Page 121 of Blood as Sweet as Roses

“Whosays the prophecy is about Paige?” I ask, unable to contain my fury. The wall sconces flicker, the elevator light shining bright red.

Kai swallows anxiously. “I’m sorry, Crimson! You know how vampires talk. It’s just…you’ve been spending so much time with her, and it seems like you really like each other…everyone just figured…”

I bear down on them, my voice deep and serious. “Howdareyou discuss such a thing, behind my back?”

“I’m sure it’s not true,” Kai says, wringing their hands. But their voice falters. It’s clear they’re just trying to appease me. “Just because some witches said it, it doesn’t mean…”

“Go to your coffin,” I snarl. “And be grateful I don’t lock you in it, for your insubordination.”

“Yes, my king!” they reply quickly. With one last, fearful glance, they scurry down the hallway toward their suite.

Outside, the dawn approaches, and it tugs me downward. Or perhaps that’s just the weight of Kai’s words settling on me.

Howstupidof me, to become so complacent? To think that I could just forget the destiny that’s been foretold. To think that I could be like Renata, or like Murad.

I traded my soul for power. My heart for a cold throne.

And because I love her, now she’s going to…

“Crimson?” whispers a gentle voice. A heart-shaped face peers out from an open door.

The door to our suite.

My gaze snaps toward her. “What?” I demand.

She winces, but doesn’t scurry away like Kai did. Instead, she wanders out into the hall. She’s wearing a lacey nightdress that flows around her hips and thighs.

“Are you all right, sir?” she asks. “I heard shouting…”

“It doesn’t concern you,” I reply. “Go back to bed.”

Her head tilts slightly, a frown across her beautiful features.

How painfully, wonderfully beautiful she is.

“I can stay up with you, until you drift off,” she says. “In your coffin…”

“No,” I reply, sharply. “That was a mistake, and it won’t happen again. And I will not repeat myself.Go to bed.”

“Fine,” she whispers, pulling the arms of her nightdress around her tightly. “But I don’t like it when you speak to me that way.”

“Understood,” I answer, crossing my arms over my chest. She gives me a final look, full of sadness and disappointment. It pulls me, worsening my mood even further. But there’s nothing else that I can offer her in this moment.

She turns around and goes back into our crypt, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I’menveloped by a deep, penetrating heaviness, greater than just the oncoming day.

You’re going to lose her, I can’t help thinking.You’re going to lose her no matter what you do…

No,I counter, hard resolve solidifying in my chest.I’m the Crimson Stake. I’m the King of the Night. I didn’t sacrifice my own soul to sit on a hard throne all alone.

She won’t die…

Even if I have to freeze my own heart to do it.

CHAPTER 42: LILY HARPER

Paige