Page 203 of Infernal Bonds

She tried to wiggle out of my hold, but I didn’t release her. “It doesn’t matter. Lies are lies.”

“Hiding your pain isn’t lying. You don’t have to tell anyone anything. You don’t owe anyone anything.”

I knew the curse influenced her mind, but hearing her say she always felt this way made me realize the curse didn’t create this; it found it. It found the pain she kept buried deep inside and pulled it to the surface against her will. Just like it tried to do to me before her shadow friends invaded her mind and saved me.

Patricia lowered herself into the chair again, taking her Bible in hand. “Even if she didn’t lie, she knows she deserves to be here. They only need her for what she can give. Beyond that, no one wants her. She serves no purpose.”

“Rae, don’t use her to speak.”

“What? I’m not—”

“You are. This is your dream. Your thoughts.”

“You’re not supposed to say that,” she said, once again trying to get away.

I remembered what Cyn said to her. She expected affection from me. I’d give it to her when I got her home safe and sound, but right now she needed someone to push her until she saw the truth for herself.

I cradled her head against my chest. “I wanted to die before you came along,” I whispered, finally revealing a truth I’d kept from everyone. “I was too much of a coward to do anything about it, so I lived. I enjoyed life where I could, but every time Cornaith locked me away, a piece of my soul crumbled. I’d given up. But then you came along and changed everything.”

“I’ll destroy you too,” she whispered.

“Destroy me, then.”

She jerked back and looked up at me. “What? No! I can’t do that. I love you.”

My breath caught in my chest before the biggest smile spread across my face. “You love me?”

“More than I should,” she said, looking down again.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you belong with Cyn.”

“You belong to both of us. We belong to you.”

She shook her head.

I wished she’d stop acting as if Cyn couldn’t love us both. I mean, I loved both of them. Not the same way, because they weren’t the same person. I’d thought of a million ways she fit with us perfectly, which led my mind to the ways she could physically fit with us, but then I realized that wasn’t the best place for my mind to go until I knew what she wanted.

I needed to focus on the here and now.

If she knew how much we both wanted her in all the ways, not just sexually, she wouldn’t doubt my words.

“I can’t be the reason you two can’t be together.”

“We can all be together,” I reassured her. “You’re our Nyrith.”

“I know, but…”

I looked out of the corner of my eye at Patricia in the chair. She sat frozen like a statue.

With Rae’s attention focused on me, her mind wasn’t puppeteering her aunt anymore. Good. I needed to keep her attention on me. If I could calm Rae down, I could pull her back from the dream. Then we could find her and get healing medicine to destroy the rest of the curse in her mind before it permanently damaged her.

“Why won’t you accept that you belong with us?”

“Patricia said it best. No one needs me, only what I can do.”

“I don’t understand.”