Page 30 of Dangerous Promises

Of all the emotions that come flooding up, all I can feel is the grief. The raw pain of him. The feel of him. It all attacks me. Bubbles up and tries to take me under.

I'm going to drown.

I startle upward, hyperventilating, and trip back on my feet as I rush to get out as fast as possible before I'm lost in here forever.

I turn and run. But I only make it to the door when I hit a hard chest.

"Princess." His voice is a curious whisper, and I feel the tension burning off him from where I clutch his arms. "You shouldn't be in here."

Chapter

Eleven

Alexei

Sage has the opposite reaction than I expect. She deflates in my arms to stop from falling to the floor. Grief is gripping her now.

I recognize it.

I can use it.

I was curious when I saw her pause in front of this room. Even more curious when she helped herself inside to have a look around. Even without the stains on the carpet I can still see the spot where her lover died. Where my brother's body laid dead and mangled.

"You shouldn't be in here," I repeat, because she clearly didn't hear me the first time.

"Couldn't help it," she says. This time she turns away from me, giving me her back as she looks over the room again. "It's so... I don't know."

I frown. Curious once again because now she's talking to me. We could be fighting to our death. She could slash my throat with a knife. I could slash hers. But in this room she is lost.

She still has yet to learn the valuable lesson of turning weaknesses into strengths. This room held the same weakness for me as it holds for her now. I, though, cannot afford to break down. And so I had to expose myself to this place, over and over, to the point where I didn't lose my head every time I came in here. Like she is doing right now.

"It's so... what?" I prompt as I circle the edge of the room, keeping her in my sights like prey.

She looks around innocently, the doe eyes of a deer that doesn't know she is being hunted. "It's so normal. Like nothing even happened here."

She shakes her head again. Thoughts trapped inside that she either can't decipher or won't let out in front of me.

"But it feels..." she trails off again. "Like it's empty. Haunted."

I get close to her.

"Things did happen here, princess."

She spins towards me, biting her lip. "I can barely stand to be in here."

"I have to live in it," I remind her. There is strength in overcoming the pain that happened here. She can't yet ignore it.

I tap my foot on the carpet. "This is where I stood when I shot." I move to the center of the room, watching as her eyes well. "This is where your lover died." I pace back to the other side of the room and crouch, my stare harsh. "This is where you killed my brother."

She closes her eyes and tears rush out.

My anger rises like a tidal wave. "This is where you destroyed everything, princess." I grab her by the throat and push her intothe wall. Her eyes shut but she has no fight in her, not in here. I push into her face.

"Open your eyes and look at me."

She gulps and I feel it around my palm as she does. I watch as the final tear falls from her eyes. When she opens them again, her walls are back up and her shell has gone hard. The siren behind her doe eyes is who is looking back at me now.

"There you are." I smile, licking at my lips. "You ruined everything here, now stand up and face it."