Shadow blinked her wet eyes. “Last night, I told you I wanted to be bait to catch Tolvi. You refused and said, don’t ask me that again. A-and this image of a man looming over me flashed through my mind…”
He waited.
“He…he…” She choked out, kneading her hurting temples. “I was engaged to him.”
“What?” Nik appeared as if he stopped breathing.
“It wasn’t like that.” She hastily shook her head. “I didn’t like him. I hated him!”
“What did he do, Shadow?” he asked softly, tone menacing.
So damn much.
She pushed to her feet, unable to sit still. “He was first engaged to my sister, Olivia—”
“Olivia?” Nik repeated, going oddly still.
“Yes, Olivia Montgomery.”
Chapter 23
Nik stared at Shadow, so sure his pounding heart would break through his sternum.
Olivia Montgomery was his mate’s sister?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
Fuck. Could this get more screwed?
Nik exhaled roughly and rose. “Red hair, dark eyes. Pale skin. About your height?”
“Yes…” Shadow blinked her red-rimmed eyes.
“I met her.”
“What? How? When?”
“Several years ago.” Nik dragged his palm over his shorn hair, trying to get over his shock as he told her about chasing a blood demon who’d been on a killing spree and had taken refuge in some fancy hotel. “She was in the path of danger and wasn’t reacting to my mental compulsion to leave. So I had to do so in person. She refused. I couldn’t leave her with the damn fucker watching, and I knew he’d kill her to make a point…”
He rubbed his whiskered jaw, and because his guilt refused to let him do anything else, he told her the rest. “She asked for help. Offered to pay me, if I did—”
“But you didn’t,” she whispered hoarsely, her expression stricken. “Because if you had, she wouldn’t be dead.”
Dammit. “Shadow, I can’t interfere in mortal lives—”
“You, who’s so powerful, you couldn’t even take a minute to find out why she wanted help?”
“Shadow…” He reached for her, but she flung out a hand, stopping him, and Nik clenched his fingers.
“It would have cost you nothing to get rid of an abuser!”
“Kill a human?” he growled. “There are laws that bind us from harming any human. But had I known the truth, do you honestly think I wouldn’t help a female in distress?” Nik rubbed his nape, trying to reel in his frustration.
After a moment, he continued, “Something about her haunted expression wouldn’t let go of me. So, I called her cell two days later, only to learn she’d died in an accident—”
“An accident? Yeah, right.” Those starburst-hued eyes churned like a nebula storm, skewering him, but the distance in her gaze was like a vise around his heart. “We humans are so far beneath you immortals’ notice—”
“Don’t.” She’s hurting, he reminded himself and lashing out because of it. “I’m sorry I was too late. It’s something I’ve deeply regretted. I searched the cemeteries in New York, found her grave, and have asked her forgiveness, but it’s not one I can ever have.” Not now, when I see the anger and the accusation in your eyes.
Lips pressed tight, she dashed her wet face and stepped back from him.
With her single action, she cleaved his entire being into two. “Shadow—”
Eyes glassy with tears, she wheeled away. “I need to get out of here. I need air.”
She grabbed black leggings from the padded bench, yanked them on, pushed her feet into her sneakers, and ran from the room.
Nik stood there, not sure if he should give her space or—
Fuck it. She was his mate and heartbroken.
He hurried to the dressing room, put on sweats and his Nikes, grabbed a t-shirt, and flashed, catching up with her on the castle’s back stairs. He pulled on his tee, had no idea how to heal this hurt. But he knew he had to get her to talk, get it all out before it festered, and she started to hate him, or worse, be indifferent. He’d lived with indifference all through his childhood—hell, most of his life. He couldn’t bear it from his mate, too.
As they stepped outside onto the terrace, Nik put a hand on her back—she didn’t seem aware of it, wrapped in her thoughts—and gently nudged her toward the lesser used path leading through the gardens to the forest. He didn’t want to bump into anyone.
“Olivia was beautiful, vivacious,” she whispered, after several minutes of silence. “She had so much to live for. She didn’t deserve to die or be tied to an abuser like him. Grandfather should have used me as payment. My life was finite.”
My life was finite?
Yes, mortals lived for a handful of decades, but she said it as if she wouldn’t. He grasped her arm, stopping her amidst the shrubs growing wild and thick in the area. “What do you mean?”
“We lived a life of luxury, but it was all a sham. Our grandfather was eyeballs deep in debts with his investors—”
“Not that, I meant you. About your life being finite?”
“I had a heart defect. With meds and treatment, I had maybe a few years if I was lucky.”
Nik staggered to a halt.
She shrugged like it mattered little and headed toward the narrow trail between the looming trees. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m all hale and healthy now.
His mouth thinned at her cynicism. He caught up with her, holding it all in, knowing hitting out was probably the only way she could deal with reliving her sibling’s death.
Still… “You matter a great deal to me, Shadow,” he said quietly. “You know this.”
“Grandfather couldn’t pay his debtors,” she continued, not responding to what he said. “Enzo decided he wanted one of us as his spouse. We were both identical back then, and Olivia agreed because not only was she a minute older than me, but also the stronger one—”
“You were twins?” Nik rasped, feeling as if another blow had landed in his gut, his gaze skimming over her wan, delicate features. Hell, he didn’t see it, not the hair, the eyes, nothing except for the height.
She nodded, wrapping her arms around her waist as she picked her way over the decaying leaves and twigs. “Enzo was all about appearances. He said with her pale complexion, Livy would look better as a redhead, so she had her hair dyed before the engagement. But she grew quieter and quieter as the months passed, no longer the sunny girl I knew. I could sense her despair, then dreams of abuse infiltrated my dreams, but she denied anything was wrong…” A shaky breath left her.
“After a trip overseas with him, Livy came back home, and I walked into her room while she was changing…” She stopped, staring blankly at a few squirrels chattering and darting among the fallen leaves. Her delicate throat worked as if she couldn’t swallow, her pain constricting Nik like serrated wires.
Bolting down his fury, he drew her into his arms, and a sob wracked her body. “I-I saw the bruises on her body, the long welts. I demanded she tell me what happened. He had a temper, it seems. Livy begged me not to tell Grandfather anything. She didn’t want to worry him. He was our only family left after our parents died in an accident…”