Page 105 of Claim Me

“You just wanted to protect your sister,” Kaspian replies through his teeth. “At the expense of everyone around you.”

My fingers curl into my blankets. “I was going to find a way to break it, to free you all.”

“Sure,” Kaspian drawls. “I’ll believe that after all the other lies you’ve told.”

I wince, his words a direct hit.

Because why would he believe anything I have to say? I didn’t confide in him before. And I truly have no intention of confiding in him now. It’s not like he’ll help me after all of this. So what would be the point?

He’s going to make me break these forced bonds, then either sentence me publicly for the spell or ship me back to the Outcast Coven.

Either way, my moment of bliss is done.

Reality has returned.

“Tell me what Ayla said.” The words are soft but steady. I’m not going to fight him. Nor am I going to drag this out any longer. “How do I break the spell?”

“Hold on a minute,” Bane says, his palm going to my knee, his touch burning me even through the blankets. “What if I don’t want her to break the spell?”

Kaspian arches a brow at him. “What?”

“I’m not sure I believe it’s a spell,” Bane goes on. “Fallon is my mate. I can feel it in my soul. That may be the result of fate-related magic, but it’s certainly notforced.”

“I agree,” Nox interjects before Kaspian can speak. “It doesn’t feel forced for me either.”

“Because you’re both enchanted by her magic.” Kaspian glares at me. “We all are.”

Bane shakes his head. “No. Fallon said herself that it feels different with us. But with Klas, it feltforced. She hated him, yet obeyed him because of that obedience enchantment. Once Nyx broke it, she was able to fight him.”

“I don’t want to fight this at all,” Nox adds. “Even hearing what you just said, I… I don’t feel angry or betrayed. Just confused. Because it all feels too right to be a spell. Toonatural.”

“Like fate,” Bane says.

Nox nods. “Like fate.”

Kaspian blows out a breath. “You both just spent several hours fucking her. Of course you feelconnected. Once the spell is broken, you’ll see what I see: a manipulative dark enchantment that’s binding us all togetherillegally. And she”—he points at me—“didn’t tell us about it.”

There’s nothing I can say to that, so I don’t speak at all.

He won’t care that I wanted to protect my sister. Nor will he care that the spell wasn’t of my creation. All he sees is the use of dark magic to create a fabricated link.

It doesn’t matter that I wished it was real or that it all felt good for a minute.

He’s absolutely right to hate me. And once the spell is broken, my two phantoms will join him in that hatred.

“Just tell me how to break it, Your Majesty,” I request, done with this conversation. There’s nothing left to say here. I’ll follow whatever directions Ayla gave him, then I’ll await his judgment. It can’t be worse than what the Outcast Coven will do to me.

It can’t be worse than how I feel right now, either,I decide, my chest aching with the knowledge that I’m about to destroy the only happiness I’ve ever really known.

But it’s the only way.

The phantoms weren’t mine to keep. I’ve known that since the moment I realized we were bonded.

Nothing in this life can ever truly be pleasurable. Not for me, anyway.

I’m a being of death.

Destined to be alone.