Evermore, an Arotas Novella (The Arotas Series) by Amy Miles Read Free Book Online Page A

deep, but she doesn’t feel the cold. She only
feels emptiness.
    This
is where I lost him ,
she thinks as a sob rises in her throat.
    The
scent of Fane’s blood is still strong in this spot, though his
body was removed and has since been buried on castle grounds. The
pain burrowing into her chest amplifies as she breathes in deep. She
can still smell his fear tainting his blood that lingers, encased
within the layers of ice that will never grow warm enough to truly
thaw. An eternal tomb.
    “I’m
so sorry,” she whispers, wrenching her hands free of the ice.
Her legs begin to quake as she leans forward on her knees and press
her lips to the cold ice. Tears fall unheeded, freezing on impact
with the ground. She sinks back onto her haunches and wipes at her
cheeks. Her fingers are red, her nail beds seeping blood from where
she broke the ice, but she takes no notice. Her hands tremble as she
clutches her thighs.
    “You
always were better than me. More noble. More loyal. More loving.”
Her voice cracks on the final word. Fane’s undying love for her
had lasted through the years, never wavering in its devotion. Not
even when she discovered her bond with Gabriel.
    She
knew how much it hurt him yet was helpless to stop it, even if she
had wanted to. Fane was her past, Gabriel her future, but that
doesn’t erase the years of love she and Fane once shared.
    Roseline
blows out a breath and a bitter laugh bubbles from her lips. “Do
you remember when we first met? You had on that ridiculous mask at
the masquerade that Vladimir threw not far from Brasov. I didn’t
know it was you until you found me later, stark naked and dangling
from one of Lucien’s infernal contraptions in the dungeon
beneath the castle.” Her laughter fades off as she wraps her
arms around her. “You saved me that day. Not just by helping me
to escape, but by showing me there was still a reason to live. You
taught me that love is not something taken, but given, in a thousand
tiny ways. You taught me to be strong, to protect myself.”
    A
multitude of memories flutter before her eyes. A look. A touch. A
whisper shared in the dark. Roseline closes her eyes, clutching her
chest as if she has been mortally wounded. Fane did more than save
her the day he discovered her in Lucien’s torture chamber. He
gave her a reason to live, to fight back. Without him, her misery
would have been endless.
    Countless
times she tried to take her own life, only to awaken to a beating
just as painful and brutal as her suicide attempt. Vladimir was
cruel. Lucien was cunning, his thrill for pain eternal.
    She
had no friends, no allies. The only people who surrounded her in her
first weeks of becoming an immortal either wanted to slit her throat
for capturing Vladimir’s attention or wanted to snatch her away
and do beastly things to her in the dark.
    Some
tried. They would have succeeded too, if not for Fane.
    He
is the one who put a sword in her hand, taught her how to hunt and
how to hide from an enemy. He is the one who sacrificed his own
wellbeing countless times so that she might live.
    Now
he is gone, another sacrifice with a price too high to pay, yet he
did so willingly. All for the sake of a love that she could no longer
accept nor return.
    Tears
well in her eyes as she begins to quake. He deserved better than her.
Someone who could truly love him as he deserved.
    “I’m
so sorry,” she whispers into the wind.
    She
lifts her gaze to the fading light on the horizon. Pale blues and
purples splash across the sky, lighting the wispy clouds above. Night
will fall soon and Gabriel will begin to worry. She has lingered too
long.
    “I
owe my life to you, Fane,” she whispers, pressing her hand to
her lips and then placing it atop the ground. “You will never
be forgotten. I will see to that.”
    The
sound of a boot punching through ice behind her makes Roseline
stiffen. She retracts her hand as if the ice has stung her. Gabriel
sinks down beside her, his eyes gentle and