Chapter Seventeen
Lior's POV
I hated bringing him here.
The forest was wrong too quiet, too heavy. The air stank of rot and burnt herbs. Even I, a vampire who thrived in the dark, didn't enjoy stepping into this place.
But Riven needed answers. And I knew only one person who could give them.
He followed reluctantly, his jaw tight, blade never far from his grip. His silence told me more than his words could: he didn't trust me. Not here. Not anywhere.
We reached the hut. Crooked wood, smoke curling from the cracks, whispers in a language that made my bones ache.
She was waiting.
The witch.
Her eyes glowed pale green in the shadows, her skin stretched too tightly over her cheekbones. She smiled too many teeth showing.
> "Lior Solavar," she purred. "And the cursed Bloodbound."
Riven stiffened beside me. "She knows me."
"She knows everything," I muttered.
The witch's gaze lingered on Riven. Her smile widened.
> "Your souls drip into each other," she said. "Your bond bleeds where no bond should exist. It will eat you alive."
Riven stepped forward. "How do we sever it?"
My chest tightened. "Riven..."
"Tell me!" he snapped, voice breaking.
The witch tilted her head, studying him.
> "You want freedom from him?" she asked softly.
"Yes," Riven whispered. "I can't... I can't live like this."
Her laughter was cruel.
> "Severing the bond means severing you. A cut that deep leaves no man standing. You will both die. Slowly. In agony."
Riven paled. "There has to be another way."
> "Another way?" she echoed, amused. "Yes. Submit to it. Surrender fully. Accept his soul inside your own."
The silence between us was deafening.
Riven turned to me, eyes wide, furious, wet with tears he didn't want to shed.
"You knew," he accused.
I didn't answer.
"You fucking knew!" He shoved me back against the wall of the hut, blade at my throat. "You dragged me here knowing it was already too late."
I grabbed his wrist, forcing the blade away. My voice came out lower than I intended raw, breaking.
"You think I'd let you die, Riven?"
"You already did," he whispered.
That hurt more than the blade.
He stepped back, shaking, his chest heaving like the bond itself was suffocating him.
"I don't want this," he said, voice cracking. "I don't want you. I don't want any of it."
And just like that he stormed out.
The witch chuckled behind me.
> "He'll come back," she said. "The curse doesn't let go so easily. Neither will you."
She wasn't wrong.
But I couldn't breathe as I watched him vanish into the forest, every part of me screaming to follow.
Because this wasn't about lust anymore.
This was about losing him.