Page 56 of An Oath at Midnight

I swallowed several times. The conversation was well overdue. “I knew I’d made a mistake the moment I got to his place.” My mind took me back there now. “I’d tried to make the same deal as Willow, a marriage of convenience, one where he’d gain access to our cemetery, and in return, he’d help find a cure for Rose.” I shook my head, remembering the moment I realized I was in trouble. “I’d been so fucking naïve. I’d thought he was handsome. I’d followed him on Nightscape like all the other starry-eyed little idiots. I knew it was Willow he truly wanted, and I was okay with that. I just wanted to help Rose, to be the hero, and sacrificing myself to some handsome rich guy didn’t seem such a hardship. It wasn’t real, it’d be for show. I could marry Clayton and go back to my life. But he insisted on a proper marriage, and when I refused, everything went…wrong.”

“Mags…” Bram growled out, his expression stark.

I pushed on. “He grabbed me, he put his mouth on me. I tried to fight him off, but he…he was too strong.”

Bram flinched.

“He didn’t rape me,” I said quickly. “But he…he touched me. He stripped me naked and made me stand in front of him, then he told me how ugly I was. How my scars were hideous and no male would ever want me. He used his magic to make me, to make me feel every word, every insult like it was a physical touch, a physical blow, until it was so bad I…I begged him to kill me—”

Bram snarled in rage. “If I’d had the chance, what you saw in that garage last night would be fucking child’s play to what I would’ve done to that piece of shit. I would have made him scream until his vocal cords gave out, until they bled.”

I stared up at him, but not in shock. I knew Bram was capable of it, I’d always known it. Yes, a darkness surrounded my crow, I’d felt it the day we met. I hadn’t needed Agatheena to tell me.

His black eyes burned down at me. “Does that scare you?”

“No.” Nothing Bram could do or say could ever scare me.

“Because I’d do it, I’d fucking destroy anyone who hurt you. I know you can fight. I know how fucking strong you are, but I still would, because I was born to protect you, because I need that. I’d need to do that for both of us.”

His words were a vow, and I believed every one of them. If I’d known what I did now, if I’d had my spell book and my potions, Clayton wouldn’t have gotten the chance to lay a hand on me. “I didn’t tell you that to hurt you or upset you. I told you that because, as time goes by, you might want to move on. You might find a female, and I don’t want you to miss your chance for happiness. I don’t want you to stay here with me out of duty or pity.”

He searched my gaze, his eyes filled with so much rage and pain. “What if it’s you who finds someone else?”

“That’s the thing, that’s what I’m trying to tell you…that will never happen. Clayton, he…broke something inside me that day. The magic he used, the things he did and said, he shattered something inside me. I don’t want to be touched that way, not ever again. I don’t want to be claimed. I don’t want to have to explain my ugly scars to someone else, or have them look at me with disgust. I don’t want a mate.” I gave him a shaky smile, because this night had taken a turn I hadn’t expected it to. I rubbed at my forearm again, trying to wipe Clayton’s touch away, then forced a grin. “I’m going to die a virgin, and I’m okay with that.”

Bram covered my hand still rubbing at the phantom pain under my skin and gently lifted it away, not missing it. Never missing anything. “He’s not here, Mags,” he said fiercely. “He can’t fucking hurt you anymore.”

My lips trembled. “Bram…”

He took my face in his hands, and they were trembling. “You need to listen to me, and you need to hear what I’m saying. You, Magnolia Thornheart, are so fucking beautiful, inside and out. There is not one part of you that’s ugly. Any male would be lucky to have you, even if none will ever deserve you.” He swiped his thumb over my cheek, and I realized I was crying. “I don’t know what will happen in the future, but I do know nothing and no one will ever be more important, will ever mean more to me than you. And if you want to stay right here, you and me hanging out in this tree house for the rest of our lives, and that’s all you want, I’m here. We can sit in this room, listening to music until we’re old as fuck.” He pressed his lips to my forehead. “Maggie, if that’s what you want, I’ll happily die a virgin right alongside you.”

CHAPTER 14

Bram

Magnolia had finally passed out exhausted, and I’d sat beside her, so full of rage—rage with nowhere to go, and no one to work it out on—that I was close to losing my fucking mind.

I knew that piece-of-shit Clayton had touched her. I’d known more had happened than what she’d told me, and now that she’d shared the truth? I didn’t know what to do with it because that motherfucker was already a corpse.

I don’t want to be touched that way, not ever again. I don’t want to be claimed.

I don’t want a mate.

Her words sliced me down the middle a second time. She meant what she’d said, but she’d also said them standing in my arms, pressed so tight against me, nothing separated us.

How could she not see it? How could she not feel this thing between us? Every day our connection grew stronger, more volatile. I shoved my fingers through my hair and tried to calm the hell down. How could she think I’d ever leave? That anything on this earth could tempt me away from her? I could handle a lifetime of wanting her, of never having her the way I desperately needed her—as long as she was right here, with me.

But something had to give, and it would, whether I fought the truth of what we were to each other or not, and I was terrified of what would happen when that day came.

The living room door opened, and Payne walked in without knocking.

I scowled at him.

His gaze slid to Mags tucked against me, her head on my chest, and his jaw tightened.

“You ever knock?” I said low.

“Not like there’s anything to walk in on, baby bro,” he said, eyes hard. “So what? You just sit there awake and play mattress while the princess sleeps?”