Read Online Stay by Jennifer Silverwood - Free Book Online Page B

infidelity?” His dark eyes blackened to pitch as he took another step and loomed over me.
    I shivered, nodding. “I understand. I will obey.”
    ~
    I ran to the cliffs as soon as I was able to escape the eyes of his guard, though the scabs from my wounds were barely healed. Every breath I took was agony and every sob jarred the ragged skin of my back.
    “Seid!” I gasped and fell at his feet. Had he not caught me I would have planted into the earth. At the simple touch I felt relief and the full weight of what I had endured settle in.
    Today his skin was dark as the clouds looming over us, his eyes swirling with tempests. “Orona, I could feel your pain! Who would dare to touch you like this?” Thunder rumbled in the billowing skies, tail-ending his words.
    “It was him. His slave followed me here the day before. He saw us together.” I shook, already seeing double. My wounds were opening and my lover cursing violently as the lightning that parted the seas.
     
    The sound of Lissa’s cries brought me back to the present as she crooned over herself. “It’s okay… we’re going to be okay, baby girl… we’re going to be okay.” Lissa had crumpled onto the floor with her face between her raw hands. Silent sobs shook her, breaking up her prayers as she rocked against the wall.
    Slowly I turned to meet my reflection and looked into the eyes of the creature I had become. The clashing colors trapped within those familiar pupils were stained by a fresh wave of tears. The creature in the mirror gaped and slowly lifted her fingers to wipe them away. For two thousand years I had allowed myself to accept Seid’s curse, to become soulless. But once I was vulnerable and human, weak as this woman unaware of my vigil. Guilt was a feeling I hadn’t allowed myself in ages for I had every right to place the blame on Seid .
    Selfishly I had appeased the curse but my task had long lost its luster. Perhaps this was why so many marriages, relationships, and first loves had failed, in spite of my efforts?
    Because I did not want them to. Because I ha ve given up.
    I could no longer pretend this was about my unjust punishment. I had not even been visited by Seid in a thousand years and was sure he had found another woman to seduce.
    But once I had been like this broken woman and even if my happy ending never came, I wanted this for Lissa and Cain, more than I wanted anything.

“… understanding each other without words…”
    -lisa
     
    Chapter 8
    Dangerously Beautiful
     
    As Cain slept in the next morning I explored his home, the visit to Lissa and Derek fresh on my conscience. My mission had changed overnight, infused with new vigor. I would do anything to renew the link between my couple. But first I needed to know them better. To begin, I needed to find what it was that linked them together in the first place.
    A small closet stood next to the door of his room, facing the kitchen bar. Little in his apartment reflected Cain’s personality, only the outer shell. To know him I must dig deeper than I had ever cared to before. Had I been human I might have never found the courage to pry into another person’s belongings. Then again I might have anyway. A selfish, darker part of me warred against duty, wanted to know why he had picked her .
    So I turned the knob slowly and pulled the closet door open to peek inside. In the dusty darkness I breathed in the scent of the salty sea, mixed with a lingering old spice. My father made his living trading in spices and other expensive wares. Once, I knew every one of their scents by heart. This one was different, almost older. I could not remember the name.
    I squinted to peer deeper into the musty corners and my skin brightened in answer to my need. The light grew until a rainbow blend of colors danced over the walls, changing the pigment of my skin. And I reached deep under a sea of clothes until my hands grasped something buried and pulled.
    I was much stronger than I looked,