The Relic (Cradle of Darkness #2) - Addison Cain Page 0,39

man Jade will wed tonight. You were never allowed to love her.”

But I did love her. Right in that moment, I loved her as I have never loved anything. And it moved me to cuddle closer to the beast whispering ugly secrets in my ear—to lean on him as if there was nothing more natural than sharing the moment my heart felt whole for the first time in all my existence.

As a bride, my baby was a vision.

Perfect in every conceivable way in my eyes. Even the obvious evil of her.

That was how God had designed her, and God was flawless.

The arm around me grew all the more reassuring. “And if you follow that logic, then you must also concede that you are perfect. I’ll even concede that this might be the only topic upon which your false God and I agree.”

God loves his children just as they are. God is love. The immeasurable love I had for my child was the love God had for all things. Even Vladislov.

Even Darius.

Who had harmed my child by taking her from me.

A thought that led to a complicated resentment it was not the time to indulge in. My eyes, my devotion, were for one being only that night.

Jade, her limbs draped in exquisite white lace as she observed me in return.

I knew that high forehead, the more feminine lines of a jaw from my worst nightmares. The aristocratic nose. She was her father made female.

The vivid red of her lips oddly highlighted eyes that burned of hellfire.

There was nothing in that regal woman that had the look of me.

“You’re wrong. Her eyes, my soul. They were the same shade as yours.” Pulling me before his body so I might rest against his chest and enjoy a better view, Vladislov wrapped me tight in his embrace, causing the woman to cock a sculpted dark eyebrow. “Blue as the burning core of the hottest flame. When the day comes for you to know one another, she will find comfort in recognizing that part of herself in you.”

I’d never thought much of my eyes, but I would every day from that night forward. I would look in the mirror and see this child, even if that was all of me she had.

“There are portraits of her from when she was younger. I will have one brought to you before sunrise.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “You’ll see much more of yourself, all the softness. She hides it now with her paint and sharp tongue, because she believed her humanity a weakness. But you are very much a part of her. As Jade grows in confidence as a queen, she will let go of the idea of being only part of herself and embrace the whole.”

Watching me, Jade unconsciously touched elegant fingertips to a ruby encrusted contraption circling her throat. It was similar to mine in the sense that it covered from jaw to collarbone, but far less delicate than the collar around my neck.

Even from a distance, I could tell it made her uncomfortable. That it must chafe and be difficult to move in. Edges of it even appeared sharp, a constant scratch against delicate skin.

Leaning farther into my personal demon’s warm embrace, I whispered, “You said her throat would be bare.”

I felt him smell my hair, nuzzling into me intimately no matter who darted startled looks in our direction. Positively sentimental, he cooed, “Isn’t it romantic? Malcom won’t let her take it off, though it clings and annoys. He wants his love to know he’s always there and she’s always his.”

I didn’t like that one bit.

“She fights it, believes she hates it. But she’s lying to herself. That girl needs the reminder as much as she needs his rule. Jade might be Queen of the Americas, but he is her custodian. And I swear to you, all life on the planet is safer for it. Your daughter is a right bitch when she’s in a temper.”

Hissing under my breath, I dared break the spell of observation and cut a glance back to the man who insulted my daughter. “Don’t say that about her!”

Vladislov chuckled. “She has your fire too. I doubt you realize how fierce you can be. Not one in a billion would dare speak to me as you do. Not even Darius had the balls. That makes you better than him.”

I had never been fierce a day in my life. Women were intended to be meek. Which led to