Page 35 of Sophie’s Ruin (Crimson and Shadows #2)

SOPHIE

My eyes flew open—he was here.

How did he find me?

My muscles locked up as I met Henry’s deep-blue gaze.

He was sitting on his haunches, peering down at me where I was slumped against the wall on the floor.

The night had descended, and moonlight had replaced the sunlight seeping through the window.

The silvery sheen caressed one side of Henry’s face, highlighting his harsh, unyielding features.

Tension bracketed his mouth, and shadows crawled behind his eyes.

Not the shadows I’d been growing close with.

They were shadows of concern and apprehension.

I didn’t want him to be concerned for me.

He didn’t need to be concerned about anything in his life anymore.

I would ensure that nothing and no one ever touched him again.

“How did you find me?” I asked, severing the tense silence between us.

“I will always find you. Even if you don’t realize you’re lost,” Henry replied softly. Despite his quiet tone, determination dripped from every word as if he was making an unbreakable vow.

“I’m not lost, but found. All the pieces of who I am finally fit together,” I told him, hoping he’d understand.

Concern in his stormy blue eyes intensified.

“But this is not who you are. There is light inside of you, remember?”

“What good is that light? It did nothing to fend off the shadows. I was only able to come for you when I embraced the inner darkness. It helped me save you and bring you home.”

“You would have found another way. That way just seemed easier. But that’s what the darkness wants you to believe. That things are easier with it by your side. But nothing worth having should come easily.”

“Why not? Don’t we deserve it? After everything we’ve been through?”

Henry pulled away slightly, his already pale face growing ashen. He was looking at me like he had back at the estate after we’d made love, like he didn’t recognize who was in front of him. The look hurt me. How could he look at me like that? Didn’t he know that everything I had done was for him?

“It’s the hard times that make us who we are,” he finally said, his voice hoarse.

I shook my head. “Not anymore. I refuse to accept that when there is another way.”

“Sophie, the darkness is not the way.”

His words did something to me, stroking something in me that raised my hackles. It was as if the darkness reared its head and hissed at what he was suggesting.

“You need to leave,” I snarled, not recognizing my own voice. The sound was rough and guttural, coming from deep within my throat. Before, I’d wanted to never be apart from Henry, but now I couldn’t stand being near him because he was trying to hold me back like Celeste had done.

“I’m not leaving here without you,” he said fiercely, his features becoming even more unyielding in the moonlight.

“Then I’ll go,” I told him, rising from my spot on the floor.

“Where will you go?” he asked, rising to his full height and towering over me. “What happened yesterday after you left me?”

I flinched at his words because they made it sound like I’d abandoned him.

“I didn’t leave you,” I bit out. “I will come back to you once this is over.”

“What is this exactly? A quest for revenge?”

“You can call it what you want.”

“Then I will call it what it is—madness… Sophie, you’re not yourself—”

“Stop saying that,” I hissed, throwing him a scathing look. “Stop saying I’m not myself. I’m the only one who knows who I truly am.”

Shock splashed across his face before deep sorrow settled into his features.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“I’m sorry I had to leave your side.”

A strangled sound left me.

“You’re apologizing for leaving my side? You didn’t choose that, Henry. You were torn away from me and tortured. You can’t apologize for that.”

“Circumstances do not matter. I’m still sorry I couldn’t be there when you needed me the most.”

“I need you now. I needed you yesterday when I—” The air got snagged in my throat.

Henry’s eyes narrowed. “When you what? Sophie, what did you do?” he asked, stepping closer and caging me in.

“I did what had to be done.” I lifted my chin. “I avenged your pain and suffering.”

Henry swallowed thickly. “What did you do?” he asked again as his nostrils flared. “Emeric,” he said low, picking up on the vampire’s faint scent on me. “Is he—”

“Dead. He burned with the rising sun, pinned to the slope of the mountain in his region. The same mountain I brought down on the rest of his clan who were with him.”

Henry sucked in a sharp breath, staggering back as if my words had scorched him.

“You killed them all?” he asked quietly, as if it pained him to say it aloud.

“I did.” Emeric’s family might still be alive, but they were as good as dead, trapped under the rubble with no way to feed or escape. “And I’d do it again. I will do it again when I find the remaining clan leaders.”

“You’re—”

“A monster. I know. But if you think that scares me, you’re mistaken.”

“It should scare you. It should terrify you.”

“You know what I’m terrified of? Losing you.”

“I don’t want to lose you, either, but it feels like that is what’s happening right now. I’m losing you to the darkness.”

Oh, how mistaken he was.

“Do not be afraid,” I said, reaching up to cup his face. He flinched at my touch as if it burned him, and my heart twisted at his reaction. “I’ll be back when I’m done killing the ones who hurt you.”

“Let me help you,” he begged, his eyes pleading.

Excitement flared in my chest. “Help me? Do you want to help me hunt them down?”

“No. I want you to stay here with me so I can help you fight the darkness.”

“Fight the darkness? I no longer fight the darkness. It fights with me, helping me defeat our enemies. We are on the same side.”

“No, that’s just what the darkness wants you to believe.”

“And I believe it. I do,” I told him, lowering my hands from his cheeks.

He moved then, clasping the back of my neck and my waist, resting his forehead against mine.

“Please, let me help you. If you want me to beg on my knees, I will. I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” I assured him before I kissed him.

He kissed me back deeply, hungrily, and I melted into him, my hands fisting in his shirt.

A whimpering sound escaped when he bit my lower lip, drawing blood.

The sweet taste mixed with the rich and smoky flavor of him invaded my senses, setting them on fire.

I became desperate for him, every stroke of my tongue a plea and a demand.

He pushed me back against the wall and lifted me up so I could wrap my legs around his lower back.

A harsh groan left him when he rocked his hips into me, and I gasped against his lips as desire pulsed between my thighs.

Was he as desperate for me as I was for him?

I thought he looked at me differently now, but perhaps the primal, wild part of him was drawn to my dark side, excited by the violent acts I’d committed.

Unless…he was just trying to distract me; to keep me here, wrapped up in him for as long as he could.

A part of me wanted to give in, to lose myself in him, but the burning desire in my blood quickly turned to ice.

Right now, my thirst for revenge was stronger than my hunger for Henry.

I abruptly broke the kiss, dropping my feet to the floor and shoving at his hard chest to put some distance between us.

His black eyes were wide as he stared at me, breathing heavily.

“We’ll be back together soon,” I promised, glimmering out before I could change my mind and stay in his arms forever.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Damien said, when I appeared in the central region of the country, known as the Lowlands.

It was Lena’s domain and consisted mostly of vast and flat patches of land. We stood in the middle of one right now. The plain stretched for miles, the endless green interrupted by only a few trees.

“There was an unexpected distraction,” I said, wincing at my own words.

Henry was so much more than a distraction…but right now, he was a distraction from my mission. My mind was a bit hazy from what he and I had just shared. Absentmindedly, I lifted my hand up to my face and ran my fingertips over my lower lip, where the bite mark he’d given me was healing.

“Are you still distracted now?” Damien asked, watching me closely.

My gaze snapped to his black, cavernous eyes.

“No,” I assured him, telling myself to focus. “Do you know where she is?” I asked, taking a sweeping look around the moonlight-drenched field.

In a rush to leave Henry before my feelings for him could overpower my need for revenge, I’d cast my magic out, searching for Lena, but the spell had not been as clean and precise as the one I’d used to locate Emeric.

My shadows had brought me here, and while I could sense I was in the general vicinity of my next victim, I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where she was.

“She’s right under our feet,” Damien said in a hushed tone.

My brows climbed my forehead as I looked down.

An underground shelter? The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I stopped myself from asking.

I needed to learn to read the threads instead of relying on Damien to give me answers.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, focusing on the world around me.

As always, sounds rushed in, chaotic and disorientating, making it difficult to concentrate.

I pushed through the noise, and sooner than I’d expected, a web of shimmering strings appeared in my mind.

Tiny, pulsating bursts of light flickered along them, and I began picking out individual strands, following where they led.