ADRIAN’S P.O.V.
I leaned back in my chair, the soft crackle of the fireplace filling the silence. My gaze lingered on Juliette, whose brown eyes were filled with an intensity I couldn’t ignore. Teresa sat with her arms crossed, her expression a mixture of defiance and curiosity. Leonard, of course, lounged like he didn’t have a care in the world, while Lucian’s eyes were turned in my direction, his head tilted as though listening for a hidden truth in my voice.
"How did I co back from that?" I repeated Juliette’s question, my voice calm and deliberate, though the mories stirred a storm inside . "The truth is, I didn’t. Not really."
The room seed to lean in closer. Even Leonard, for all his antics, was quiet.
"After Margaret..." I hesitated, the image of her drenched in her family’s blood haunting for a mont. "After what she did, she hated . She hated herself more, but her anger—her fury—it was directed at . For centuries, she chased away. Fought , cursed , blad for everything. And I..." I smiled faintly, though there was no humor in it. "I stayed. No matter how much she pushed away, I refused to leave her side."
"Why would you do that?" Teresa asked sharply, her voice trembling with remnant of anger and other emotions. "She didn’t want you there, Adrian. You should’ve let her be."
"Perhaps," I admitted, my gaze fixed on the flas. "But guilt has a way of binding you to soone. I couldn’t leave her—not after what I had done. I owed her that much. And I loved her."
Lucian let out a low, disbelieving chuckle. "Love? That doesn’t sound like love to , Daegon. That sounds like punishnt."
"Maybe it was both," I said softly.
Juliette’s hand tightened on my arm, grounding . "How bad did it get between you two?"
"Bad enough," I admitted. "We couldn’t leave physical scars on each other, not as vampires, but the ones we left on each other’s hearts... those were deep. There were monts when I thought I might finally break under the weight of it all, especially when she sought revenge against my parents."
"What do you an?" Juliette gasped, the shock evident in her gaze. I smiled sadly, recalling the mory.
"She killed my parents, Juliette. She drained both of them of blood and then set them ablaze so they wouldn’t co back as vampires."
Teresa scread in horror, but Lucian was quick to comfort her with a hug, while tears pooled in Juliette’s eyes. She looked at , lost for words, her hands still firm in mine as though trying to convey exactly how she felt. I understood; she didn’t need to say anything.
"Adrian, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to help," Leonard said sadly. I waved him off, telling him not to worry. "It happened a long ti ago. I’m fine now, though the mory still hurts a bit." Leonard nodded but then asked,
"What about your siblings? Did they die by her hands too?"
Everyone looked at expectantly, and I shook my head before replying, "No. Luckily, my siblings were visiting my grandparents when it happened, so she never saw them."
There were audible sighs of relief around the room, and I continued.
"After that incident, to ensure my family’s safety, I decided to start a coven to protect them from afar. The people I turned were mostly those who wanted to live longer but had been dealt a bad hand in life. It was during that ti that I t Harry."
"Harry?" Leonard perked up, his usual smirk returning. "Ah, the ever-loyal second-in-command. I like that guy. Always so serious, though. You should really get him to loosen up."
I chuckled softly, shaking my head. "Harry had been shot in several places by soone and left to die in the forest, but I happened co upon him during his last breathes. His desperation to live made decide to turn him. After that, Harry beca my voice of reason when I had none. He watched torture myself over Margaret."
Lucian gasped. "You still wanted her after everything she did?"
His disbelief made laugh, but I quickly answered. "Yeah, I did. I blad myself for everything she did, and I wanted to stay by her side—even if just to ease her pain a little. One day, Harry asked a question that got thinking: ’Why don’t you just let her go?’"
"And what did you say?" Juliette asked, her eyes searching mine.
"I told him the truth," I replied. "That I owed her a debt I could never repay. That I still loved her deeply."
Lucian snorted. "And what did Harry say to that?"
"He told I was a fool," I said with a wry smile. "He warned that my feelings for Margaret had started as love but had turned into obsession, then guilt. Finally, I was using it to punish myself for the cris I committed against her. He said that if I didn’t let her go, she’d destroy completely. He wasn’t talking about physical death," I added, glancing at Teresa, "but the kind of death that leaves you hollow."
The room fell silent for a mont, the weight of Harry’s words sinking in.
"And did she?" Juliette asked softly.
I hesitated before answering. "Not in the way Harry feared. After centuries of pushing away, Margaret ca back to willingly. She told she couldn’t hate , no matter how much she wanted to. That her heart still belonged to . And she asked to forgive her for all the pain she caused ."
"She begged for forgiveness?" Teresa asked, incredulous.
"She did," I said, my voice thick with emotion. "And I forgave her. How could I not? I had been waiting for centuries to hear those words. I apologized to her too, for everything I’d done. For the first ti in a long while, I thought we might finally have peace."
"And did you?" Lucian’s tone was sharp, skeptical.
"For a while," I admitted. "Barely two weeks after we reconciled, she told sothing that changed everything. She had heard rumors that the witches who took as a child had resud their experints. They were kidnapping children again."
Juliette paled, her hand covering her mouth. "No..."
"I didn’t believe her at first," I said, my jaw tightening. "I had personally ensured that coven’s punishnt for what they did to . It was... grueso. I won’t repeat the details here." I glanced at Teresa, who looked like she might vomit.
"But Margaret insisted," I continued. "She said she had seen it with her own eyes. When I questioned her further, she grew angry, accusing of not trusting her."
"And did you?" Leonard asked, surprisingly serious.
"I did," I said simply. "I had no reason to doubt her. So, I gathered my coven, with Margaret by my side, and we marched to the witches’ lair."
"And that’s when it all went to hell, didn’t it?" Lucian said dryly. I bet he wanted to roll his eyes at my stupidity but he held back.
I gave him a faint smile. "You’re not wrong. What I didn’t realize was that Margaret had her own motives. She wasn’t concerned about the children. She wanted vengeance against the coven’s new high priestess, a witch nad Nancy Cornwell. Margaret had been manipulating from the start, using as a weapon to achieve her goals."
The room was silent, the weight of my confession hanging heavy in the air.
"When did you figure it out?" Juliette asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"By the ti I realized the truth, it was too late," I admitted.
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