It didn’t stop me. I paused when the front of my polished, leather shoes bumped into her ankles. I crouched down, coming to her level. “You’re my wife.”
She let out a humorless laugh. “A farce of a marriage. I remember your vows clearly, Killian.”
“To hurt you, to break you… In health and in sickness, through sorrow and pain, for all the days in my life, I will be your worst nightmare,” I rasped, bringing our faces closer. “Till death do us part.”
She crumpled under my eyes and watching her break should have brought me satisfaction. My sternum ached and there was a tight vice clutching my chest and squeezing my heart.
I didn’t care for Julianna.
But goddamn it, why did her tears remind me so much of Gracelynn’s?
I grasped her elbow, pulling her up, and that was when she went absolutely ballistic on me. Screaming at the top of her lungs and swatting at my hands, struggling against me. “Let me go!”
A breath lodged in my throat and I gripped her arm harder. “Calm the fuck down, Julianna.”
My words had the opposite effect. Her tiny fists slammed into my chest. “You’re a brute. I hate you! I HATE YOU!”
Her wails pierced through the air and I knew Gideon could hear them. The whole island could. I had finally broken through her walls and Julianna had lost her senses, letting her emotions swallow her whole.
It would have been a sight to be seen, watching her break, if I hadn’t been so bothered by it. But I didn’t let myself question why because, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter. Julianna and I were poison together, as she said. There was no cure.
Grasping her by the shoulders, I slammed her into the grassy walls of the labyrinth. “Shut up. Gideon will hear us,” I hissed.
“Let me go,” she screamed, clawing at my face. “You’re hurting me, you monster. Let me go!”
“Shut the fuck up!” I roared, gripping her jaw before I slammed my mouth over hers, silencing her screams and swallowing down her cries.
Right over the fucking veil.
Julianna gasped and went completely rigid in my arms.
Her lips parted under the veil and I could feel her soft fucking lips. Her breath was warm and her hollow eyes flared with… shock.
My body pinned her up against the wall of the labyrinth, and her balled fists came to my shoulders, as if to push me away, but she didn’t.
Her fingers dug into my muscles and Julianna whimpered under my lips, through the thin veil.
I didn’t move. She didn’t either.
The kiss was barely even a kiss.
One ruined moment.
Two simple breaths.
Three shattering seconds.
I pulled away and Julianna’s legs gave out under her. Before she could crumble to the ground, I swept her up in my arms. She roved her eyes over my face, and without a word, she wrapped an arm around my neck and buried her face into my shoulder.
How ironic. To surrender herself into the arms of the monster she so despised.
It took me a long time to find our way out of this place, but I eventually saw the exit. With Julianna still in my arms, I walked out of the labyrinth.
I found Gideon standing there, an expressionless look on his face. I walked past him without a word and carried Julianna back into the castle, up the stairs and into her room. She didn’t move once; her muscles barely twitching; she didn’t speak. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was carrying her cold, dead body in my arms.
Or maybe I am…
She barely made a sound when I placed her on the bed. I straightened and she curled into herself. Her eyes blinked open and our gaze collided together.
“There’s a fine line between love and hate, Killian,” Julianna muttered, her voice soft and broken.
“Not for us,” I said.
“Not for us,” she agreed.
CHAPTER NINE
Julianna
A week later
I walked into the stables to find Killian brushing Cerberus’s black coat. He ran his fingers through the stallion’s mane and he spoke softly to it. I slowly backed away when both Cerberus and Killian’s gaze snapped up to mine.
Oh well, too late to make myself scarce now.
His eyes rove over my riding outfit, from my black shirt, tucked into the waistband of my tight, brown riding trousers, down to my legs and boots. I ignored the way my stomach fluttered and I stalked over to Ragna.
I still haven’t forgotten what he said to me a week ago, or what he did in the labyrinth.
That… kiss.
That stupid kiss.
To this day, my lips still tingled and the kiss was still seared into my brain. Alright, it wasn’t a real kiss. My veil had been in the way, but I still felt his lips on mine.
Over the week, we were courteous with each other. Sure, he still threw in a few insults here and there, because he was Killian Spencer, after all. He couldn’t be a gentleman without also being an asshole.