Inferno of Darkness (Divisa Huntress #2) - J.L. Weil Page 0,87

off my flushed cheek with his words.

Damn him.

I didn’t want to be reasonable or admit that what he said made sense. My scowl deepened. “That’s not particularly very ally-ish of her.”

His eyes roamed over my face as his hand moved to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. “She wants to make sure I don’t forget the position she holds. I might be a prince, but she is a queen; therefore, I am beneath her.”

I ignored the tingle of his touch. “I hate demon politics. You guys might actually not hate each other if you stopped being supreme dicks.”

The edges of his lips twitched as he tried not to smile at me. “The last thing we should be doing is fighting. It is precisely what Verena hopes for, to divide us. It is only my flesh. The queen will never have my heart or my soul. Those belong to you.”

I met his gaze, letting him see everything I was feeling and the truth in my words as I said, “You’re wrong. Your body does belong to me as well.” I reminded him. “Heart. Soul. Body. You may already have my body and my soul. But I will never give you my heart. Never.”

He moved closer so my chest was touching his. “Best not to say something you’ll regret, luv. I’d hate to make a liar out of you.”

I swallowed, lifting my chin, and told myself to stay strong. “This is one aspect of the bond you can’t force, Ashor. I have to freely give you my heart, and it is going to take more than ancient accents and cute nicknames for me to profess my undying love.”

“Lexi, you’re being unreasonable. Nothing will happen between the queen and me.”

My nails bit into my palms as another round of anger spiked in my blood. “Oh, so she just invited you to her bed for Parcheesi and meaningful conversation. I’m not a fool. Don’t patronize me.”

Ashor swore low under his breath. “It doesn’t matter what Verena wants or tries. I’m incapable of doing anything with another woman that isn’t you.”

Despair shone in my eyes. “Then why accept the oath? Tell me how you plan to find a loophole out of this one, princeling?”

“When will you learn to trust me?” he breathed.

Wrong answer. “Screw you, Ashor. I wish you weren’t my mate.” I spun on my heels and stalked into the bedroom, slamming the door in his face behind me. My chest was heaving as I pressed my back to the wall. After a few minutes, I realized he wasn’t going to follow me into the bedroom, and that awful ache in my chest came back. The one that had assaulted me for months during our separation. The one I never wanted to feel again.

Ashor had the power to hurt me. More than any demon or human could. Whether it was intentional or not, it didn’t hurt any less.

The images of Verena and Ashor tangled together came back. Her luscious lips on his. Her painted nails trailing down his chest. Her voice calling out his name. Eyes closed or wide open, it did not matter. The visions of them did not stop. For the first time since we’d been united, I truly missed home.

I crawled into bed, curling up into a ball, however I slept very little that night. The sporadic bouts where I did tumble into sleep, I was plagued with nightmares of Ashor and Colin. Their faces often blurred together, which wasn’t the scary part. In each and every dream, I watched them die, unable to do anything to stop their deaths.

I didn’t put much stock into dream reading, yet I couldn’t deny there was some kind of twisted foreboding at play. The idea of Ashor being taken from me was like dying myself.

Sometime in the middle of the night, the door to the bedroom squeaked open and Ashor’s shadows wrapped around me like a cooling blanket, quieting the nightmares. My soul cried the tears I refused to let my eyes shed. He didn’t come to bed, but lounged in the chair that sat in the corner of the room, as if to watch over me. His presence quieted my soul and relaxed my body, so that by the time the sun came up, the sting and ache of his blood oath were drained from within me.

Trust.

Ashor wanted my trust.

I had not given him my trust the first time he abducted me to the underworld. He had not earned it then.