Olah, help me.
Please, help me.
ChapterForty-Eight
Moonlight shrouds me as I climb onto the bed next to Hector, the weight of everything that happened still pressing against me.
“Sol.” Hector shifts next to me and runs his hand against my back. “Let me help you.”
I bury my face against my pillow. “You cannot help me.” Nobody can. Not unless they can cure me of my Bloodstone magic.
“I can if you let me.”
“How?” I mumble.
My bath didn’t help. It only left me cold.
Hector reaches for my arm. “Come here.”
Reluctantly, I give in, allowing him to pull me until my body is lying on top of his. He wraps his arms around me and brings me close—close enough to feel his heat, to draw from his comfort.
“We need each other,” he murmurs, his voice low, soothing. “Earlier, I was frantic when I couldn’t find you.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
He runs his hand up and down my back. “I am sorry for reacting the way I did. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
His chest rises and falls beneath me, the steady rhythm of his breathing, calming the darkness inside me.
As the anger fades, I’m left with intense guilt. I shouldn’t have allowed my emotions to guide me to Solomon. I took an innocent life when I avenged Lila. That poor man cowering in the corner. He was the victim of my Bloodstone magic.
I let out a shuddering breath and squeeze my eyes shut. There’s no way I can recover from this. Nor should I.
I should be locked up forever.
“Sol.” Hector allows his hand a slow glide down my shoulder blades. First, one side. Then, the other. “What is done is done.”
“Yes, but because of my dark magic. I used it to kill Solomon, but in doing so, I killed an innocent man.” I ball my trembling fingers into a fist. “I would have been better off stabbing Solomon.”
“Why didn’t you?”
I bury my face against Hector’s chest. “I don’t know. I cannot stop the darkness once it rises from the shadows. It craves death.”
The horror of my words strikes me in the chest. I cannot stop it.
“Mildred can help you control it.”
“No.” I stiffen against Hector. “I don’t want her help.”
I went to her before. She didn’t help me.
“Relax.” He brings his hand to the small of my back until I settle against him. “I have you.”
We stay like that, allowing the quiet to envelop us. There’s peace in that quiet. The kind I couldn’t find until he pulled me close.
Somehow, he knew exactly what I needed.
ChapterForty-Nine
