Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“She’s not going anywhere with you. Not any of you.” The words were razors that cut from Logan’s mouth.
Jarek and his men surged forward.
Logan, Trent, and Jud did the same.
The promise of violence clotted the air.
Stagnant and harsh.
“Then you die tonight.” Jarek hissed it.
I could feel the frantic eyes that had gathered. Eden, Salem, and Tessa were suddenly there, terrified, held back by Milo.
They’d meant it when they’d promised to come alongside me.
A feeling washed over me.
Marked.
Potent.
Mandatory.
I was finished being pushed around.
Finished being ordered into submission.
Finished with being told who I was and where I was to be and who I was supposed to love.
Yes, I’d already made the oath to myself, but it felt different staring down the manifestation.
The reality that I either fought for myself or surrendered the way I’d done before.
Do or die.
I pushed between Trent and Jud, coming up to Logan’s side. My words were held in a low rasp. “Everyone outside. Now.”
Jarek balked as if anything I said was insignificant.
My father put out a hand. A hand that wielded the power. I saw the way it made Jarek flinch with the bite of bitterness.
“Outside. Everyone,” Papa commanded.
Logan cast me a searching look. Is this what you want?
He’d run with me if I asked him to.
Or fight to the death.
Whatever it took.
I knew he would.
And I loved him even more for it.
I threaded my fingers through his, squeezed tight, and I was the one who led us behind the gambol of my father’s men who pushed through the throng until the mess of us were spilling out into the parking lot.
Trent and Jud flanked me and Logan, and Kult and Milo came to stand on either side.
While Jarek glowered and gritted his teeth and silently raged.
The beat of the music pulsed through Absolution’s walls while the frozen air wafted in white tufts of vapor from panted mouths.
A stand-off between two warring sides.
I should have known that’s what it would come to.
“You wish for a scene?” My father inclined his head.
“No, Papa, I just wish to be heard. To be listened to. To be understood.”
“I already granted you thirty days.”
“And it’s time for you to grant me my life.”
His brow curled. “What are you asking?”
“For you to let me go. To give me my freedom. To let me love the man I’ve loved all along. The one you and Jarek robbed me of.”
Logan’s hand tightened on mine.
Belief.
Pride.
Support.
I stood firm in it, and I shifted to make sure they could see the ring I proudly wore on my finger.
Rage blistered from Jarek when he saw it. “This is blasphemy. You are my wife.”
My attention swung to the monster who’d scarred me so deeply. Ugly, gnarled wounds that would forever weep and bleed. “I am not your wife. I am a prisoner you took, one you abused, and I refuse to allow it to continue.”
“Bullshit.” He surged forward.
In a flash, Jud was in front of him. His hand slammed into his chest. “I’d think twice about that.” He leaned in close to his ear, his voice a dark threat. “I’m pretty sure it’s you who has forgotten who we are.”
My father waved another hand as if Jarek were an unruly child.
“You will stand down, Jarek, as I told you before. We came here for my daughter, not for bloodshed.”
Papa’s attention swiveled, his eyes narrowed in speculation, focusing in on where Logan and I stood shoulder to shoulder with our hands tightly woven.
“You ask me to leave you with a man who stole from me? A man who touched my daughter when he was forbidden to even speak to her? The man who killed my brother? The same man you promised you would never see again if I spared his life?”
Shock impaled Logan.
An arrow to his heart.
He nearly bowed in two, and his breaths turned ragged, and I could feel the brutal thunder of his heart.
As if a piece of him had simultaneously broken and healed.
Because now he truly knew what it meant when I’d told him there was no other choice to make.
I’d chosen him.
I lifted my chin. “Yes. I’m asking you right now, as my father, to see me as your daughter. As a human being. As a woman who loves and hurts and has needs. I’m asking you to let her finally have the chance to live.”
“And if I say no?” That he issued to Logan, a challenge in the rise of his brow.
Logan’s hand clamped down so fiercely it was close to painful. “Then we’ll have a war I doubt either of us want to fight.”
My father chuckled a low, disbelieving sound. “You know, you were the smartest boy to ever pass through my halls, your mind quick and your skill natural, but also the most unwise.”
I could almost hear Logan’s teeth grind. “If you think my falling in love with your daughter was unwise, then you’re the biggest fool of all. Loving her is the only thing I’ve ever done right.”