Chapter 158 Chapter 158
Violet
"You can't promise that."
"I just did." His voice was firm, absolute. "You're not alone in this, Violet. Not anymore. And nothing, not my father's threats or Nate's lies or anyone else's bullshit, is going to change that."
I wanted to believe him. Goddess, I wanted to believe him so badly it hurt.
"It won't come to that," he continued, his hands moving from my waist to cup my face again. "I won't let it. We'll survive the wedding and then we'll go home and figure out what this is between us without all this external pressure."
"You make it sound so simple."
"Maybe it is." He smiled, just a little, the first genuine smile I'd seen from him all day. "Maybe we're overthinking it. Maybe we just need to trust that whatever this is, it's worth fighting for."
His optimism should have annoyed me. But instead, it gave me a tiny flicker of hope.
Maybe he was right. Maybe we could figure this out. Maybe there was a way through this that didn't end in heartbreak and destruction.
I leaned up and kissed him again, softer this time. He responded immediately, his lips moving against mine with tender intensity. His hands slid into my hair, tilting my head to deepen the kiss.
This kiss was different from the earlier one. It was less desperate, and more meaningful as if he was making a promise to me, a commitment.
I rested my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat gradually slow. His arms wrapped around me, holding me close, and for the first time in days I felt safe.
"We'd been lying like that in the bed for over an hour, with only the sheets above us. Elijah had been more open than I'd ever seen him, his walls lowered, his voice soft and honest.
Then I noticed he'd gone very still, his breathing measured like he was counting each inhale and exhale.
“Are you okay?” I interrupted whatever he'd been saying.
“Of course.” But his jaw was clenched tight enough that I could see the muscle jumping beneath the skin.
When he shifted position, angling slightly away from me, I caught sight of his other hand that I hadn’t paid attention to before. His knuckles were white where he gripped the edge of the headboard, and there was blood.
Fresh blood was welling up from beneath his fingernails, as if he'd been digging them into the wood.
He'd been gripping the bench so hard his nails had broken.
'Elijah, what is…' I began but he wiped his hand off as if it was nothing.
“I was lost in thought and pictured Nate’s face” He said without looking at me.
“But atleast…”
I should go,” he said abruptly, standing. He swayed slightly, steadied himself and reached for his clothes. “It's late.”
“Good night then”
I closed my eyes, letting myself have this moment, hoping that I would find the courage to tell him the truth before anybody got the chance to twist it for their selfish benefits.
“Good night Violet”
Sometime later in the night, I woke up and mindlessly reached for Elijah. But he wasn’t there. I forced my sleepy eyes to open and looked around to realize that he had left sometime ago, probably when I was fast asleep.
I couldn't sleep after waking up because my brain started playing the conversation with Elijah on an endless loop, his words echoing in the darkness of my room. Whatever this is between us, it's worth fighting for. The memory of his kiss, tender and desperate all at once, lingered on my lips like a brand.
But underneath the warmth of those memories, guilt coiled tight in my chest like a serpent.
The clock on the nightstand read 3:47 AM, its red digits glowing in the darkness like accusing eyes.
I threw off the covers and sat up, my heart pounding from anxiety rather than any real threat. The room felt too small suddenly, the walls closing in. I needed air and something to clear my head before I went completely insane.
I slipped out of bed, my bare feet silent on the cold hardwood floor. I didn't bother with shoes, just grabbed the soft cardigan hanging over the chair and pulled it on over my thin sleep shirt and shorts.
The fabric provided minimal warmth against the manor's perpetual chill, but I didn't care. I wasn't planning to go far.
The hallway outside my room was dark, lit only by the faint moonlight filtering through the tall windows at either end.
And then I thought I heard something to the east.
I stopped abruptly and tried to concentrate on the noise but it disappeared.
Maybe my mind had imagined it.
I thought of going in the kitchen to get some water so I stifled a yawn, my feet carrying me without conscious thought, moving past closed doors, including Elijah’s room.
I hovered outside it for a second, wanting to knock and check if he was awake. But then decided against it.
He needed to sleep I told myself and kept walking towards the kitchen but then I heard something again.
Something that was not a noise. But a voice.
Like a whimper.
I wildly looked around and I found myself heading toward the east wing, toward the older section of the manor.
I saw myself walking toward that mirror. I had totally forgotten about it.
But now it seemed like a good distraction to take my mind off other things such as Aurelia and the way Elijah looked at me when he kissed me.
I stopped walking, my hand pressed against the cool wall for support. Why was I going there? What possible good could come from seeking out the place where I'd seen those shadows?
But my feet wouldn't turn around. Some part of me needed to know if what I'd witnessed that day weeks ago had been real or just a stress-induced hallucination.
Besides, I also vaguely recalled uncle Raymond and how he had mumbled something about the binding being broken.
Those words from a man who supposedly hadn't spoken in years. He'd pointed at the mirror with a shaking hand, his eyes wide with something that looked like terror.
Funnily enough, I hadn’t seen him after that day. Neither had I seen the aunts around. They were probably out of the manor most of the time sightseeing or doing other stuff. And uncle Raymond must have been cooped up in a room somewhere all day.
A small voice in my head, the rational one, wanted me to go back and sleep but I just wanted to find out where the voice came from because for sure, I hadn’t imagined it.
The temperature dropped with each step I took into the east wing. My breath came out in small white puffs that hung in the air longer than they should have. The hallway opened up into the larger corridor, and there it was.