Chapter 6
"Evelyn." A low, raspy voice, thick with agony and raw violence, suddenly echoed through the cavernous hall. I whipped around.
The massive oak doors of Blackwood Estate had been kicked wide open. Richard stood in the doorway. His overcoat was gone, his white dress shirt shredded to reveal the muscular expanse of his chest, crisscrossed with savage, horrifying claw marks. The wounds were still weeping blood, but he didn't even seem to feel them.
His gaze was locked onto me—or rather, the black stone tablet in my hand. But what truly chilled me to the bone were his eyes. Those once deep, dark eyes were now a terrifying, glowing crimson. His pupils had slit into vertical lines, radiating the lethal glare of an apex predator.
"Put it... down." A feral, guttural growl vibrated in his throat with every syllable. "You... you killed someone..." I held up the tablet, my voice shaking uncontrollably. "Who is this? Your ancestor's remains? Did you dig up and burn an antique just to cover your tracks?"
Richard didn't answer. He stepped toward me, his leather dress shoes crunching over the debris with a sickening grind. As he closed the distance, the Fated Mate bond resonating in my mind hit its absolute peak. My body temperature spiked to a feverish heat, my vision blurring as the world around me seemed to warp and melt.
"Evelyn," he stopped right in front of me, his towering shadow swallowing me whole. He slowly raised a hand, as if to cup my cheek, but froze mid-air, his fingers trembling violently from the sheer force of his restraint. "Look at me." His voice suddenly shifted.
It wasn't modern English anymore. It was an ancient, obscure tongue, grating like stone grinding against metal. Yet, I understood every word.
*Look upon me, my Queen.*
CRACK! The words hit like a sledgehammer, shattering the fragile glass of "reality" in my mind. The memories of "this morning"—the divorce proceedings, the family court, the petty images of his affair—curled, blackened, and burned to ash like film caught in a blaze.
In their place came a sky choked with fire. The deafening roar of battle. The sickening thud of spears piercing flesh.
I saw myself in a blood-soaked white gown, standing atop a blazing altar. And the man with flowing silver hair and crimson eyes was using his own body to shield me from a barrage of venom-tipped bolts. He shoved the black stone tablet into my hands and, with the last ounce of his strength, pushed me into the secret passage behind the hearth.
*Survive, Evelia. Even if you forget me, even if you hate me... you must live.*
"Ahhh!" I clutched my head, letting out an agonizing scream as I collapsed to my knees in the ashes. Two thousand years. There was no "this morning." There were no divorce proceedings.
I looked up, tears streaming down my face, at the crimson-eyed man before me. "Richard..." I whispered, my voice slipping into that same ancient cadence. "You... you've deceived me for two thousand years."
