Page 46

He leaned down and kissed her on the lips, closing his eyes and inhaling her scent, much like she had done with the perfect red rose when they entered the garden.

“I will think about it,” he said, drawing back slightly.

She grinned and pulled him in for another kiss.

The sun dipped below the tree line, casting cool blue shadows over the roses. A lone crow angled through the branches of the fir trees, stopping on the crumbling garden wall. It perched in silence, one beady yellow eye on the lovers, like a sentinel.

So consumed they were with each other, that neither Davron nor Amelie noticed when the red rose in her lap tumbled to the ground, the petals spilling bright red on the grass.

CHAPTER 20

Davron no longer belonged to himself.

Nor did he belong to the castle, his bloodline, or even the curse. He belonged to the chestnut-haired woman in his bed, sleeping sweetly on his shoulder. And it was devastating.

He lay awake, watching the shadows of the room dip and shift under the glow of the candles, trying to come to terms with what he needed to do.

Amelie did not love him. The curse would have broken if she did. It was the one condition under which Levissina’s death grip would dissolve—that someone would fall in love with beastly, scarred, reclusive Davron of their own free will.

Every day he became more disgusted with himself for bringing her here. He justified his actions with the fact that she chose to come to Castle Grange. But this was true only by technicality. Davron threatened her family. He was a monster.

And she came, because she was brave. But giving herself to him and falling in love were very different things. Love could not be forced nor bargained for.

She seemed fond of him—attracted to him, even. The self-control he had to exercise to stop himself from giving in to her advances was superhuman.

He refused her because he was afraid of hurting her physically, it was true. But the real problem was that he would never, ever be able to let her go if he made love to her.

The first night she’d spent in his bedroom was nearly his complete undoing. To undress her, to see her in all her beautiful vulnerability, and to taste her, was paradise beyond what he ever imagined he could experience.

If they made love, she seemed confident he could stop at any point. He was not so sure. His need for her was beyond desire, beyond lust, beyond reason. Davron loved Amelie. He wanted an indecent level of closeness with her.

And so, he’d refused to be intimate with her again. Tasting her had been enough to drive his obsession to unfathomable heights. He was past the point of no return. She was all that existed to him. He was ruined.

She was not, though. Amelie could still have a life outside these walls, with a man who could give her the freedom and adventure she deserved. For all his riches, Davron could not even allow her to leave the castle grounds. What kind of life would that be for her?

It would be a crime to lock such a beautiful person in a gilded cage. Selfishly, he wanted nothing more than to do it—to keep her all to himself forever, curse be damned—but his love for her would not allow it. Amelie needed to be free.

Today in the rose garden, when he’d expressed his desire to marry her, the fearful look on her face sent a shard of glass through his heart. As if he’d suggested locking her in a dungeon and throwing away the key. Which, to be fair, was not as far from reality as he would’ve liked.

The trouble was, the Dark One would not allow her to walk free—not when the sorceress knew how much it would hurt him for Amelie to die. The moment she set foot beyond the castle gates again, she would be in mortal danger.

If she died, the world would end. He could not let it happen. As he lay there, feeling the gentle warmth of Amelie’s breath against his arm, he faced the brutal truth.

There was only one answer.

He would offer his life to the Dark One. Levissina’s vengeance would be complete. His family’s debt would be paid.

With him gone and the curse along with him, the province would return to its former beauty and abundance. Amelie would inherit his castle and his wealth. She could explore the world until her heart was content. Perhaps, if there was any mercy in this world or the next, he could watch over her from the Beyond.

He would not tell her the plan, of course, because she would interfere. All he could do was enjoy his final few days with her. He would drink her in, bask in her light.

The temptation to make love to her was almost overwhelming. It would be the sweetest goodbye imaginable. But he could not do that to her. To make love to her once and then leave her forever would be unconscionable.

Amelie had come dangerously close to discovering how the curse could be broken. She’d asked him more than once. What if Levissina told her?

If only the Heartstone provided whatever solution his mother hoped it would.

He thought of the note he’d found in the apothecary, with Amelie mere paces away. Scribbled in a rush by his mother, it was a discarded missive referring to the curse. It offered no new nor revelatory information, though. The note was a few lines about how hatred fueled the curse and a woman loving Davron was the cure. None of it was new information to him.