this way because I wanted to be. I’m only what other people made of me. And this is your chance to be something different. Even…even if it means goodbye.” His voice cracked. He started to say something else but stopped.
“Say it, Nero.”
“No. This isn’t about me. It’s about you.”
“I want you to say it anyway.”
“Even if it means I…I’ll kill myself the moment you’re gone. I can’t take the darkness anymore. The empty bed. I can’t dance with someone who matches my every move only to leave. I’d rather greet Hades than—”
She slapped him. Hard.
Smack.
Of all the times he’d expected to get slapped before in his life, that time wasn’t it. Nero blinked, stunned.
“Don’t you ever—don’t you ever threaten to do anything like that, you idiot!”
Before he could say anything, she was kissing him. She was a mess—tears still streaking down her face, hair ruffled—and she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She kissed him not to say goodbye, but as if it was her first time truly saying hello.
When she broke away from him, she traced her fingers over his cheek. She sat up after a minute and wiped her face with her sleeve, combing her hand through her hair. She had made up her mind about something—he knew that resolute look on her face.
She picked up the chain around her neck. But she didn’t take it off. She dropped it. “I have the chance to change the Dominion.”
“What do you mean?”
“As Lady Cardinal—and a born slave—I can give a voice to those who cannot speak.” Her jaw twitched for a moment. “I’m staying as your slave, Nero.”
“But…but you’re free.”
“What good is freedom to me now? The point where it could have done me any good is gone. My childhood is over.”
“If it’s money you’re worried about—”
“No, Nero. Think about it. If you could wipe away your status as Cardinal this moment—right now—and go anywhere you wanted, would you? What would you do?”
He pondered it for a long moment. He sighed and sat up, sitting next to her, wrapping an arm around her. “I wouldn’t know what to do with my life. I’d be listless. I’d probably drink myself to death.”
She leaned into him. “I love you, Nero. My life is here, with you. This doesn’t change that. I will still marry you.”
He let out a rush of air in relief. He scooped her up into his lap. “But you could marry me as a free woman.”
“I…I have to make all those years I spent wearing this lie mean something…” She caved into him, tucking her forehead against his neck. “I have spent my entire life living as a slave because of the actions of a woman who believed she was acting in my best interest. I…I don’t know how to reconcile that any other way. How many other people could be out there, trapped like I was, wearing a chain around their neck for no good reason at all?”
“There is never a good reason.” Nero rested back on the headboard, stroking her hair. “There is never an excuse to own another human against their will.” He paused. “I’m going to abolish this practice the day after our wedding.”
“But—”
“There will be riots. There will be an economic collapse. The city might even burn, who knows.” He chuckled, actually wondering if he liked that idea. “I don’t give a fuck. It ends here. I’ll call Viktor and Hugo. They’ll help me.”
“Doesn’t Viktor hate you?”
“He does. But he likes you a great deal. And he’ll do the ‘right’ thing. Noble asshole that he is.” He shut his eyes and squeezed her for a moment. “I won’t let you live a lie for a cause that you should never have had to fight. I’ll call it a wedding gift to you. That’ll be suitably insane, so people will totally believe that’s why I did it.” He grinned.
“I’ll wear this damnable chain until then.”
“I told the old cunt to get out of the Dominion.” He paused. “I would’ve killed her, but I knew you’d be mad, so…I shipped her out of the country. I hope you don’t mind…but I figured you wouldn’t want to ever see her again, so…”
Her lips twitched in the telltale sign that he had screwed up.
“Gods damn it!”
She laughed. It had stopped her crying, at least. She shifted, and he sat there as he straddled his lap, sitting with her hips close to his. She kissed him, cradling his face in her hands.
She tasted so wonderful. Her