Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 Victoria Aveline (best book club books .TXT) 📖

“Technically?” Lily spat. “Technically! You’ve let me go on believing I wasn’t good enough to be with you.”

“I never said that. You—” Verakko tried to reach out to her. She all but leapt away. Was that what she had in her mind? That they couldn’t be together because of some fault on her part? Verakko flushed with shame.

“You may not have said it, but that’s the conclusion I came to based on what you did and didn’t tell me! You said your mom, the Queen, would negotiate your marriage. You said I wasn’t an option for you and you can’t date. What else was I supposed to think? And this whole time you’ve been cheating on your girlfriend?” Lily yelled and began pacing again. Her arms whipped around wildly as she spoke. Her brows raised in brief surprise as though a thought had just occurred to her. She turned to him, seething. “You made me a part of it. Last night… I never would have… Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Verakko searched for an explanation, unsure how to make her understand that nothing but the fact that they were mated mattered anymore, but came up empty. He studied her face and winced. She was furious, spitting mad, but deep in her gaze he could see the hurt. It hadn’t registered in her at first, her initial reaction of anger overpowering, but the pain from his betrayal was rising now and settling itself alongside her anger.

“I’ve only met Ziritha a few times. That contract doesn’t matter anymore,” he pushed desperately. How to make her understand?

She paused her pacing and took a few steps away from him, a stray tear running down her cheek and scalding his insides. “Okay, tell me this. What if your eyes hadn’t changed? What would’ve happened then?”

“I…” Verakko snapped his mouth shut, clenching his jaw. Wasn’t that the problem he’d been working through for the past three days? Up until learning about his eyes changing, he hadn’t known what he was going to do.

Lily nodded, her chin trembling. “That’s what I thought. You would’ve married her, wouldn’t you? When would you have told me the truth, huh? When we walked into the city? Right before your actual wedding? Would you have strung me along until the last possible second to give yourself time to recognize me?” She shook her head and backed away from him down the side of the dune. “I know one thing. If that’s what soulmates on this planet do, I don’t want one.”

She was distancing herself from him both physically and mentally. He could see the emotion written plainly on her face vanish. Verakko cracked; he was losing her. “I didn’t know what else to do, mivassi!” he shouted, gripping his head with both hands.

“That name!” Fury flared to life on her face again. Her steps became clumsy as she backed away from him more quickly, heading down the opposite side of the dune. He followed. “Because you’re engaged! I’m the alternative.”

Lily stumbled, and Verakko’s eyes shot down to her feet. Cold terror sliced through him at the sight of rippling ground. He raised his hands. “Lily, stay still, you’re—”

“No! You…” A large purple bulb rose behind her, its thick stem slithering out of the sand and its petals swirling open. Another tear leaked out, and she focused on his eyes. “Your eyes. They changed again.”

He sprinted toward her as fast as he could, but he’d let her venture too far away. Her eyes widened, and she spun around just as the petals parted to reveal a long, deadly thorn. There was a flash of movement, then Lily was crumpling to her knees.

“No!” Verakko roared, catching her before she hit the ground. “Lily? Lily?” he yelled as he wrenched her away from the hidden curling vine-like base of the vonilace plant, now reaching out from below the sand to drag her under and siphon the moisture from her body.

“What was that?” she breathed, her eyes going in and out of focus.

“Stay awake, Lily,” he swayed with everything he had. Pain sliced through him as though someone had ripped his heart out of his chest.

Her eyes widened briefly, then grew hazy again.

“Fuck!” Verakko lifted her into his arms and ran. He needed to get her to the city. To the doctor. Lily’s lids slid closed, and she grew limp.

“Stay alive. Stay alive. Stay alive,” he swayed over and over, putting all the force he could muster into the demand.

As though the universe sensed the importance of speed, his pace suddenly increased. His feet carried him across the desert faster than he’d ever gone before. Without stopping, he peered down at his hands and saw his marks. Bright blue and taunting.

Chapter 16

“Just a little farther.”

Broken words and phrases clanged through her head, trying to settle themselves. Lily attempted to think past the fire burning its way through her veins. Verakko? Was that his voice?

“Stay alive, mivassi.”

Am I dying? She wanted to cry and sweat the burning sensation out of her veins, but there was nothing left. Every part of her felt shriveled and weathered. A bitter taste lingered on her tongue, and acid burned in her throat.

“I need you here with me, Lily. I don’t want to be anywhere you aren’t.”

I’m here.

Stabbing waves of nausea sliced through her belly. Then it all faded to black.

***

“Help her!” A bellow pounded against her ear drums and cut into the soft parts of her brain.

Muffled conversation surfaced around her, but she couldn’t make out much of it. The blistering heat inside had dulled and left her insides brittle. With each breath, it felt like another rib snapped in two until she didn’t want to breathe anymore.

“Stay alive.” The command rang through her mind again, and she held on