Page 17 of Pas de Trois
Chapter 4
Nikolai
I am the devil.
Destroyer of destinies.
Keeper of souls.
Lord of chaos and king of torment.
But if I’m to go down in my own hellfire—in the flames I willed to burn around me—then I’m glad that this is the way it had to happen. Ezra was the spark that ignited Anya in a white-hot blaze, and I was the one who poured the fuel that fed their fire.
I did this to them, and it ruined me.
There is no redemption for me.
I may have stolen Anya back from the Vittoris, but she’s no longer mine. She gave her heart to Ezra, and I have no one to blame for that but myself. They don’t know that they each hold half of my heart in their hands, and I feel them squeezing the life force out of me with their love for each other. They grow stronger together while I burn to ashes at their feet.
I’m tired of the ache, the longing, the inability to master them and make them honor me the way they were meant to. My whole life has been a carefully crafted series of lies and manipulations, and I’m sick of the fight, the fear, the loneliness.
I’m ready to burn for them.
I’m ready to burn because of them.
It’s time for me to go down in a blaze and return to hell where I belong.
