Shadow's Claim (Immortals After Dark #13)(124)

Not Bettina, then.

Trehan’s eyes widened, and his heart began to thud. Not Bettina! “This news is . . . welcome,” he choked out in utter understatement. “Now, begone from here.”

Salem chuckled. “Right you are, Your Kingness. Commencing me tour of the Realm of Blood and Mist—”

“I didn’t mean into the kingdom!”

Salem was already gone. And Trehan couldn’t stay angry, not with all the relief he felt.

In a quiet voice, Bettina said, “You truly thought I could do something like that to you?”

He traced to the edge of the bed, sitting beside her, just preventing himself from dragging her over his lap. “Bettina, I am sorry. I thought the demon had influenced you.”

She pulled her knees to her chest and turned away. “Cas wanted to defeat you on his own. He believed he could, until you went crazy.”

She will never forgive this. “I . . . didn’t know.”

“That night, I had just realized that I was feeling something deeper for you than I’d ever felt before,” she said softly, sadly—as if she was speaking about something long lost, never to be found again. “I saw that you had been poisoned, and I thought I was saving your life.” She gave a humorless laugh. “I believed I was finally going to be able to help.”

She’d wanted only to save me? He tried to speak past the lump in his throat. Couldn’t.

“I’d recognized that Cas was nothing more than my best friend—one I will always treasure. I’d accepted that what I felt for you was completely different. But then you turned around and humiliated both Cas and me.”

So we’d gotten past the demon at last, and I f*cked my chances?

She continued, “I’d pointed out that you were about to get everything and asked you not to hurt him. But I guess consideration for us went out the window when you suspected me of poisoning you.”

He flinched.

“My coronation was a misery. Everyone had accepted you as their king, so when you forsook me, they thought there must’ve been a good reason!”

She’d already felt like an imposter in Abaddon, and he’d made it that much worse for her. “Bettina . . .” How to explain what had been going on in his mind? When even now he could hardly think? Instinct was riding him hard.

“I’ve been able to ‘rehabilitate’ my image, but Cas wasn’t so fortunate. He was shunned, forced to leave. He’s gone to the Plane of Lost Years.”

Then he’d gone to hell. I have definitely f*cked my chances with her. How to make amends? How to—

Gaze narrowing, Trehan reached for the crystal around his neck, yanking it free. “This will be his.”

She faced him. “Pardon?”

“Caspion is a tracker? Consider this amends.”

“You’d do that?” She tilted her head. “When it’s been passed down through your house?” Trehan took her hand and placed the crystal in her palm, closing her delicate fingers over it.



Bettina stared down at the crystal, then up at Daciano. She had never seen a male look so anguished, as if he’d been gutted and was slowly expiring. “Vampire, I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t accept this,” she said, returning it to him. “Please put it back on.”

Brows drawn, he reluctantly did, his bemusement seeming to deepen—as if she’d rejected him anew.

“I’m only saying that you should think about a decision like this.”

“Think? Bettina, I can’t think. Since my blooding, logic and reason have vanished. As I said, all I can do is feel. And I’ve very little experience . . . feeling.”

“What happened between the morning after we made love and that twilight in the tent?”

“I don’t know how to explain myself, or even if it’s possible.”

“Try.”

“During the tournament, there’d been much . . . pressure,” he began haltingly. “It continued to build.”

“What kind of pressure?”

“Over that week, I experienced your attack firsthand, and it filled me with unimaginable wrath. And yet I could only murder and torture your foes once. I was expected to slay Goürlav—but not to injure him. I’d believed that I would fight Caspion to the death—and that I would lose you if I survived. Then, when we made love, I denied . . . instincts.”

His instinct to bite. Just as Sabine had said.

“I’d lost blood against the primordial and continued to deteriorate over the day. Then you appeared, and you showed such concern for Caspion. I thought I’d been doing everything right to win you from him—denying myself, toiling for the future, trying to earn your affection.”

She was aware of how hard he had worked and all the miraculous feats he’d accomplished in such a short time. He’d been under enough pressure to make twenty Dacians snap. Even now he wasn’t physically well, obviously hadn’t been drinking enough to sustain himself.

“The jealousy maddened me. You were right—I wasn’t hearing you. I can see that now. Even the mere mention of his name enraged me.”

“Why? I thought I made it clear that he was my friend. And I . . . I made love to you, Trehan. Surely you understood how I felt about you. I believed we were getting married in hours.”