“So goddamn stubborn,” I commented and she gave me the ghost of a smile.
“I just know what I want.”
Her hand dropped to skim along my jaw, her eyes moving over my face like she was committing it to memory and as much as I loved the feel of her attention being focused on me, I hated the reason behind it. I hated that she needed to be able to remember me and that this moment and any other I stole with her between now and my end was limited.
Her hand trailed down my neck, fingertips gliding over my shoulder and caressing the ink there, her chin dipping as her gaze roamed lower, drinking me in inch by inch until her hand made it all the way down my arm and she was clasping her fingers with mine.
“Swear it,” she said, her tone unwavering and her gaze hard. That was my girl. Any softness was always tempered with steel and she might have been back here, might have wanted to hold me close and kiss away the hurt of this, but she was still angry as all hell with me and I knew I deserved it.
“You don’t trust me?” I asked.
“After finding our you’ve been lying to me throughout our entire relationship? Strangely, no, I don’t.” Her eyes flashed with Phoenix fire which made my pulse spike and her wings shuffled a little, the sound of rustling feathers drawing my gaze to them.
“Our relationship started long before I got hold of you in my arms,” I protested.
“Well if you would like me to count all of the days I spent expecting you to hurt me in any and every way you could imagine then that won’t help your case much. Besides, this is arguably the worst thing you’ve done to me,” she replied.
“Roxy,” I breathed, my voice breaking on that name, a plea there for something though I wasn’t certain what I could possibly ask of her now.
“Swear it,” she repeated, tone unwavering and I gave in because when it came down to it, I would always do anything for her.
“I swear I won’t go after my father before the battle,” I replied, magic crashing between our palms and binding me to that oath.
“Now swear you won’t allow this fate to pass,” she said, her tone darkening and something sweeping through her eyes which reminded me of the shadows. There had always been dark in her though, exactly like there was dark in me. No doubt it was part of the attraction.
I wetted my lips, my heart tearing open at that demand in her eyes and the fact that she wanted me to make a vow like that at all.
“You know me swearing that won’t change it,” I said softly.
“I know you’re giving up,” she replied in a deadly calm tone, though I could see the pain in her green eyes. “And I know that the man who fought so damn hard to claim me from the stars wouldn’t just give up on me that easily.”
“That’s what you think?” I asked, my blood heating at her suggestion as she just arched a brow at me and didn’t take those words back.
“I think you got too used to taking a kicking when you lived with your father, Darius. So now, instead of fighting this with all you have you’re just rolling over and taking it.”
“You’re a bitch sometimes,” I growled.
“That doesn’t make me wrong,” she replied, shrugging one shoulder.
“What do you expect me to do, Roxy?” I demanded, my temper rising despite myself.
“Well you defied the stars for me once already. So what’s once more?” she asked.
“This fate was the price of that defiance,” I said, my soul aching at the words I was having to speak, but I’d thought about this. I’d thought of nothing but this for months on end and I couldn’t see any way to change it. “I was gifted a year to love you and that’s what I’ve done.”
“If you love me so much then why are you so set on leaving me? Destroying me?” she asked icily.
“I‘m not,” I protested.
“So swear it, Darius.”
“Gabriel already looked into my future. He knows there’s no way around this. No way out of it. My fate is already decided. Even if I’d told all of you months ago, he knew as well as I did that all it would do was distract you from the war because you’d all have been looking for a way to change this fate and there isn’t one. Don’t you think I would have done everything in my power to change it if I could?”
“Apparently not.” Her fingers tightened around mine and I growled at her, letting her see the Dragon in me but she just flexed the bronze wings at her back in reply, letting me see her monster too.