Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Ronin stared at me for a long time, completely expressionless, then he burst into a smile. “Amazing,” he whispered. “You’re incredible.”
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
“The way your mind works. So devious,” he hissed, closing the distance. “So clever. So ruthless. And all for the sake of another.” Ronin’s eyes flicked to the door, and Dora on the other side. “Why? What’s a sister even worth? Why do all of this for her?”
I couldn’t explain it, but somehow I knew, he was genuinely curious.
“Because I love her.”
“Love?” He frowned, brows crowding together. “You’ve said that word before. What does it mean?”
My jaw worked. “It’s... Love is hard to contain in a single definition. There are so many kinds of it. Love for your parents, love for your friends, love for your children, and love for your siblings. All I know is that I want to protect Adora. I love her because I want to see her happy, and support her in all her goals and dreams. I put Dora first,” I said firmly. “That’s what love is.”
Ronin nodded, shrugging his lips as he studied the rafters. “I see. And do you believe your precious Adora loves you in return?”
“Of course she does.”
“Well then, how is either one of you supposed to move forward, if you’re both standing there expecting the other to go first?”
“I...” I frowned. “No, that’s not—”
“Not what?” Ronin dropped, voice flat. “You just said that love means putting someone else’s happiness and goals before your own. Even if they want to do the same for you, won’t there come a time when those goals conflict? When you want one thing and they want the other? Who then must make the great sacrifice if you both love each other so?”
Dora’s words on that last, fateful night roared through my mind.
“I’m upset because you were supposed to be the one driving off in your new car to your first-choice university. You were that one until you had to drop everything, give up your place at NYU, and come home to look after me.
“You spent the last four years scrimping and saving to send me to college, and now you’re going to spend another digging yourself out of debt. Char, you had your own life and your own plans before... before.
“How do you think it makes me feel watching you give all that up for me?”
“I— I mean, I did it because I’m her older sister and guardian—”
“So such things are determined by birth order? An older sibling must be willing to sacrifice their life and well-being for the younger, and if they don’t, they do not love them?”
“No!” I cried. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. Of course it’s not like that, and it wouldn’t be like that with me and Dora either, but because our parents died, I had to—”
“Ah, so this love isn’t even a love you chose?” Ronin crowed, his brow reaching for his hairline. “It was forced on you by the death of your parents.”
My head was spinning. “I didn’t say— That’s not—”
“Would you even be here if your parents were still alive, Charlotte Hunter?” The question stabbed my heart. “If little Adora was dragged to hell on their watch and not yours, wouldn’t you have expected them to be the ones risking vampire bites and burning stakes to rescue her, not you? Wouldn’t you reject love’s demands?” He ate the distance, pressing his nose to mine. “Wouldn’t you have said get her yourself, she’s not my problem?”
“No!” I shouted. “I would’ve always been right here, because I would’ve gone with them to rescue my sister together, Ronin, because that’s what family does! They show up for each other. They reach down into the dark and pull you out when everyone else walks away, pretending they don’t see your pain!” Tears flooded my eyes. “My love for my sister may not be something you understand, or something you’d choose, and it doesn’t have to be—because it’s mine.
“I don’t regret a single decision I’ve made in the last four years because I’ve lived and loved according to my conscience.” I conked his forehead, forcibly shoving him back. “But I bet that’s another word you don’t even fucking know.”
He smirked, turning away. “Oh no, my pet, I know what a conscience is. It’s the thing millions upon billions of humans threw away, so they could live down here with me.” His laugh was terrible. “Must not be worth much after all.”
I swallowed through a tight throat, roughly wiping my eyes.
Ronin sighed. “So? Let’s hear it.”
“Hear what!” I snapped.
“Hear what you want in exchange for deleting the pictures and keeping this empire of sin garbage to yourself. I assume you brought it up to blackmail me?”
“Oh.” Our conversation had taken such a detour, I’d forgotten about all of that. “Yes,” I said, straightening my back. “I am blackmailing you, and you know exactly what I want. You’re going to break the sub bond and continue helping us, and in return, those pictures and rumors never see the light of day.”