“I believe him,” Charlotte muttered at once. When she looked back up at Valek again, her eyes were as cold as the surrounding winter. “I believe every bit. Because I know how it feels to not belong—to be lonely.” She offered a quick smile over to Nikolai before— “And you.” She trudged closer to Valek again. “You were going to change me, weren’t you! Don’t lie! You weren’t even going to ask me!”
“Lottie, I thought you were—”
“Don’t! The Valek I know would never ever—”
“Please, Charlotte! He was playing a trick on my mind! It looked as though you were dying before me,” he pleaded, his dead heart going wild. In the last hundred years, he’d never felt so weak. But she had that ability over him. One word from her mouth could flatten him more than a million sunrises. “I didn’t want to—I couldn’t bare the idea of losing you. Not after all we’ve been through.”
“Valek Ruzik.” She spoke so quietly, he was sure only he could have heard. “Get this straight. Right. Now. I’ve been ripped to pieces in the dungeons of the Regime. I’ve been used like livestock in Francis’s house. I know the darkness now. I’ve lived it. I’ve tasted death. And I know one thing for sure . . . I never want to be like you. Ever.”
The confession was a stake through his heart and he winced.
“Go away,” she commanded. “I don’t want to look at you right now.”
Of Blood and Magic Page 43
