
“Difficult to tell.” He faces me. “Being the Champion of Va’halzoret means my body, my abilities, my magic works differently than other demons. And being half human changes the rules again. I likely would have gone insane, but the process would have been a lot slower. Months. Years, perhaps. I’d have been much more dangerous, though.”
“Well, I guess I owe you for that,” I say dryly. “Jesus Christ, this is nuts.”
“I am in agreement.”
My life can’t fall apart like this. It just can’t. I’ve never felt so helpless or so scared in my life. And I hate my fear. I drop my arms. “Well… can you undo it? The Mating Bond?”
“I can not.”
“Can you get Va’halzoret to undo it?”
“I already tried.” He shakes his head. “I am your Gidan, just as you are mine. What is done can not be undone. Like it or not, I am your mate and master, Cassidy Morgan.”
My back stiffens. “Whoa, hold it there, Dark One. If I have to be bound to you by some mystical force until we find a way to undo it, fine. I’ll deal. But I don’t belong to anyone. No one is my master.”
The smile he gives is both gorgeous and infuriating. He prowls toward me, stopping short of pressing against me. “You are quite the tigress, aren’t you? I will enjoy taming you, my love.”
I step forward, putting my finger in the huge demon’s face. “Let me make this clear, demon spawn. Given the choice between the hottest sex on earth and going loco, I’ll take the roll in the hay. Thank you for saving my life. But you do not own me. And stop calling me that. This is not a honeymoon, and we aren’t going to walk away from this with a white picket fence and a perfect little house on the West End.”
He smirks and, of all things, strokes my nose. I growl at him, and he laughs. “You have much to learn about how this works, woman. You have no choice. All I can promise is that I will always protect you.”
“I am not spending the rest of my life with you.” I say. “There must be a way to undo this.”