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I didn’t understand.

How could he have given me to the Order and then tattooed my nickname onto his arm? How could he have told his father to get rid of me and then done this?

Moya Iva.

My Willow.

I clawed at my forehead because none of it made any fucking sense.

Everything I knew about him tangled with the lies, the confusion, and the hard, cold facts.

He was a whore.

He’d fucked Keira easily enough earlier tonight. I still felt the soreness between my legs.

He gave me to the Order.

He kidnapped the girl I was trying to rescue.

But then he also raised his brother’s daughter and taught her math.

He was gentle with Keira.

He inked a willow onto his arm.

It all stirred together like paint on a canvas, each color contaminating the others until the entire thing turned a dark, ugly brown.

A whimper slipped from my lips as I dragged my gaze from his left arm to his right. A snake coiled across it, forming something like an ouroboros, except the design was actually an infinity symbol, with more snakes winding around it in an intricate pattern.

Acid flooded my heart.

It reminded me of something, but I couldn’t place it. It felt like something I’d seen before, though not quite the same.

Blackwood?

No.

Maybe?

I shook my head. No, it wasn’t right, but it was very, very close.

It didn’t matter. None of this mattered.

My nostrils flared as I tightened my grip on the knife until my knuckles turned white. I bit my bottom lip and began carving into the willow-tree tattoo. I would ruin it just as he had ruined my heart.

Three letters, and not a single reaction from him.

TRA…

Then his eyes flashed open and locked onto mine. He didn’t glance down. No, he didn’t look at the blood, the letters, or even his surroundings. His attention remained solely fixed on my face.

I swallowed, trying to ignore it. I’d only carved three letters, and four more remained.

The “I” came next, followed by “T,” “O,” and finally “R.”

All the while, his gaze burned into me, hurting me more than I was hurting him.

In fact, he didn’t seem bothered one bit.