Page 27

TRINITY

I can't stop trembling, hours after everything happened.

The moment keeps replaying in my head—Drez'kor's hands around my throat, the twins screaming, the sheer terror that my daughters would be left motherless or worse.

Then Vael bursting through the door like vengeance personified, his eyes blazing with a fury I've never witnessed before.

After bathing the girls and tending to Vael's wounds—which he stubbornly insisted were "nothing" despite the deep gash in his side—exhaustion settles into my bones. Yet sleep remains elusive, my nerves too raw, too alert.

The twins, miraculously, drift off easily after their feeding. I gently place Kaelin next to her sister in their cradle, brushing my fingers against their impossibly soft cheeks.

"Your father saved us today," I whisper, the words catching in my bruised throat.

Their father. The demon who went hunting today to protect what's his. I touch the tender skin around my neck, wincing at the pain. Drez'kor's hands had been like iron bands crushing my windpipe. If Vael hadn't returned when he did...

A soft knock draws my attention to the doorway where Vael stands, freshly bathed, his torso wrapped in bandages. Despite his injuries, he looks powerful, vigilant—a predator still on alert.

"They're asleep?" His voice is low, gravelly from the day's exertion.

I nod, careful not to disturb the peaceful twins. "Finally."

He crosses to the cradle, gazing down at our daughters with an expression that makes my chest tighten. Tenderness and ferocity mingled together—the look of a father who would tear apart worlds to keep his children safe.

"Come with me." He extends his hand, those red-gold eyes fixed on mine. "To my room."

My pulse quickens. We haven't done that since I gave birth. "Vael, I'm exhausted, and you're injured?—"

"Not for that." His mouth quirks slightly. "Just...come."

Something in his tone makes refusal impossible. I place a gentle kiss on each twin's forehead before taking his outstretched hand, allowing him to lead me from the nursery. His fingers entwine with mine, warm and secure.

Vael's bedroom is a place I've glimpsed but never entered—a private domain with massive windows facing the forest, dominated by an enormous bed draped in midnight-colored linens.

Weapons mounted on the walls catch the lamplight, gleaming dangerously.

It suits him, this room—dark, powerful, yet unexpectedly comfortable.

He guides me to sit on the edge of his bed, then paces before me, a caged predator wrestling with himself. The bandage around his ribs shows a faint pink stain, but he moves as if the wound is irrelevant.

"Trinity." My name sounds different when he says it, weighted with meaning I can't fully decipher. He stops pacing, turns to face me. "Today made something clear that I can no longer ignore."

I swallow, wincing at the pain in my throat. "What's that?"

"I can't let you go."

The words hang between us, vibrating with intensity. He drops to one knee before me, bringing our faces level, his hands resting on my thighs. Heat radiates through the thin fabric of my nightdress.

"I've been lying—to myself, to you." His eyes burn into mine, pupils narrowed to slits with emotion. "This was never just about an heir."

My breath catches. "What was it about, then?"

"You." He reaches up, gently tracing the bruises on my neck. "From the moment I saw you in that room on Galmoleth, something in me recognized something in you. Like recognizing a path I was always meant to walk."

I try to look away, but his hand cups my cheek, keeping my gaze locked with his.

"I told myself it was about continuing my line, about appeasing my mother, about having someone to inherit what I've built. But those were excuses." He leans closer, his breath warm against my lips. "The truth is simpler and far more terrifying: I wanted you. Just you."

My heart pounds so hard I'm certain he can hear it. "Vael?—"

"Let me finish." His thumb brushes my bottom lip. "When I saw him touching you today, when I heard our daughters crying... I've never known fear like that. Not in all my years hunting the most dangerous creatures across three worlds."

A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it. His thumb catches it, gentle despite the strength I know those hands possess.

"It stopped being about an heir long ago, Trinity.

Maybe it never was." His voice drops lower, rougher.

"I've been afraid to admit how deeply I want you.

Not just in my bed—though gods know I want that too—but in my life.

By my side. I've always felt so drawn to you, and I would do anything for you.

I know that. But the one thing I just can't do is let you go. "

I stare at him, this demon whose cold exterior has cracked open to reveal something I never expected to find—vulnerability.

"I know our arrangement was temporary," he continues. "I know I promised you freedom after the birth. But I'm asking—begging, if I must—for you to stay."

His words wash over me like an impossible wave, leaving me trembling in their wake. This wasn't supposed to happen. Demons don't fall for humans. Bounty hunters don't beg. And I—I don't get chosen. Not when there's nothing left to give.

"You want me to stay?" My voice cracks, the bruises on my throat making each word painful. "As what? The mother of your children? Your personal bedwarmer?"

Vael's jaw tightens, those red-gold eyes flaring with frustration. "As you , Trinity. Just you. I have always been willing to take whatever you would give me as long as I could have you."

I stand abruptly, breaking away from his touch because it's too much—too gentle, too real. I pace to the window where Aerasak's crimson sky bleeds into the horizon. The strange metallic flora of his garden catches moonlight like scattered coins.

"I don't understand what that means," I whisper, pressing my palm against the cool glass. "Nobody just wants me ."

"I do." Two words, spoken with such conviction that I have to close my eyes against them.

"You don't even know me." I turn to face him, wrapping my arms around myself. "You know the woman who bartered her way through survival. The woman who traded her body for safety. The woman who agreed to bear your children for freedom."

He rises to his full height, towering and powerful, yet somehow vulnerable in this moment. "I know the woman who protected other girls in those dungeons. Who challenges me at every turn. Who looks at our daughters like they're miracles, despite never wanting children."

A laugh escapes me, bitter and defensive. "That's what I do, Vael. I adapt. I survive. I figure out what people want and become it."

"And what do I want?" He takes a step toward me, careful, as if approaching a wild animal. "Tell me what mask you've been wearing for me."

The question slams into me like a physical blow. I open my mouth to respond with something cutting, something that will keep this wall between us intact, but nothing comes. What mask have I been wearing for him? The realization hits me with stunning clarity—none.

"I don't know how to do this," I admit, my voice barely audible.

"I don't know how to be... loved. I only know how to be useful.

" My fingers drift unconsciously to my throat, to the evidence of how quickly usefulness can expire.

"My entire life, I've been something to be used and discarded.

Even before the demons came, in my village, I was just the orphan girl passed from home to home. "

Vael crosses the room in two strides, his hands cupping my face with devastating gentleness. "You don't have to be useful to be worthy, Trinity. Never with me."

Something breaks inside me then—a dam holding back years of carefully controlled emotions. Tears spill down my cheeks, hot and unstoppable.

"I never believed anyone would choose me for me," I confess, the words tearing from somewhere raw and hidden. "Not for what I could offer or do or be. Just... me."

His thumbs brush away my tears. "I choose you. I choose this stubborn, fierce, impossible human who terrifies and fascinates me in equal measure."

"Why?" The question emerges broken and small.

"Because you make me feel alive." He presses his forehead to mine. "Because when I'm with you, I'm not just a weapon or a bloodline or a demon. I'm just Vael."

I clutch at his arms, feeling the solid strength beneath my fingers. "I'm scared, Vael. I've never had anything to lose before. Now I have the twins, and I have..." I take a shuddering breath. "I have you. And it terrifies me how much I want to keep you all."

His eyes widen slightly. "Trinity?—"

"I don't want to go," I rush out before courage deserts me.

"I never wanted to leave the girls. And somewhere along the way, I stopped wanting to leave you too.

" I swallow hard, meeting his gaze directly.

I feel like I'm being gutted as the last of my walls are ripped away.

"I love you. And I have no idea what to do with that. "

Vael goes utterly still, as if I've spoken words in some forbidden language. Then his face transforms—the hard lines softening, those predator eyes warming to molten gold.

"Say it again," he whispers.

I slide my hands up to frame his face, feeling the heat of his skin beneath my palms. "I love you, Vael. Not because you saved me, or gave me children, or offered me protection. Just... you."

He pulls me close, his head tipping forward to touch mine. "Trinity, I have loved you from the second you stormed up to me at that ball and yelled at me. I knew then what I couldn't admit. I love you."

And even though I am physically and emotionally exhausted, his words send a wave of warmth through me. I never thought I could let go with a male, never thought I could trust one—especially not fall in love.

Yet I have.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.