Page 18 of Fated In Forever (Nocturne Vampire Clan #4)

MALACHI

A hundred feet later, Blake stopped, raising a fist. We froze. The corridor ended in an intersection, one tunnel half-collapsed, the other two dripping with tree roots and lichen. The air down here was colder.

More aware.

Finn moved forward to inspect the trap, Riordan following, the flickering torches casting long shadows across the wet stone. “Pressure plates,” Riordan explained, jerking his head to the right. “Some kind of trigger here…and over there.”

“We’ve seen this shit before,” Blake crouched low, “There. Three tiles in. Pattern is slightly different. I can’t read the runes like Eldric, but I recognize that one. If we step wrong, we die, badly.”

Nash whistled low. “Delightful.”

Vicious stayed close to Riordan as they picked their way through the deadly maze. I watched every fucking move she made until she reached the other side. Riordan kept one hand on her elbow, Blake inches behind her, and when she was finally safe, I let my head fall forward.

They would protect her.

Once I was gone, she would never be alone, and these two…

I had never cared much for either of them, but they would take care of Evangeline. In fact, I realized, with no small amount of surprise, these two males were the only people on earth I would trust with her.

Which was a total mindfuck.

My feet—my entire body—everything was too wide for the safe path. I crouched low, planting my hands carefully, then pushed off the stone walls to leap over the tiles, launching myself into the safe zone, everyone scattering out of the way.

My landing shook the walls.

Dust fell from the ceiling.

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Finn muttered. “Because I have no fucking desire to be buried beneath a mountain, listening to you assholes smother to death around me.”

“Well, that’s a pleasant thing to say when we’re all standing three hundred feet underground .” Evangeline muttered, giving me the side eye. Seriously? How rude. I think you need to teach him some manners.

For one glorious second, everything fell away, and I grinned back, then reality crashed in and I turned away. Her fingers trailed lightly over my arm , Malachi, please. Let me in. Just…You don’t even have to tell me anything, just…let me in. Stop shutting me out.

I didn’t answer. Oh, I wanted to. But what could I say?

We’re now soul-bound—until the end of time, by the way—and I’m an hour away from becoming your worst fucking nightmare . No. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t break her heart like that. Instead, I slammed our connection closed once more.

Not to punish her…but to protect her.

I’d started off this day with the unshakable belief I was doing Vicious a kindness by coming here, but none of this was kind. Forcing her to endure this hideous place was exceedingly cruel, and the more the doubts crept in, the more I dragged my feet.

But every time I almost broke, every time I opened my mouth to call this off, every time I ached to speak mind to mind with her, that hungry darkness rose up again to claim me.

Reaching, reaching down our bond.

Reaching for Vicious at the other end.

I was utterly corrupted. Ruined. Unredeemable.

There was no hope left for me. But I could give Evangeline this one last gift. I could keep her safe. The evil inside me might want her, but I would never let the shadows take her. Vicious was mine . She belonged in the light and I meant to ensure she remained there.

So I locked our bond down tight.

This was cruel, and unfair, but the only way to protect Evangeline was to cut her off completely, keeping her safe. Because the Underworld could have me, but I swore not a hint of that realm’s corruption would ever touch the female I loved.

No, I would willingly die down here, so long as she walked out, free and alive.

The plain, gray granite tunnel became veined with dark obsidian, and I idly wondered who—or what—had carved them. Hands…or claws? Slaves, or willing labor? And the deeper we went, the surer I felt I was coming home.

That I was home.

That the portal, wherever it led, was where I needed to be.

That truth was cruel, and liberating, and unavoidable, at the same time. I sensed that welcoming hum in my marrow. These dark-veined stones knew me. Whatever magic had birthed my bloodline, we’d been born down here, fed on old blood and darker promises.

I was only returning to the source.

Vicious cast her eyes back, her mouth tightening when she realized I’d caught her looking. But my heart glowed. She did care. Despite my faults, despite me being a literal monster…she still cared.

A sudden rush of jealousy burned away that warm glow.

Not envy of Blake or Riordan, though I knew I’d never touch her again, never hear another of her soft, helpless moans, never watch her tip over the edge of pleasure, the way stars exploded in her eyes.

No—I was jealous of their futures. All that precious time stretching out in front of them. The simple, miraculous fact that tomorrow existed… for them .

My future was written in the rock of this mountain, in these shining veins of obsidian, in the swirling black behind the portal, a fate that had been written long before I even existed. Perhaps I’d been foolish to ever imagine there was such a thing as free will, or destiny.

When this was where I’d been meant to end up all along.

The important thing was, Evangeline would survive this war. She would have the future she deserved with two males who would lay down their lives for her, worship her every breath, which was no less than what she deserved.

And I would be a whisper of a memory that came to her just before darkness fell, and she forgot by the time her head hit the pillow.

Another trap, this one hidden in the walls—blades that snapped out at chest height.

Blake tested the trigger with a tossed stone, and metal screamed as the mechanism activated. Wickedly sharp teeth sheared through the air and embedded into the opposite wall.

Finn frowned. “This is a problem. We didn’t encounter these the last time.”

“I’m in no mood to lose a finger or a hand,” Nash muttered.

“Or my fucking head,” Finn said. “Any ideas?”

I sighed, then shouldered myself past them, greedily letting my knuckles brush against Vicious’ arm on the way by, losing myself in the velvety softness of her skin. I gathered my magic—so much more mercurial—and melted the walls into sheets of smooth stone, sealing the metal blades inside.

“Well, that’s fucking handy,” Blake groused, “you couldn’t have done that with the floor?”

No, the runes would have still worked, the crossing would have still been dangerous. I glanced to Evangeline. I will not take chances with her life.

Yeah, well, neither will I.

One by one, they gingerly passed through, Evangeline went last, and every breath in my chest paused until she was safely across. And on we went.

Why won’t you talk to me? I closed my eyes, wishing I could shut out that raw hurt in her voice. What did I do that was so wrong? Please tell me, so I can fix this.

Pain exploded, piercing my heart, and I bowed over, clutching my chest.

None of this was her fault, none of it, and it killed me that she would ever —for a single minute—imagine she was to blame.

When we stopped again, I looked at her. Really looked . Into those stormy blue eyes that had always seen straight through me, had seen the better part of me. She’d seen me at my worst, and still found something inside me worth saving. Believed in me, when no one else had.

She deserved the truth.

Which was, perhaps, not a kindness, but I couldn’t help myself. I could no longer refuse the yearning in her eyes, the gentle demand in her voice. I couldn’t allow her to go through the rest of her life, blaming herself for what was about to happen.

I shoved down the darkness, sealed the shadows off, and when I was sure it was safe, I opened the door, just a crack.

Because I’m running out of time, Vicious. I don’t want you to see what happens next, and if I had my way, you’d be safely in Ireland, a thousand miles away from this horrible place.

Her breath hitched, Riordan’s head whipping around at the sound. You said ? —

I know what I said. I lied. Or maybe I just wanted it to be true.

But this ritual… Her eyes glossed over with confusion. Why are we here, then?

We came here for you. Brendan’s ritual…is for you. Because I’m slowly being corrupted and I can’t have you shackled to a monster. I feel myself fading with every step, and when I’m gone, really, really gone… there won’t be anything left but this.

I spread my arms, let her see the wreck I’d become.

Her bottom lip jutted out. Then we’ll find a way to undo this. There’s magic down here, you can use my blood again, Brendan knows spells…I have The Book. We can’t just give up.

No. I cut her off, wishing I could soften the blow, wishing she still hated me .

Don’t make this harder than it already is.

I’m still me, for now, so let me make the choice.

Let me end things on my own terms, knowing you’re safe.

Don’t make me go to my end wondering if I’ve condemned you to a life of misery.

The others gathered around something up ahead, oblivious to what passed between us. Only Blake kept glancing back, watching me closely.

Vicious reached up, brushed her fingers along the edge of my jaw, and in that moment, I mourned everything I was giving up, written in her beautiful face. Decades of whispered promises and tender moments, centuries of a life spent together.

A love that transcended time itself.

I closed my eyes, shut out that future, cut off those possibilities for good.

But her touch on my skin burned, like her fingers were forged from fire, like she was branding herself on me, somehow. “I never needed you to be anything but who you were, Malachi,” she whispered. “I just needed you. ”

“We got it,” Finn’s voice echoed past me into the darkness. “Let’s keep going.”

The tunnels sloped downward, deeper into the heart of the mountain, where the magic was thick enough to taste, scraping along my skin, pulling me downward.

The walls were blacker, made of almost pure obsidian, something I hadn’t noticed before, or perhaps this was a different way down, a path the mountain had opened up just for us.

The chamber waited—had always waited—for this moment.

For the perfect alignment of magic and flesh and secrets to come together. All I hoped, the one promise I’d made Brendan swear, was I would not drag Evie with me into the shadows.