Page 136 of Wedlock

But this was not an invitation; it was goodbye.

‘My Angel,

You were right in saying, before I surprised you with a visit to your parents’ home, that our last date should have been Thailand. I had intended to give this to you as a wedding present, but things didn’t turn out the way either of us expected.

Enjoy your island, my love.

Falcon.’

I sit, staring at the letter for a long, long time. Pinned behind it is a map and a title.

“He bought me an island,” I whisper aloud.

Even as I say this I remember the comment I’d made to Yin when I’d learned her mother had left her a whole island in her will.

“She must have really loved you to do that.”

“Oh, Falcon,” I groan.

106

The physician tut-tuts over the stab wound to my torso and adds a few final stitches before bandaging me up.

“Silver is not a metal to be trifled with, Lord Dragonspur,” he mutters, staring at me over the top of his spectacles. “I suggest you practice your swordsmanship with iron or gold if your challenges are going to be so realistic. As for your hand, that will take a week or more; your back should be repaired within a day.”

I grunt and shrug on my shirt, ignoring Mother, her hand to her mouth, eyes round where she stands on the other side of the room.

“Thank you, Doctor,” I mutter, “that will be all.”

He shakes his head as he leaves, and I lie back on the bed and stare up at the canopy.

“How could you?” Mother demands for the third time since I’d been carried back into the castle by my men. “How could you, Falcon?”

“Give it a rest, Mother. And what part of ‘prisoner’ don’t you understand? Get back to your wing and get out of my business. It’s nothing.”

“Nothing?Nothing?”She shakes her head, ignoring my question. “You come back from a visit to God only knows where bleeding from half a dozen cuts, your ear hanging off, two fingers in your pocket, a wound so deep the doctor says it’s a miracle you survived, and all you have to say for yourself is ‘it’s nothing’ — tell me at once why you’d put yourself in such peril when you have a virtual army at your disposal. Who did this to you?”

“Jag. If you must know. But if it makes you feel any better, he got as good as he gave.”

“Oh, my god. Did you kill him?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snort, “do Ilooklike I killed him?”

107

The Thai resort is everything I remembered from my last date with Falcon on The Games, and more.

The heat, the food, the beach, it’s all still magical. The only difference is, it’s all mine. The past six months had been wonderfully healing for me, Yin and the children, and I shouldn’t want for anything more, but deep down, I do.

‘I want him.’

Tonight I watch the children playing on the beach under the full moon, and wish, as I have every night since our arrival, that my heart didn’t feel heavy — that I could get over the vampire I’d left behind and move on with my life.

“Content?” Yin asks as she draws slow circles in the sand, circles so similar to the ones I’d once drawn in the Japanese sand garden, right before I’d found the Life Token that saved us both.

“Getting there.”

“I think it’s going to take time to stop being afraid. To stop looking over your shoulder and instead look to the future,” she says gently. “For both of us.”