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She huffed. “I do have to do this, and it’s your fault.” She sighed and let her arms down. Rising back to her feet, she crossed to the window and stared out at the night’s glittering sky. I’d pack them all into a jar to decorate her bookshelf if she asked me to. “Maybe we could havehad all of this, Maverick. Eventually. We could have had it all, but you just had to have it your way. On your time. So fuck you. We can both be miserable forever.”
My head fell back, caught by the plush cushion behind me, and I groaned. This was going to be a long road. I could see that clearly now. All I wanted to do was wrap her in my arms and never ever let go. I wanted to make all her dreams come true, but she wanted to fight. “It wasn’t really my timing, Tess. I was under a lot of pressure thinking you might be a hunter trying to trap me.”
She laughed. “That’s right. The hunter theory. You claimed me in case I was a hunter, so you could trap me before I trapped you.” She kissed her fingers. “Perfect logic.”
“No, I was already trapped. Already consigned to staying with you forever, either way. You bewitched me, Tess, like it or not. I thought it might be a trick, and even if it was, I still didn’t ever want to be parted from you. Even if that meant going back to Hell with you.”
She was stunned into silence with that. It was about fucking time I said something to get through to her. Crossing the room, I stopped in front of her, and when she met my eye, I took her hands in mine.
“I promise to give you everything you’ve ever wanted, just please. Don’t ever leave me, Tess. You can’t leave me.” I stared at her, the torture of the moment playing tricks on my mind as I studied her.
“I only just won my freedom from Ivan.” Her voice was filled with defiance and vulnerability. “I can’t be a slave to any man ever again.” Her words echoed in my head, the reality she’d endured settling heavily on my shoulders.
I squeezed my fists tight, trying to steady the tumult swirling inside me. I was normally so full of confidence and determination; it was an odd sensation, this vulnerability. I knew I had to get used to it. I’d neverbe able to bluster my way through some half-baked plan again, because if it came back to hurt Tess, I’d be destroyed forever.
I softened and broke away, walking past her, trying to think of how best to explain myself. “Tess,” I began in a quiet murmur that couldn’t possibly carry the full depth of my feelings, “I get it. I understand more than you realize. But we’re all slaves to something in this life.”
I paced slowly, trying to gather my thoughts. “It doesn’t matter who we are, it doesn’t matter where we come from, or what we’ve endured. We’re all bound by the invisible chains that tie us to our pasts, our desires, our fears.”
I paused, turning to gaze out the window, the city lights twinkling like distant stars. “For me, it’s been a lifetime of running. Running from the hunters, from the demons of my past, and from the suffocating morality of the seraphim sector in Hell. Always on the move, never truly free. Stone, Lux, and I… we thought we could find freedom by leaving Hell, by escaping to the mortal realm. But even here, we are hunted, always looking over our shoulders, always bound by the need to survive.”
My gaze returned to my beautiful monster, trying to express myself as honestly as I could. I had to be open and transparent with her. If communication was the best way forward, I had to get the foundation in now. “And then there’s you. With your fire, your strength, your fierce, hard-won independence. After all you’ve been through, and still, you refuse to back down. You say you don’t want to be a slave to any man, and good. I respect that, of course I do, but Tess, the truth is, you’ve got it all wrong because I’m the one who’s a slave to you. You’ve enchanted me in a way I can’t explain. If it’s not a spell or a charm, then it’s something deeper, something that binds me to you just as surely as any magic could.”
I moved closer, my voice softening. “When I first saw you, literally shining in a way that no one else could see, I was mesmerized, anesthetized even. Some part of me thought it was a trick, a trap laid by the hunters, but now I realize it was something else entirely. It was some kind of sign that our paths were meant to cross. I became bound to you that first night in that club, maybe before then, whether either of us wanted it or not. Because this otherwise inexplicable need to protect you, to be with you, to strengthen this connection between us at all costs, it can’t be anything else I’ve ever heard of. And I’ve been around the block a few times, Tess.”
I reached out, gently taking her hand, but she jerked it away, crushing my heart like a small, insignificant shell of a beetle under her shoe. “I know what it’s like to crave freedom, to fight for it with every ounce of your being. I won’t pretend to know the extent of your suffering with Ivan, but I can promise you this: I will spend eternity striving to make your life good. Better than good. You deserve everything, and I’ll get it for you. I will never leave you. I made that mistake once before. Never again. All I want is to stand by your side and support you in your journey, whatever that might look like. You lead. I’ll be your wingman. I’ll be Robin. You can be Batman.”
She snickered but pressed her hand over her mouth to stop it. Then she tilted her head in question, furrowing those cute brows of hers. “But… you can’t stay here with me, Maverick, can you? They’ll find you.”
“So come with me.” I reached for her again, my heart filled with a mixture of hope and uncertainty, but she rebuffed me again. “You’ve already changed my life, Tess. You’ve given me something to fight for beyond survival. I’m a slave for you, and so be it. I don’t even care. I can’t be parted from you now. I’m part of something greater than myself when we’re together.”
I got down on my knees and reached up, my voice softer, almost a whisper. “Please, baby. We may never truly escape our chains, but together, we can find a way to live with them, to find joy and meaning despite them. Let me show you how happy I can make you.”
“You’re insane,” she spat.
It felt like an arrow to the chest, but I would never give up on her. I threw my head and arms back and groaned as I got back to my feet. “Why won’t you listen, woman?”
“Oh, I listened. I heard your completely unhinged diatribe. Youclaimedme, Maverick. And now you’re trying to blame me? You’re suggesting you’re the one who’s been wronged?”
“No, Tess, I’ve not been wronged. Were you not listening? I’m grateful to be chained to you. Even if you were a hunter, I can’t imagine a day without you!”
But she was still angry. She began to cry. She threw a punch at me. And another and another. I held her back, refusing to ever hurt her, until I felt myself losing a grip again, at which point I lowered my head, phased home to bed, and fell into stasis again.
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Eternal Darkness
Tess
He wouldn’t let meleave his apartment, and every time I did, he’d find me and teleport me back. So, I made it my mission to wear him down instead. It took countless conversations to get anywhere with him. He could not understand how he had wiped every trace of the growing trust that had blossomed between us with that one decision.
“How do we break the bond, Maverick?”
“We can’t, monstre. We’ll have to get through this another way.”
“You’re saying it’s impossible? No one can do it?”
“I didn’t say that, but I won’t go through with it.” He waggled his eyebrows. “Daily orgasms might help.”
I held in the laugh, because fuck him and that lack of respect I found so hot. “Stay away from me.”
