“My curse is irreversible. I will never know peace unless I am accepted by my soul’s mate. By you, as it happens.”
A heavy mix of guilt and something close to sorrow filled her chest. “It might be trickery, you know. Mab might have led you to believe that I was your soul mate.”
“Then why was she desperate to get you away from me?”
“Because I’m her kin?”
The chains rattled when he shook his head. “Believe what you will. Doesn’t matter.” His chin lifted in that stubborn way of his, that months of watching told her she’d never persuade him otherwise. He confirmed it when he spoke again. “I want my peace, Eliza. To feel whole, happy, free. That is all I’ve ever wanted. Seven hundred years, I’ve searched for it. And if there is even the slightest possibility that you can give it to me, then I am willing to risk everything to get it.”
Horribly, tears prickled at the back of her throat. She cleared it. “That is a terrible burden to place on a person. What if I cannot come to…” – she faltered, unable to even say the word love – “to accept you?”
His hard expression did not alter. “Then you don’t. It won’t work unless your affection is freely given, regardless.”
“And what of your affections? You expect me to come to care for you while you outright dislike me?”
The corner of his lush mouth curled. “What I am asking for is a chance. I help you and you stay with me during that time. A clean slate, no more viewing me through the lens of the past. And I shall do the same with you. We start anew. Partners in this quest.”
“How long?” Knowing his sly ways, he might drag out this “quest” endlessly.
He grinned again, as if he knew precisely what she was thinking. “One month.”
“A week.”
“Not enough time. I have to heal to be of any use. One month.”
“That number was already deemed unacceptable. Two weeks.”
“Three.”
Eliza sat back on her heels, while Adam merely stared at her as though he had all the time in the world. “Fine,” she said. “Three weeks. I free you and you help me.” She gave him a warning look. “I’ll need your word that you will help me, that this” – she waved her hand between them – “isn’t merely a way to trick me into freeing you.”
“This business was your idea, woman,” he said with affront.
“Nevertheless, I’ll need your word.”
His nostrils flared with a sharp exhalation. “My word then.” Eliza did not look away from him, and he glared back in obvious exasperation. “What now?”
“I’m merely considering if I ought to trust your word,” she said.
A low growl rumbled in his chest as he bared his teeth. “I keep my word, whether I want to or not. My word is my bond. Honor, Miss May. Unlike you, I have it.”
“How dare you —”
“How dare you?” He craned forward, the muscles along his shoulders bunching. “Not so long ago you broke your promise of fealty. To me!”
“Oh yes, how quick you are to remind me.” Eliza leaned close, grinding her teeth to keep in a shout. “You enjoy being quick, don’t you?”
His thick, dark brows furrowed. “What in the bloody blazes are you talking about?”
“You gave me all of ten seconds to make a choice.” Eliza’s fists ached from clenching them. “And what a choice. I was dead, my body sliced open, my blood on the ground. I would have done anything, anything” – she thumped her fist to her chest – “to get back my life.”
“So that makes it better?” he snapped back in outrage. “Desperation gives you leave to go back on your word?”
“No. That is not what I meant.”
“Then you agree that you bloody well have no honor —”
“You never explained what was involved. You never said I’d be chained to you, like some animal, for the rest of my days,” Eliza shouted. “I was told I would be a GIM. I was ready to serve you in that manner. You knew full well that’s what I believed. If anything, you swindled me!”
All at once, he sagged, though he still eyed her with resentment and distaste. Well, she had a healthy helping of those feelings for him too.
“Tick-tock, Eliza,” she mimicked. “You rushed me because you didn’t want me to think things over.”
When he broke eye contact, his hard jaw twitched.
“I’m correct, aren’t I?” Ire and a red rage surged up within her. “And you have the brass to sit on your high horse and talk of honor. Well, let me tell you something, demon. There is little honor in forcing a person’s hand. Or using your power to coerce those weaker than you.”
A black scowl twisted his face as he glared at some distant point. “Fine. May I continue, or have you more complaints to heap upon my head?”
“Please do continue,” Eliza granted.
His golden gaze flicked back to her. “I want to kiss you.”
“No.” The word burst out of her with force. “Absolutely not.”
Unfazed, Adam shrugged. “Unless you have something to offer in exchange for your freedom, Mellan and Mab will, as you say, merely hunt us down, and you’ll be back to where you started.”
“Then I shall find out what he wants.” Eliza straightened her back. She could do that. She must. Like hell was she going to kiss this demon.