Well, almost everything.
Raven had been his childhood ally and partner in adventure. She had challenged him and excited him, and always made him feel alive and wanted. There was a small bit of friendship lingering in his chest, reminding him of the girl he’d grown up with, the girl he’d plotted to rule the world with. She had been his friend and lover. Surely, there was still something good inside her; something redeemable.
He exhaled slowly, remembering his role as earl did not allow him to be emotional with the law. Raven had committed great crimes and it was his responsibility to have her arrested for her transgressions.
Straightening his shoulders, he knocked on the door.
He did not expect her to answer, but the door slowly pulled back and Raven stood before him. Her long, dark hair hung around her shoulders and her gray eyes glinted in the moonlight as they stared at one another.
She did not look afraid, but rather sorrowful, and it caught Gabriel off guard.
“You found me,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Have you come to kill me?” She raised her chin a notch higher, looking at him with forced bravery.
He wanted to hurt her. He wanted to punish her. He wanted to go back in time and save her from herself.
But he did not want to kill her.
“No. But I need you to come with me.”
“Why?” She swallowed. “So I might undo the curse?”
He’d hoped the wizard had been misinformed about the arrow being magic, but fear gripped Gabriel’s muscles as the possibility sank in. “You did, indeed, cast a curse?”
She nodded and the fear around his muscles became anger.
Raven had cursed him. The only person in the world he’d trusted outside of Tristan had cursed him
He tried to keep his voice even. “And what, exactly, does this curse entail?”
“I cursed you so you shall never know love without Scarlet.”
Gabriel stood perfectly still as hate crawled out of his heart and slowly clawed its way through his chest. “Can the curse be undone?”
Did it matter? Would undoing the curse change the betrayal he felt? Would it make Raven any less malicious?
No.
She shook her head. “You shall never love another woman, nor will any woman ever truly love you, aside from Scarlet, who is dead, or me. And I am very much alive.”
“You’re lying.”
“I am telling you the truth.”
Darkness invaded his lungs and throat. “Was that your plan all along? Cursing me into loving you?”
“No. My plan was to rule alongside you as your partner and friend.” Her eyes hardened. “But you abandoned me for your brother’s girl.”
“So you killed my father? You killed my bride?” he growled.
“She wasn’t even your woman.”
Why did everyone feel the need to remind him of that?
She put her hands on his chest and slid them up to his shoulders. “Do not be angry, Gabriel. Your father was awful and the peasant girl was wrong for you. Don’t you see? Everything I did, I did for us. Now we can be together.”
She was mad.
She was wicked and wretched and all things terrible. Had she been this way always? Had he been blind for all these years?
Darkness filled his insides with a warmth he knew he shouldn’t welcome. “I would rather live an eternity of loneliness than ever love something as vile as you,” he sneered, watching the insult cross her face like a sharp slap. He reached for her hands. “You are under arrest—“
A wall of magical flames shot up between them, burning Gabriel’s outstretched hands. He yanked them back with a curse. “What are you doing?”
Raven shook her head, reaching for something he could not see beside the doorway. “I did not want to do this.” She shoved something sharp through the wall of fire and into Gabriel’s chest.
Blinding, white-hot pain split through his core and the breath whipped from his lungs. Looking down, he saw a giant knife protruding from his chest.
She had stabbed him.
His childhood friend had just stabbed him.
All reason left Gabriel’s heart, leaving a hungry void in the center and he began to shake with rage. Hate, thick and black, continued to coat his insides, slipping into the void with hot comfort.
He slowly he withdrew the blade from his body and tossed it aside as Raven looked on in bewilderment.
Her words were quiet. “How did you…?”
“I’m immortal,” he said, fury pressing against his heart.
He could feel his body start to instantly heal, pieces of pain coming and going as his skin knit itself back together.
“But you are not.” His hate was more powerful than he realized and, with one swift movement, he snapped Raven’s neck, breaking it with a sickening crack before dropping her lifeless body to the ground.
He blinked.
He watched the life drain from her face and felt a cold rush of remorse swoop into him. The darkness he’d just moments ago clung to evaporated from his chest; leaving a whirlwind of fear, shame, and agony in its place.
He stared down at the lifeless body of the girl he’d once cared for.
He was a murderer.
CHAPTER 6
London 1613
Gabriel let himself into Tristan’s home and sank into the nearest chair, rubbing the side of his face.
“Please, come in,” Tristan said dryly, looking up from the knife he was sharpening in the corner.
“It is official, brother. Raven’s curse is real.” Gabriel sighed, trying to not let thoughts of the long-dead girl get the best of him. Seventy-three years had gone by since he’d taken Raven’s life, but he still carried guilt.
Had she deserved to die? Yes. But at his hands?
No.
It did not matter that being earl had given him the right to execute a criminal. It was still murder.
The only thing that seemed to offset his remorseful heart was the curse Raven had bestowed upon him. A curse, it seemed, that was far more effective than he’d originally given the silver-eyed girl credit for.
Perhaps a loveless life was exactly what Gabriel deserved.
“I cannot fall in love,” Gabriel said. “I’ve tried courting dozens of women and none of them truly fall for me. Oh, they will marry me. They will take my money and my fine food and my horses, but they do not care for me. And what’s worse, I feel nothing for them.”
“You have no horses,” said Tristan.
“Exactly! All these bloody women keep taking my things. It’s exhausting.”