Page 113 of Severed Heart (The Ravenhood Legacy #2)

Chapter Fifty-Eight

T YLER

B LINK .

Pulling up the driveway, I revel in the sight of the calming view ahead of me.

Of the soft porch light and the lights inside the house beyond the windows.

Of the peak of the low-lit fire burning through the glass.

Of the plaid blanket folded on the plush couch and the memories it now evokes.

Of the trees encompassing the house framing this picture.

Of the definition of this vision and place—heaven.

It’s when I cut my engine and step outside, hearing a shatter, that my body tenses.

Within seconds, I’m inside the door and at the threshold of the kitchen in time to see Delphine hurl another plate at the floor.

The force of her anger has it shattering to nothing but splinters as she plucks another dish from the cabinet.

It’s not the mess around her or the glass piling up, but her expression that guts me as I counter my gun.

“Delphine,” I call, but she doesn’t hear me, fury and devastation shifting along her gorgeous features as she continues to destroy our dishes one by one before picking up a marble rolling pin and hoisting it up like a bat.

I approach her slowly as she swings at the glass canisters, destroying them with one vicious blow, her outraged cry as she does echoing throughout the kitchen as well as my rapidly hemorrhaging heart.

Softly, I repeat her name again and again until she exhausts herself, chest heaving with silent sobs.

It’s been a month since she was sentenced by the third opinion we sought out, and I knew a reckoning was coming at some point.

I’ve felt the restless struggle within her but decided to let it come naturally rather than force it.

I’ve caught many of her lingering looks and returned them with an open-door expression, which she hasn’t taken me up on.

She’s kicking that door wide open now, and while I’m ready, I can’t handle the sight of her destroying the one room of the house she loves most. Knowing she’ll regret it if she goes any further, I speak up to stop her.

“Please, baby. Please stop,” I insert between the next shatter, loud enough for her to hear.

This plea has her instantly ceasing before she scours the damage.

Upon seeing it, she immediately crumbles before me.

When I take a cautious step toward her around some of the debris, she holds up a hand to stop me.

“I hate her!”

“Who?”

Her chin wobbles as she shakes her head. “I hate her so much!”

“Who, Delphine? Who do you hate?”

“The woman... who gets to have you after me. The woman who”—her voice cracks—“the woman who deserved you all along. Who will give you children—I hate her!”

My heart splinters as she drops her weapon, which I consider useless compared to her words. “I told you long ago, there’s no woman—”

“Oh, there is , Tyler, and for you, she’ll be fucking exceptional because you are.

.. everything any woman could ever want.

.. and, and s-she’ll be everything I wasn’t.

That I’m not, and I couldn’t be for you.

She’ll love you better. She’ll be far less selfish.

Look how selfish I am! Look how selfish I’m being right now!

” Her silver eyes pierce me as she palms her chest with both hands as if its beat is physically paining her.

“I needed more time to prove myself to you. To deserve you. To convince you. So you will remember, will know just how much I... love you... I’m so in love with you. So in love with you.”

My heart cracks at her confession. “Delphine—”

“I wanted to make you feel what you make me feel. I just needed time.” She lowers her palms to her stomach as if she’s been kicked.

“Do you think I deserved you? Never. Never once have I deserved you, but I was going to try to. I was going to try so hard to make all you’ve sacrificed, all the pain, and your patience for me worth it.

But she gets to have you. She gets to be worthy of you.

I just wanted to deserve you before I die! ”

“You do, Delphine, you do, and I don’t want her,” I whisper hoarsely.

“You won’t be able to help yourself.” She bursts into tears with that, and my own eyes sting. “You’ll use me as an excuse at first, but you’ll love her. You’ll love her, and I hate her for that. Please just let me hate her. Just for a minute.”

“Come here,” I order.

“No, I can’t.” She palms her chest again as my own batters me. “I can’t, this pain, this anger. I was okay with dying because I didn’t have... you. Merde, damn it, Tyler, damn you, I was ready to die.”

“No, you weren’t,” I state bluntly, “and you’re not ready now.”

“Why did you do this to me!? Give me the life I dreamed of?”

“Because I’m selfish ,” I admit.

“I’m going to die,” she spits bluntly, her eyes not wavering. “You’re a romantic fool. That’s how this ends, you know, I die .”

“I know.”

“Oh, you know.” She slaps at her cheeks, rebuking her tears. “Well, I’m glad you know.”

“You’re far from dead right now,” I challenge. “So, instead of starting on the CorningWare, let’s go to bed.”

She gapes at me as though I’ve slapped her. “You care so little about this?”

“Not tonight and not right now.”

“So easy for you to say,” she counters, “you get to—”

“To what?” I snap back. “I get to live? You aren’t that ignorant.

I have to bury you while you’ll be completely unaware of any of that pain.

God or no God, you’ll be in a perpetual state of bliss or ignorance while I reject any life without you, fucking forcing myself through every breath.

So no, I don’t feel sorry for you, Delphine, because you get to die, and you won’t be the one left behind.

I wish... fuck what I wish.” I swallow.

“I have to fucking survive losing you. I have to live through it, and if I ever do pray to the God you believe in, it’ll be that it won’t be long-term. ”

Tears stream down her cheeks at my admission and the fact that she knows I mean every word.

“So no, I have no intention of living the full life I have only imagined with you. That future you’re dreaming up for me is fucking fictional and was created out of jealousy, the same jealousy I would have if I was the one dying and I imagined you moving on.

But know this— my future is being stolen right along with yours the minute you leave me. ”

“That’s not what I want for you,” she croaks before quickly backpedaling. “You’re right. I’m simply jealous. So jealous, but I don’t want you to deny yourself. At all, because you’re right, I’ll be in bliss. I don’t want this bleak existence you see for yourself at all, Soldier.”

“And I don’t want to bury you, but neither of us is getting our way, so instead of fighting with me about what we can’t control, let me show you just how alive you still are.”

Her expression collapses as she sobs in her hands.

Unable to handle another minute of the space between us, I stalk toward her before lifting her from the remains of what was formerly our kitchen and hauling her back toward our bedroom.

By the time we reach the door, our mouths are molded together.

Blindly, I walk toward the bed as I thrust my tongue into her mouth, and she meets my kiss, just as frenzied.

The second we’re undressed, and she’s spread beneath me, I bury myself in her wet heat. Her moans fueling me as I fuck her aggressively, pinning her hands beside her head and grinding my length against her clit.

Within minutes, she’s tightening around me and crying out through her release.

Heart thundering, I fuck her at a frantic pace until she’s completely wrung out, her body a trembling mess of aftermath, her skin soaked and covered in afterburn.

It’s when she whispers my name and palms my face that I slow, throat and nose burning from the fight roaring in my chest.

“Tyler,” she whispers urgently, commanding my eyes as I waste myself inside her, fighting her, fighting fate, and fucking away the enemy neither of us can defeat.

Her soldier I may be, but I’m useless in defending or protecting her from this.

For the first time since we got the news, I allow her to glimpse my grief, coming apart at the seams as I milk every ounce of pleasure from her that I can.

Fighting for our peace as I thrust in, again and again, groaning filthy words into her tear-streaked face before licking her salted lips.

Licking my own tears, I dig my fingernails into her while inhaling what I can of her scent, memorizing her, submerging myself fully into her until I’m drenched, drowning, and beyond as grief seizes me whole.

“Tyler,” she demands, refusing to back down until I bring my gaze to hers. I slow and still when I see the expression on her face ... a peaceful resolve and acceptance I’ve been dreading.

“Don’t baby, don’t. Please don’t,” I rasp out. “Keep fighting with me, please.”

She digs her heels into my back, refusing me, stilling me while running her hands along my shoulders and down my arms in a soothing motion.

“You brought me back to life,” she murmurs, her voice full of awe as she gazes up at me like I’m the only thing that matters.

“Please don’t stop fighting,” I cry openly as she shakes her head and gives me a blinding smile.

“It’s okay, it’s okay now, Soldier, don’t you see?”

I shake my head, hearing the agitation and anger in my voice. “See what?”

“We won. We’ve already won,” she declares victoriously.

“No, I don’t see,” I bite out bitterly. “And I never will. This will never fucking be okay.”

“Have faith, my soldier. You will.” She lifts and places the gentlest of kisses on my lips. “One day, you will see.”

After freeing me, I work us both until we’re a heaving mess, our hearts pounding in unison with our cries until we’re utterly taxed. After a shower of murmured words and tender kisses I order her to dress.