My head rolled, wrists chained up in icy metal. I'd been here before. The first time I'd encountered Inerra and those three maids of Acera's.

Darkness ate at the sides of the light when I opened my eyes to brightness. Where was I? Who was talking?

    "I need to tell you something."

Acera?

  "Tell me."

I'd dreamt about this before.

    "I...I'm in love with..."

The brightness disappeared, replaced with emptiness. Now I could open my eyes and see nothing but darkness and the faint outline of a figure.

    "When you turned around to attack me, I was filled with anguish. You wanted to harm me, it was unbearable."

My breath caught. I remembered that conversation on the beach in Spain. He'd convinced me so well that he had been protecting me my entire life and wanted to continue to do so for the rest of it. Now I wasn't so sure.

    "I didn't want to be the source of your misery," he admitted.

All of a sudden, I could feel cool hands wrapping around mine. My skin started to vibrate and I choked on a surprised sob. I missed this; his unique touch.

    "I swear I won't let them touch you, Charlie. For your family's sake, for mine and for yours."

All of these promises and truths that I had utterly believed at the time seemed like vicious lies now. If he really wanted to protect me, he'd be looking for me right now. But he wasn't. He was becoming the leader of the threat.

Where was the logic in that?

    "I love you, Charlie," someone whispered so gently it might not have been whispered at all. Whether it had or hadn't, just the idea of it stopped my heart.

The vision – dream – memory – whatever it was, faded as I heaved a trembling exhale.

I awoke to a serious conversation – one I did not expect when I rose after such a night.

    "The ceremony is this evening. He's not changed his mind," Patria informed, worry coating her tone.

  "I'm aware of that. We're going. Now. Cancel all other meetings. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night," Inerra murmured ominously.

I started to sit up, preparing myself for a powerful headache that'd probably brings tears to my eyes. Nothing. Not even a slight migraine. I exhaled shakily. Had I slept through the hangover? My eyes found the clock on the bedside table. It was nearly eight. There was no way I slept through a hangover. I'd drifted off around three. I was no expert, but five hours was not sufficient enough to cure a hangover after those drinks I'd consumed.

I faintly noted Patria and Inerra muttering under their breaths about something as I glanced down at myself, finding that I was in one of his grey t-shirts. My brows plucked together. I didn't put this on. We'd fallen asleep in each other's arms one hundred percent naked.

The door clicked shut, bringing my puzzled gaze up to Inerra who was tossing clothes into a suitcase. We were leaving again, weren't we? But that wasn't the source of my newly fledged misery. Surely after making love with someone, you'd expect them to be lying with you when you woke up? Expect them to at least smile at you after such a momentous occasion?

But no. He was standing, fully clothed, packing and unsmiling.

    "Can you get dressed?" he snapped, dark blue eyes abruptly fierce. "There're clothes in the wardrobe, get changed. We're leaving in five minutes."

My mouth ran dry and a lump lodged in my throat, eyes stinging with hurt and confusion. Had last night even happened? Why was he being so cold?

Wordlessly, I slid off of the bed and padded over to the wardrobe. My body was fully functional. Maybe I'd slept for an entire day and second night? Or maybe that alcohol had been stronger than I'd thought and I was still experiencing a high?

No, this didn't feel like a high. It felt like...nothingness.

I pursed my lips to stop the lower one from trembling and searched for something to wear. Tears blurred my vision. I was looking, but not seeing.

I was such a fool to think that Inerra, the murderer of his own kind and mine, could treat me right or anything close to a lover. He'd just slept with me and he hadn't put any effort into checking how I was feeling. He'd told me to get dressed like I was some sort of toddler.

The sound of metal buckling signalled that he was ready to leave immediately. I made my way to the ensuite. He didn't stop me; didn't care that I refused to show him my body despite him seeing every inch of me last night.

Had it all been a dream? Had I imagined the entire thing? No, I hadn't gone to sleep. His touches and kisses had been extremely real.

What's more, he didn't seem phased one iota. And that pissed me off more than anything.

I dipped under the hotness of the shower, allowing the warm water to unknot the muscles in my back. The soothing nature of the water did nothing to stop the bombardment of my thoughts, though.

You should have listened to him, I told myself in a whisper. He wouldn't have taken you to that club and if he had done what Inerra did, he'd have held you until you woke up. You've made such a mistake. Acera would never treat you like this.

I covered my mouth to muffle a sob. What had I done? What the hell had I done? What would my parents have said. What about Matt or Jake or Dremos or him.

I'd given Inerra what he'd wanted. I'd let him have complete possession of me. There was nothing I could do or say to him anymore without feeling the evil guilt about last night. It was like I'd consumed some deadly poison and it had wrapped its way around my heart before squeezing like a snake with its prey.

I stumbled from the shower and clutched the towel rail for support. Who was I becoming? 

And in that wild moment, I wanted nothing more than to have died that night along with my parents. Damn that pureblood for saving me. Damn his righteousness.

I slid down the wall, covering myself in a towel and bringing my knees to my chest. My eyes squeezed shut as each breath made my entire body tremble.

    "Acera," I whispered, pain easing a little as I said his name.

I missed his cooling touch, his impossible way of making me smile, making me try to hate him and failing unequivocally. A tear escaped my eye, rolling over my cheek and then falling, beautifully, to the cool floor. It'd been so long since I'd seen him.

Did he really hate me?

Did he miss me at all?

Did he still find me as his most precious thing in existence?

I could only hope and yet I was with his brother and hadn't tried to run. I'd stopped resisting Inerra's touch; stopped avoiding his passion despite his egotistical ways.

My head started to crash, as if caving in on itself.

Who do you want, Charlie? I asked myself hurriedly; desperately. Who do you truly love? Who do you want to stay with for the rest of your life?

My nails dug into the balls of my palms, teeth biting down hard on my lower lip. And then I breathed out shakily, eyes opening, sweat shimmering over my skin.

I knew exactly who I was meant to be with. Fate had put us together for crying out loud. No older brother could intervene with fate, no matter how magical he was.

I hurriedly pulled the red skater dress over my head and then walked out. My gaze was hard when it found his. He sat in the centre of the bed at the end, eyes lifting to mine slowly; knowingly. He'd heard everything I'd been thinking.

My mouth opened to fire every foul thing I could at him, but he held his finger up and spoke too fast for me to get a word in. "There's something you need to know. Well, a few things."

    "I don't want to hear what you have to say, Inerra..." I began to spit, so angry at myself for letting this go on so long that I wanted to break someone in half.

  "We're going to the Darkness Palace tonight," he continued, blue eyes trained with mine; emotionless.

    "W...what?" I spluttered. But he was there.

No. I couldn't face him. He could try to kill me himself and that would only be the worst way to die. Drowning was nothing compared if he wrapped his hands around my neck and...

  "We're going to see Acera," he muttered, analysing how that silenced me entirely. I couldn't catch my breath or form any comprehensible words. Every part of me had gone numb.

  "This is the final installation of the plan that's been occurring right under your nose," he explained, standing and striding to the large black suitcase. He appeared by the door, looking over his shoulder at me. "And Charlie? We didn't have sex last night. We didn't even go to that club. After telling you all about my mind abilities, you foolishly didn't realise that I wouldn't allow you to go to that club after your mental breakdown about my brother. You were a state. I wasn't going to be seen with you, let alone fuck you."

He opened the door and exited.

My mouth was an O shape, jaw so slack my chin nearly hit the floor.

Despite the harshness of his words, I was somewhat relieved. In fact, I was overjoyed that I hadn't actually slept with him. It was like a heavy, crushing weight had just been lifted off my shoulders and deposited off a cliff into the abyss.

After a few seconds of contemplating everything he'd just told me, I scampered out of the room. My heart was pounding in my throat, eyes sparkling with nervous excitement.

I was half-terrified, half-thrilled to see my mate's beautiful face again. I just hoped, lord I hoped with all my might, that he didn't detest me for being with his brother that he hated so; hoped he didn't refuse that I was his mate; that he'd accept me again. And if he couldn't find it in himself to accept that we were meant to be, I'd be able to convince him otherwise.

Because, even after everything I'd endured, I was still utterly in love with him.