Page 93 of Her Creation

Yet since they had entered the carriage, something had been wrong. Victoria sat tense beside him, drawn tight as a wire, and he could not understand the shift.

“Tell me what it is that troubles you, and I will fix it,” he said quietly.

She dragged her hand over her temple and into her hair, loosening the careful structure she had spent an hour building. “I never meant to hurt anyone. I only meant for them to eat a few maggots,” she whispered, her voice thick and unsteady. “This entire night has only made things worse.” She tipped her head forward, her silver-lit palms catching the faint glow of the lantern as they pressed together.

He watched her in silence as something knotted painfully inside him. Unable to take her distress another moment, he moved to her bench and placed his hand against her back. The simple contact steadied him, anchored him. When she leaned into his touch, he felt dangerously close to breaking.

“You did not kill the baron,” he said softly. “You offered to save him, and he refused. His pride and stubbornness ended his life, not you.”

The carriage jolted suddenly, pitching them together. Her delicate hands landed against his chest to steady herself, and Innominatus had to fight the instinct to close his eyes and drown in the sensation.

“Wilhelm is baron now,” she said, her voice trembling.

He wrapped his arms around her without thinking, and when she did not pull away, he breathed in the scent of rose clinging to her hair, the warmth of her body pressed against his. “He will not hurt you now that I am here, Victoria.”

“He knows I have practiced medicine, and because he is jealous of you, he has begun to pursue me again. It will not end well. Fate somehow spared me once from him, but with his new title…he will ruin me far worse than he ever could have before. My father’s legacy. Everything we have worked for.” She rested her head against his shoulder, her eyes closing as though surrendering to the weight of his presence.

“As I said, he will not bother you,” Innominatus replied, lowering his cheek to the crown of her head. He savored the way her hair brushed his skin, the intimacy of it. “The people tonight believe we are involved. I was asked several times and confirmed it.”

She looked at him, surprised, and then shook her head. “Wilhelm would not care,” she said bitterly. “It would only make me more desirable to him. He told me he would come for me this week.” Her body pressed just a fraction closer to his, a movement so slight he doubted she was aware of it herself. “I cannot endure that again. I cannot.”

“Shh.” He adjusted his hold, tucking her fully against his chest. “If he comes, I will deal with him. You will not even know he was there. I promise you, after I…speak to him, he will never trouble you again.” Speak to him. There would be no speaking. “Do you understand?” His hand rose to cradle her face, his thumb brushing her cheek. For a fleeting moment, her eyes mirrored his own, dark and distant with something like longing.

Then clarity returned. Her body went rigid. She pushed away from him and crossed the carriage to the opposite bench. He watched the change overtake her, the way her gaze hardened, the warmth draining from her posture. The sudden distance left him cold, hollowed out.

“What is it?” he asked, his voice unsteady. “What have I done wrong?”

She shook her head, and though she tried to contain herself, the effort fractured. Her emotions pressed through the rigid mask she clung to, trembling at its edges.

“This… Us… We can’t, Inno.” A single tear betrayed her, sliding slowly down her cheek as though it had been weighing the cost of falling. “Despite what I know we both feel, we can never give in to it. I know that you don’t understand it, but this love is cursed. My father’s heart beats in your chest. I cannot choose you over him again…” She lifted her hands, and even in the dim carriage light, he could see them shake, as if her own body resisted the truth she forced herself to speak.

He sank to his knees on the carriage floor, the movement instinctive, reverent, undone. He looked up at her as though she were a vision that might vanish if he blinked. “I have frightened you,” he said quietly. “I did not mean to lose so much of myself tonight, but I could not help it, my God. I hunger for you in a way that is dangerous and consuming. I cannot pretend you do not mean to me what you do. Even knowing my confessions drive you from me, I cannot seem to quiet my tongue. Do not fight your love for me anymore. Please. Let me feel it. I grow feral the longer you hold it before me and deny it.”

The carriage lurched to a halt, and Inno’s head bowed. The distance between them felt deliberate. Final. He could not allow her to escape the truth of what passed between them. Not tonight.

After a moment, he descended from the carriage and offered his hand. He waited in pained silence as she spoke briefly to the valet. When she returned, her expression was solemn and closed. Before they began their climb of the front steps, Inno froze, hearing something unwelcome.

“Do not go inside yet.” His voice had taken on a darkness that caused fear to prickle Victoria’s skin.

“What is it?” Her heart pounded when she heard it too. The sound of someone inside the castle.

Innominatus immediately moved Victoria behind his back. The muffled sounds grew crisper. The snort of a horse.

Victoria’s face paled. “Around back, by the lab.” The lab where all her secrets were. She moved around Innominatus to go to the back, and he gripped her arm.

His head moved in a soft, almost imperceivable shake, reprimanding her as he moved in front of her and they made their way around the castle. Despite his size, he moved like a shadow, gone before she could focus too long on him.

As they made their way around to the back, Victoria gasped at the open laboratory door. A man walked out with several pieces of equipment in his hand. He looked familiar, but Victoria couldn’t place him.

“Remain—”

“They have my notebooks!” Victoria’s whisper was anything but quiet as she ran toward the man.

“Quiet,” Inno huffed.

“Put those back!” she shouted as she closed in on the man when he was only a few feet from loading them into the carriage.

“Look what we have here,” the man laughed when she stopped in front of him.