If You Leave, I Leave novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Terms

Aveline's POV

I had read it all in the Elder's pages, and I wanted to hear him say it.

"Is it true?" I said. "Every line?"

"Every line."

"And when the wolf goes, the Crown kills it. That's you."

"That's me."

I stood on his rug in my wet shoes and could not feel my hands.

"You signed the release three weeks ago."

"Yes."

"Knowing that."

"Yes."

"And you let me stand in that registry thinking you didn't care enough to argue."

"I wanted you to leave without carrying it," he said.

"I will not have you stay because of it, Aveline. That's the one thing I won't do to you."

I crossed the room and stopped in front of him.

He was still sitting on the floor against the desk, with the silver cuffs beside him and my sash on his wrist.

"I'm not staying because of it," I said. "I'm furious. Don't mistake that for anything else."

"I know."

"I'm staying because Verity Ravensdale said your name in a boathouse as part of her plan.

I want to watch her lose."

Something moved at the corner of his mouth.

"Those are new terms," I said. "Listen. No promises, either way."

"The wolf needs settling when it's bad, so I touch you when it's bad. You don't use the cuffs."

"And you tell me everything."

"Rule two was that I never touch you."

"I'm amending it."

"Aveline." His voice roughened. "You don't know what it does when you touch me. It's not settling."

"Then tell me what it is."

He looked at me, and his eyes were already going silver.

"It's wanting you," he said. "It's every night for four years."

My breath stopped.

"On our wedding night," I said, "you left my bed bleeding, and said it was a mistake."

"I meant the wolf."

"I know that now. I didn't know that for four years."

I knelt down in front of him on the rug.

"You think you hurt me. You didn't. You left."

I took his left hand and turned it over.

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