King of the Underworld (RJ Kane)

Chapter 43

Chapter Forty-Three

Adrik

After dinner, she had asked if we could take a walk as the sun hadn’t set completely yet. We walked

around the property in relative silence, followed by a guard at a distance. She seemed lost in her

thoughts. I was honestly impressed that she was comfortable with so much silence. I would steal

glances at her regularly, watching her as she took in everything around her. The way the fading light of

the day made her hair look like actual fire, with its varying shades of red and orange. The evening sun

also made the brown in her eyes more prominent, making her eyes almost match her hair at the right

angle.

She caught me staring at her and walked closer to me, silently grabbing my hand. We walked the rest

of the way to the house in silence, hand-in-hand.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked once we got to the bedroom. She stopped, like she was thinking

about it, but shook her head no. “You know you can say anything to me, anytime. I want to help.” She

gave me a small smile. She walked toward me and gave me a quick kiss.

“I just want to go to bed right now. It’ll be better in the morning.”

I woke up sometime later to an empty bed. I had fallen asleep with Sephie in my arms, but now she

was gone. I sat up to see if the bathroom light was on, but the room was dark. The bedroom door was

slightly ajar. I got out of bed to see

if she had ventured downstairs. The bedroom that she had stayed in the first night was open and I

could feel the cool breeze from the balcony coming into the hallway. I quietly walked to the balcony,

finding her sitting on one of the

chairs. She was hugging her knees to her chest, with her head buried in her arms. I could hear her

softly sobbing. My heart felt like it had just been punched at the sight of seeing her cry. I wanted to

make it stop.

I said her name quietly, so I wouldn’t scare her. Kneeling in front of her, I rubbed her leg lightly. “What’s

wrong.

solnishko?”

She su cked in a breath but didn’t raise her head to look at me. She stayed silent.

“Sephie. Talk to me. Please.”

She raised her head enough that I could see her teary eyes. I wiped the tears from her eyes with my

thumb. I looked at her, full of concern. She looked at me for so long that I thought she wasn’t going to

say anything.

“Everything. Everything caught up to me at once. I miss my m om. I’ve had to relive living with my

uncle. The fu cked- up events with Anthony. Being here and not being able to leave. All of it.”

I found myself flinching at the last part. Did she want to leave me? Was she tired of me already? My

mind was racing. How would I live without her now? It’s only been a few days, but I knew for sure that I

never wanted to be without her

for the rest of my life.

I heard a small laugh. She reached down and touched my face. “I don’t want to leave you, Adrik.”

I exhaled, clearly relieved. She stretched her legs down and pulled me to her. She was upset and yet,

she was once again consoling me instead. I sat up again, asking, “what can I do? I promise you’ll be

able to leave here after

tomorrow. Anthony is supposed to be gone today, but I want to give it one more day to be safe. And

then there’s the

matter of

your surprise at the end of the week. What about your uncle? Do you want me to have him killed? Say

the word and he’s a dead man.” Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

She laughed, but I could tell she was seriously considering it. “He’s probably fried so many brain cells

that he doesn’t even remember who I am. I don’t think he’s anything to worry about. I just don’t like

having to relive it when someone new finds out.” She leaned her head back against the chair and

closed her eyes.

“Sephie, I don’t know why you had to go through all of that. But it made you into the woman that I’m

falling in love with today, so as weird as it sounds to say, I’m glad for it all. You’ve come into my life and

made everything brighter. You light up the room when you walk in. You have five trained killers

downstairs fighting over who gets to stay with you. You notice the slightest things about people. What

they need, what they like, what they need to hear. You share your light with everyone and never ask for

anything in return. You have my heart, Persephone. So as in sane as I sound saying it, the road you’ve

been forced to travel has led you here and I will spend every day of my life from this point on trying to

show you how grateful I am that that road brought you to me.”

She had lifted her head when I started talking and was looking at me. A few stray tears fell from her

eyes. I wiped them as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I don’t know how I got so lucky,”

she whispered.

“It’s me who is the lucky one here, solnishko.”