Page 59 of Kat Bethel

And the cost was so high with him.

“It sounds like you did that.” I hoped my words would calm the rage that I could tell still consumed him even after all this time.

“When they hung me, I could hear her screams pleading on my behalf. I remember worrying that she was in distress. I remember how my skin itched with an energy that tasted old.” The air thinned as if to let me experience what he’d felt hanging from the gallows. “When they didn’t listen, she tried to shove past the guards, but they surrounded her.”

The invisible rope around my throat tightened, and I grew lightheaded. I choked, “Abiel.”

“They butchered her in the street, and no one cared.” His voice warbled on the edge of something that didn’t exist. Like forming words had become too hard. “They didn’t even put her name on the headstone.”

What could I say to that?

That was the kind of story that created monsters just as much as Rinah witches did.

“Together we built that world they lived in, and if what Esme said was right, we were the ones who ruined it.”

“I’m sorry.” I clawed at my ‌throat, desperate for oxygen to get into my lungs, but there was nothing there.

“Now you understand.” He snarled. “I failed her.”

“No. You didn’t.” Tears pricked my eyes as the edges of my vision blurred. “You saved her, too.”

The grip on my throat released. I coughed as I struggled to get much needed air. His face slowly turned to look at me for the first time since he’d gotten lost in his memories. The position of his neck and face was unnatural and made my heart speed up. It was like he forgot he was pretending he was a man.

A giant monster made of black shadow with teeth bigger than me. That was how the little girl described him.

He waited quietly for me to recover, but I could sense the impatience.

“Before the 1800s my ancestors were hated so much they created the monsters that still haunt today in retaliation. Because of you, she was loved and accepted for fifteen years, in a world that burned people like us.” Couldn’t he see that? “She got to have a home. That means something.”

Most of us never saw twenty-five.

He gave her his protection for nothing in return. He died rather than giving her up as a murderer.

It was more than someone like me could hope for.

What he did for her… no man had ever done for me.

The shadows settled back into their proper corners and the lights popped back on. Gentle energy filled the space between us. As if he’d expected me to reject him because of what happened to Margaret.

He didn’t realize it only made it that much harder to keep guardrails around my heart.

The rage faded away into recognition and regret. The tension faded out of his shadow and his form grew more solid and less blurred. He stepped forward with his arms outstretched.

“Did I harm you?” The regret in his voice made forgiveness I shouldn’t give warm my chest.

I couldn’t risk seeing the human side of him if I ever wanted to get out of this trap. That he became this because humans were one of the worst creatures to ever exist and weren’t worth protecting. If I let that truth sink in too far, I’d forget why I chose a life different from those who came before me.

“I’m fine.” I went over to the mirror to confirm there wasn’t a rope burn around my throat, but wasn’t too surprised to find unblemished skin.

He stood right behind me, leaning to kiss the back of my neck with soft flutters that tickled. I swallowed the giggles that threatened to leave me, so he wouldn’t think I wasn’t pissed anymore.

I didn’t fool him. He brushed his lips back and forth, trying to break me. It brought attention to the tender raw skin back there.

It reminded me of the mark he’d put there. I turned using the hand mirror on the counter to get a look at what he carved into me.

A twisting spiral with an A at the center.

I smashed my lips together as the implications sank in.