Page 84 of Wicked Ends

“But you still didn’t tell me the truth.” My voice is getting too loud.

“I know.” He looks defeated. “I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid. Afraid you’d hate me.”

“So you just kept lying.”

Drake nods miserably. “I’m not asking for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it from you.”

I stare at him, this man I’ve given my heart to. Who I believed in when no one else could even see him. The betrayal hurts. A lot. Trust doesn’t come easily for me, and I’d trusted Drake completely. More than any of the others.

“I understand if you hate me,” he says. “I hate myself.”

“I don’t hate you. I’m furious with you. But I don’t hate you.”

He smiles sadly. “I should go.”

“Go?” I’m confused. “Go where?”

“I don’t expect you to keep doing whatever you’re doing. The magic that’s making me able to stay here.” He gestures vaguely at himself. “It’s okay.”

It takes a second for his words to register, and when they do, a fresh wave of anger washes over me.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

Drake blinks, startled by my tone. “What?”

“You think I’m going to what, just cut you off? Let you disappear forever because I’m pissed at you?” I step toward him, jabbing a finger into his very, very real chest. As flesh and blood as I am. “That’s what you think of me?”

Drake stands perfectly still. “I don’t understand.

“Clearly!” I’m angry, I’m hurt, but mostly? Mostly, I’m exasperated. “You’ve been around for over a century, and you still don’t understand. That’s not how love works.”

“Love?” He stares at me.

I cross my arms, turning my back to him because I can’t look at his face right now. “When I love someone, I love them. I don’t just turn it off because they fucked up, even if they fucked up royally, which you absolutely did.”

“Say that again,” Drake’s voice is barely audible.

“What?” I snap, still facing away from him.

“That you love me.”

I whirl around, incredulous. “Of course I do, dumbass! How could you possibly not know that?”

Drake looks stunned, as if I’ve slapped him. “Even after what I just told you.”

“Yes, I’m angry. Yes, you should have told me the truth from the beginning! And yes, we are absolutely going to have a much longer conversation about this when we’re not preparing to confront a cannibalistic witch!” My voice breaks a little at the end. “But that doesn’t mean I stop loving you. What kind of person do you think I am?”

“The best kind,” he says, and it deflates me immediately.

“Then why would you think I’d let you fade away? That I’d ever let you go like that.”

“Because that’s what people do.” Drake’s eyes are haunted. “They betray. They choose self-preservation.”

“Well, I’m not people.” I step closer to him. “I’m me, and I don’t abandon the people I love, even when they’re complete idiots who don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

Because that’s the thing about love. It doesn’t mean overlooking the bad parts or pretending the hard stuff doesn’t exist. It meanschoosing someone, even when the path forward isn’t clear. It means fighting alongside them, for them, even when you’re still angry.

Drake reaches for me hesitantly. His fingers brush my cheek, and I let him, despite the anger still simmering inside me.