The pain I felt couldn't be a coincidence. The moment I had contemplated forgetting about fulfilling my promise to Carmilla, agony had nearly killed me. That level of precise timing was impossible to attribute to chance.
My mind raced back to that fateful encounter in that realm, specifically to the moment she had fed me her blood.
"Could it be..."
A grim smile formed on my face as the pieces fell into place. Carmilla hadn't trusted me. No, of course she hadn't. Someone at her level of power and experience knew exactly what she was doing when she had fed me her blood.
She had planted a damn safeguard directly into my heart through her blood.
The realization was both infuriating and grudgingly impressive. If I so much as entertained thoughts of breaking my promise to rescue her, I would receive this agonizing warning. And if my suspicions were correct, attempting to actually abandon her might result in death itself.
