Page 124 of Kingly Bitten

“Jace,” Darius said, the urgency in his tone nearly snapping through my mind.

But I couldn’t focus on anything other than my mate. I needed to find her mind, to feel hersoul.

Fuck, how did I ever think I could break this bond?

It hurt more than anything I’d ever experienced. No amount of torture could compare to having one’s soul ripped from his chest.

I wasn’t sure why fate had handed me Calina now or what I’d done to deserve her. But I would never disgrace her again.

Just come back to me.

“Jace,” Darius repeated. “You just killed a royal.”

“I know,” I snapped. “Because he killed my fuckingErosita.”

I finally looked at him and saw the immediate understanding in his gaze. “A justified killing.”

Sure. Yes. I supposed it was. Or it wasn’t. I didn’t fucking care.He touched her and snapped her goddamn neck. And now I couldn’t find her soul.

“Erosita?” a voice repeated nearby.

Jasmine.

Fuck.

I hadn’t thought at all. I’d reacted. And I’d do it again.

And again.

And again.

If it meant Calina would breathe once more.

I didn’t even recognize myself. Gone was the strategist who had spent over a hundred years perfecting this charade.

And in his place was a man who hadn’t realized what this female meant to him.

Until now.

Until he’d lost her.

She’s not dead, I told myself, needing it to be true.

But she might as well be dead.

Because I’d failed her.

How the hell had I stood there while Lajos had touched her? What the fuck had I been thinking?

I wasn’t worthy of her. I wasn’t worthy of us. I’d wanted to use her until I no longer craved her. But I saw how impossible that was now. She’d enchanted me with her blood and her soul.

Then she’d married me with her mind.

It hadn’t been planned or intended. Perhaps that was what made it so perfect. We were both so methodical that we would never have reached this conclusion on our own. But now that we were here, I refused to leave it behind. I refused to end it. I refused to accept the end of her.

I leaned down to kiss her neck, her jaw, her lips. “Come back to me, sweet genius. Please.”

“It’ll take a few hours,” Darius told me. “And we have a much bigger problem right now.”