Page 51 of A Kiss From Death (Oath of Vengeance #1)

L ife has been positively boring recently.

Hade let me return to my room, but he hasn’t graced me with the ability to leave my bed yet, besides using the bathroom.

He says it’s “healer’s orders”, but not once has Trina told me I couldn’t get out of bed.

She is actually impressed with how fast I’m recovering and assured me I should be almost fully back to normal by the next trial.

Hade has been weird and distant since the accident.

He checks on me each morning, bringing me breakfast, but he doesn’t stay to chat.

He’s been avoiding me like the plague, looking pained to be around me.

As promised, he has taken over as my guard, but he spends most of the time on the other side of my door, as if I carry some deadly contagion.

After arguing with him about Winston, he decided to give back some of his guard duties.

Winston apologized with big, tear filled eyes, swearing he would lay his life down before anyone came close to touching me again.

I gave him a big hug and assured him it wasn’t his fault.

He gifted me a citrus candle to try and make things right, which made me laugh until tears ran down my face.

Not being able to train or run has been making me want to pull my hair out. In the interim, I’ve grown fond of reading entries in Theo’s journal and thumbing through the one I stole from the hidden library, switching back and forth to fill my time.

Today, I reached reason 1,724 why Theo loved me.

It read, “ Those damn eyes. She is like a siren, calling me beyond my free will. Those eyes make me want to do good, make me want to dive in and get lost in them. I would be content drowning in their stormy gray depths for the rest of my life. She is my religion, who I devote my life to each night. Her stormy eyes are the clouds that call to my sunshine .”

Des has made it her life’s mission to spend any second she isn’t working being glued to my side.

After she found out I was hurt, she swore she was never leaving my side again.

She even went as far as sharing my pillow so she could “be closer to me”.

If death by cuddles was a thing, I would be long gone by now.

Nuzzling down into the pillow fortress Des built around our heads for “protection from intruders”, I slide Theo’s journal out from under the pillow we share, content on spending the rest of my night peacefully reading.

Des is reading some fluffy romance book next to me, but she keeps trying to sneak peeks at Theo’s journal, thinking I won’t notice.

Digging my elbow into her side, she lets out a deep huff and pretends to be severely wounded.

“Snooping again?” I question.

Rolling her eyes, she responds, “Why should I be interested in a book about made up love when I can read about a beautifully raw and real love story in front of me?”

I’m about to make fun of her for being a hopeless romantic when two solid knocks echo from the other side of my door. Quickly stashing the journal under my pillow, I yell for them to come in. The door swings open, and a very serious looking Hade stomps in, fully dedicated to his Cardinal title .

Clearing his throat, he looks between me and Des until his eyes finally settle on me.

“How are you feeling?” he asks in a monotone voice.

“Same as the last time you so dutifully checked on me, sir ,” I respond snidely.

He grunts in response, but honestly, I couldn’t care less. If he wants to be cold and distant, two can play that game. I’m not sure what crawled up his ass, but if it isn’t swiftly removed, I’m not against removing it myself. I’m not a woman afraid to get her hands dirty if it comes to it.

He turns to walk out, leaving just as fast as he swooped in. He reaches for the handle of my door, but something inside me yearns for just a drink longer of his presence, so I falter in a moment of weakness, my pride nowhere to be seen.

“That all?” I mutter on a soft breath, full of hope.

He lets out a deep sigh, sounding as if he’s at war with himself.

He turns to face me, and he looks downright tormented, his jaw locked tight.

He goes to say something, but then he shakes his head, thinking better of it, and his knuckles turn white from gripping my door handle.

His eyes look pained, deep crescents swooping under them, letting me know just how little sleep he’s been getting.

I wish he would let me in, let me dive under his skin to see the darkest parts of him, so I may come to understand them like he has mine. I thought we got past this barrier between us, but it seems the wall has been fortified twice as thick and tall.

He gathers himself, building his walls back up so instead of Hade standing before me, it’s the Cardinal, devoid of any emotion. “That is all,” he says sternly before spinning on his heels and storming out my door.

I relax back into my pillow, letting out a deep breath I didn’t realize I was holding, my mind left more scrambled than the eggs I ate this morning .

“What was that all about?” Des questions with a raised eyebrow.

“How should I know?” I say with a scoff, trying to look unaffected and clueless. Des smirks at me, her face all-knowing and her smile growing by the second.

“Seems to me you know something I don’t. Care to share, Sparkles?”

“He’s being an ass, per usual,” I say defensively. “I’d hardly call that something to write home about.”

Des raises her hands in surrender. “Woah. No need to get your biscuit in a buttery mess. It just seemed tense between you is all.” She plays with her hands in her lap, pretending to let it go, but I can see the wheels spinning in her head.

I let out a deep, resigned huff. “Out with it.”

Her face lights up with a huge smile, having been given the okay to pry into my life like one of her juicy drama books she loves to read. “So…no hate sex then?”

My jaw drops, shocked from her blunt words. I rip the pillow out from under her head, making her let out a yelp when her head hits the bed. Raising it above my head, I playfully launch it at her face, making her erupt in a fit of giggles.

“No,” I say abruptly. “There hasn’t been, nor will there ever be, any hate sex happening between me and that brute as long as the heart in my chest continues to beat.”

Des peaks out from under the pillow I shoved down on her with a slight smirk. “Woah, woah, woah, Sparkles. Never say never to something like that until you’ve taken it out for a nice spin first. Learned that lesson the hard way.”

I raise my eyebrows at her in question, wanting her to divulge further.

She shrugs her shoulders in response, trying to look unfazed.

“I might have had one too many ales and told a man—no, a very large man—that his ego may be large, but I was sure his penis was small.” Thinking, she adds, “No, I think the word I used was miniscule.” Shrugging, she carries on, “Anyways, we bet on a game of Jezzle, and if I lost, I had to spend one night with him so he could show me just how small his…you know what was.” She swats her hand back and forth in the air.

“Next thing I knew, I woke up in a random man’s bed above a tavern downtown after the best night of my life, and for the next month, the little traitorous bitch wouldn’t get excited for anyone, me included.

The longest dry spell of my life. I tried to go back for seconds when I was fed up with it, but he just looked me in the eyes and told me he would be taking his small penis elsewhere,” she huffs defeatedly.

She turns to me very seriously. “Don’t make the same mistake as me.

” Pointing down she adds, “I swear she starts purring every time I walk by that tavern now.”

Patting her shoulder, I let out a small laugh I’m unable to keep down. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Grunting, she grabs her book and rolls over to read. Sliding my hand under my pillow, I slip Theo’s journal out and dive back into a time when it was just me and him against the world.

Bending down, I finish lacing up my last boot then braid my hair down my back so it’s out of my face.

I slip my dagger into my left boot; I would sooner be trapped alone in a room with a brooding Hade than go anywhere without being able to defend myself.

Checking myself over in the mirror once, I turn to leave my room.

I push my door open, but I falter when I run into a hard mass. Dragging my head up until my neck is painfully pulled tight, I stare into a pair of stone cold eyes that promise death.

“Where do you think you’re going?” the deep voice that haunts me vibrates over my skin.

I go to step around his large form, but he grips my wrist, halting me. Seething, I turn around, ready to lay into him. “I’m going to train, and you cannot stop me. ”

Hade tenses for a moment, fisting his hands. “I don’t like the idea of that.”

I could punch this man in the throat right now if I didn’t think it would result in breaking all my fingers in the process.

“What, and you think I’m going to magically be healed by tomorrow for the next round of the Crucible?

Going in after almost a week of resting is more harmful, Hade. I need to train.”

I step around him dramatically storming down the corridor right past Winston, who dutifully keeps his mouth shut. I hear harsh footsteps catching up to me in seconds, making me whirl around, pinning him with an angry glare.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I yell, getting more worked up than I should be. At this point, I’m not even sure what all I’m angry about, just that I need to let off some steam, and Hade is the perfect target to aim it at.

“I never said you couldn’t train, but if you want to fight, you can fight me. I don’t trust the others when it comes to you, and I’m not sending you into the lion’s den alone,” he states.

“I don’t need your help. I’ve been taking care of myself for a very long time,” I mutter.