Her family.
If she didn’t go with him, she would have to do something abhorrent, something that might end up destroying her. Giving herself to another man. Sacrificing a child. Losing Daimon.
“She wouldn’t be abandoning it,” Belle snapped and closed her hand over Cass’s left shoulder. “This coven would be its family, just as it is Cassandra’s family.”
Cass looked at her, at the children now gathered on the landing at the top of the stairs beyond her as the snow finally settled, at the faces of her friends who had remained at the coven to work there with the children.
Hurt rolled through her, because whatever path she chose, she would be losing something dear to her. If she went with Daimon, she would be ostracised, exiled from the coven. She would no longer have their protection, and they would order everyone to break all ties with her.
She would no longer have her family.
Her life would completely change.
“This is her family,” Belle said.
Daimon snorted. “A family? This isn’t a family. Look at it.”
The power in the room grew, buffeting her as the older witches with the children began to ready spells and the four who flanked her and Belle broke free of the ice Daimon had used to cage them.
Belle’s grip on Cass’s shoulder tightened, pinning her in place.
Cass looked at Daimon, the fear rising inside her filling her head with images of him bloodied and broken, killed in the battle that would break out if he didn’t leave now.
“Go.” This time, that word lacked conviction as it left Cass’s lips, as she struggled with the polar desires that warred inside her, no longer sure whether she really wanted him to leave her here.
Fearing he might.
He folded his arms across his chest. “I can’t. Not without you. If you can honestly, hand on heart, swear to the gods, say that you want this, that you’re fine with it… then I’ll go.”
She felt the weight of everyone’s gazes on her.
Daimon stared at her.
She looked into his eyes, knowing what he could see as his softened further, warming this time, and a hint of concern surfaced in them. He could see her wavering. He could see that the confidence and courage she had always worn was missing now, stripped from her.
She swallowed hard again and opened her mouth, only to snap it shut.
Daimon didn’t take his eyes off her, didn’t say a word as she fought with herself, shutting out Belle as she tried to convince her to do her duty and the other witches as they all demanded permission to attack him.
“I can’t,” she whispered and shook her head. “I can’t.”
Her shoulders suddenly dropped, all the tension rushing from her.
“You’re right.” She smiled slightly, gave a mirthless chuckle that seemed so out of place in the thick silence, but she felt as if she had lost her mind, because she was on the verge of doing something crazy. “I don’t want this. I don’t want to abandon a child. I don’t want to inflict the upbringing I had on another. I don’t want any of this.”
She looked deep into his eyes, the numbing coldness she had felt upon letting Belle take her away from him giving way to warmth as it filled her, as hope buoyed her and chased the darkness from her heart.
“I want you.”
He held his hand out to her. “You got me.”
“Cassandra,” Belle barked and when Cass shirked free of her grip, the witch snarled, “Stop him.”
Daimon stepped, appearing barely an inch from Cass, and banded his arm around her waist.
Kissed her as darkness embraced them.
Stole her away from her old life.
To a new one where she could have the future she wanted with all her heart.
A future with Daimon.
Chapter 27
The heat of Hong Kong embraced her as Cass’s feet touched solid ground again and she kept hold of Daimon, kept kissing him as she tried to quieten the voices at the back of her mind, the ones that ran over what she had done. She didn’t want to listen to them. Her heart already felt heavy, the thought of never seeing her coven and her friends again a weight that pressed upon it.
Would any of her friends visit her, risking punishment from the coven if they were discovered?
The coven was strict about such things, liable to exile whoever was caught visiting her.
“Hey,” Daimon murmured as he pulled back and brushed his palm across her cheek.
His eyes were soft as she looked up into them, filled with understanding that made her feel as if there was an invisible ribbon that linked them, allowing him to see into her mind and her heart.
She stared into them, her sombre thoughts weighing too heavily upon her for her to conceal how she was feeling. She had just turned her back on the only family she had ever known and the only place where she had ever belonged, and she needed to believe it had been worth it.
She needed to know she had made the right decision and that what she had with Daimon was going to last, that she wasn’t going to find herself alone in a few years or even months because he had grown bored with her.
Or had failed to fall in love with her.
Like she was in love with him.
His white eyebrows knitted hard above eyes that revealed so many feelings to her as they softened further, as they warmed and held hers.
She felt loved when he looked at her like that, as if she was his entire world and the sight of her in pain was killing him, filling him with a need to do something about it even when he no doubt knew he couldn’t.
He brought his other hand up and framed her face, his gaze earnest as he looked down into her eyes. His palms were cool against her cheeks, but she felt warm from head to toe.
“I couldn’t lose you,” he husked, his voice a sultry whisper that teased her ears, his
