Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,23
knew it was him? But you sent him to me, didn’t you, Cam?”
I nod slightly, shaking.
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I’m evil,” I immediately answer. “My Mistress commanded me, and I did as I was told.”
“Your Mistress?”
“Medusa. Back then, she was the Priestess of Neith.”
Sophia rocks back on her heels, her hand falling from mine. I miss the warmth of her touch already.
“Goddess above! So that’s who the Priestess was. Those parts of my memory were so blurry, as if her face was purposely being obscured from me. She planned this all along? Dalair’s death, what I…”
She swallows hard.
“The destruction I unleashed.”
She looks at me again, her dark eyes burning.
“And you. You were planted there all along. You were always her pawn.”
“Yes.”
I don’t bother to explain that I didn’t know what Medusa planned. Nor the fact that my love for Dalair and Kira were all my own stupidity. I invite her to hate me for my part in her heartbreak, though I no longer hate her for her part in mine.
Sophia looks at me longer, her expression unreadable. Why doesn’t she slap me or rail at me for working for the devil? For putting in motion so much chaos and destruction? For making her lose her beloved Dalair?
“I’m sorry, Cam,” she murmurs, her hand clasping over mine again.
Just so, I think, without processing her words, as she should b—wait, what? She’s sorry?
“I’m sorry you were used that way. It must have been awful, to find yourself in a lie. But I know you loved us. Dalair, Vashti and I. I know it. We loved you too. Don’t ever doubt it. Everything else might have been a lie, but that is the truth. I think it’s why I’ve always felt close to you, no matter what incarnation or skin you’re wearing. I think it’s why I was so drawn to Ere. You were my best friend. And also, as a woman with seeing eyes, it’s really not my fault that I find you extremely beautiful.”
Here she gives me a teasing smile, while my face heats up like a schoolgirl’s after the coolest guy in class glances her way.
“I just don’t want to jump your bones,” she adds somewhat apologetically.
“Ditto,” I mutter, hiding behind my mane, not quite meeting her eyes.
“Well, that’s a relief,” she says. “Our wedding night was a disaster.”
My face is in flames now, the heat borne of acute embarrassment instead of the shy pleasure from a moment before.
“Must you remind me?” I punch her playfully on the shoulder.
“I felt like I was getting stuffed with an elephant trunk,” she complains dramatically. “For heaven’s sake, I was a virgin, and I had a high tolerance for pain, but it just went on—”
“Sophia!”
“—and on—”
“Shut up!”
I clamp a palm over her mouth, but she shoves it away.
“And on!”
“You’ve made your point!”
She smirks at me and tugs my hair in a bratty move.
“Have I?”
“Hmph,” I grunt, whipping my hair out of her clutches in a luxury-shampoo-commercial move. “Just so you know, I wasn’t even all the way inside. Pretty sure I beat Dalair in size and length.”
Sophia shakes silently in laughter.
“Pretty sure he beats you in endurance,” she quips. “It’s the motion of the ocean that counts, baby. And Dalair is all the man I need.”
“Oh!” I protest, affronted about the dig into my lasting power (even though it’s true). “I was trying to make it endurable for you, you being a virgin and all.”
“Admit it, you wanted it to be over before it started. You didn’t want to have sex with me at all.”
“I don’t want to have sex with anyone,” I confirm.
“Not even Dalair?” she eyes me sneakily.
“W-WHAT?!”
“I remember the way you looked at him,” she continues with an evil smile curling her mouth.
Why did I ever think she’s my friend!
“You loved Dalair more than me. I bet if you were married to him, you’d be longer lasting.”
“That’s—that’s ridiculous!” I sputter, my face likely a vivid purple hue by now. “I loved him like a brother. I-I admired him. He’s the best man I’ve ever met, outside of Tal-Telal.”
“Oh yeah?” she taunts, her tone disbelieving. “You never eyed his stallion ass for longer than was appropriate?”
My eyes dart guiltily to the side.
“Or have the irresistible desire to bury your face in the crook of his neck to snort up his scent like drugs?”
My eyes dart guiltily to the other side.
“It’s not that irresistible,” I mumble. Because I’d successfully resisted it.
“Or want to drown in those silvery gray eyes and never