Page 66 of Fate’s Sweetest Curse (Mirrors of Fate #2)

Humanity

Noble

I f there were ever a sight to make Noble want to forsake the Fates and tear the world apart, it was this.

Hattie, adorned in a garnet-red necklace of her own dried blood.

Hattie, with dark bruises marring the bare skin of her wrist, her arm in a sling.

Hattie, cringing in Brendan’s grasp, her sensuous body shrugging away from the unwanted touch.

Hattie, with black ichor on her dress—the same vileness that was awakening in his veins.

Hattie, with a bruise blooming across her perfect temple, her luscious hair tangled with leaves and twigs.

And, worst of all, Hattie: with fear and fury in her eyes, agony plain on her face.

So strong, when she shouldn’t have to be.

So brave, when she shouldn’t need to be.

So good— too good —for a world filled with unfairness and darkness and brutality.

So unbelievably beautiful inside and out, defiant of all the ways the Fates had endeavored to dim her brilliance.

It was unfair.

It was unconscionable.

It was unacceptable.

Noble was more than willing to endure the inhumanity of this world, but he would not allow it to touch his Hattie .

He had always tried to be good. He had valiantly fought against the riptides of his own inadequacy to be the man his father and society had expected him to be.

He had fought against his inner wickedness, be it his inability to ever be enough or the literal curse the Arcane Adepts had injected into his veins.

He had always tried to live up to the legend of his namesake.

And though he had failed to meet those expectations, he had tried to do the right thing.

But Noble was done trying.

Now, he would do the wrong thing.

Now, he would welcome failure and give in to the power that simmered under the surface of his humanity.

As he felt the wretched, wicked swell of the curse surging into his veins, awakened by the blood on his lover’s dress and encouraged by his rage over her peril, Noble had no problem becoming a monster.

He embraced it.

Because if there was one person worth giving up everything for, it was her.