Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One, R Nicole [top romance novels .TXT] 📗

halves to escape Camelot. Negative to positive. That was inside me, creating an endless loop. I was like an ouroboros serpent eating its own tail, a creature in a constant state of life and death. The paradox of infinity.

“If I have no beginning or end, does that mean…” I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “Am I immortal?”

Elijah tightened his grip. “I think so.”

Now I understood why Wilder was so conflicted about my fate. I hadn’t accepted what I’d become yet—not until I allowed my two halves to merge—but he’d seen what I would become when he’d taken my hand.

I was the first—and possibly last—of a new supernatural species and I did not understand how my power worked. I couldn’t even fathom how I’d gotten here.

“Do you regret it?” Elijah asked.

I wanted to say yes, but it wasn’t entirely true. “It’s difficult to let go of a lifetime of belief when you didn’t see your fate coming.”

“Yes,” he said, “it isn’t easy.”

I looked at him, desperately wanting him to open up to me. Who had he been before? I’d caught a glimpse through the link he’d created between us, but that was it—merely a few images of a life lost.

“That first night below Ben Nevis,” I began, “when I touched you… I saw something.”

He tensed and I knew he hadn’t meant for me to see anything, but neither of us understood what was going on back then. It seemed so long ago, even though it had only been a few short weeks since my capture.

“What did you see?” he asked tentatively.

“An overgrown forest, standing stones, and smoke from a campfire.” I worried my bottom lip. “Bare feet dangling in a stream. The rest was blood.”

“The day the Dark took me,” he murmured.

“When was it?”

He shook his head. “I can’t.”

“You said they took your colours.”

Ramona suspected Elijah hadn’t been human and now the pieces seemed to be falling into place. There was only one supernatural race I could think of that manifested their abilities in a prism—a hologram that contained all the colours of the universe.

“Elijah, are you—”

“Madeleine, there’s something I need to tell you.”

I groaned and let go of his hand, frustrated at his constant evasion. “Are you kidding? I’ve had enough secrets and revelations to last a lifetime.”

“Unfortunately not.” Elijah grimaced and wrung his hands together. “I told you I was only playing at working with the Dark, but that’s not entirely true.”

“Light help me. I put a lot of faith in you.”

“I know, but you took me to Camelot.”

“To save your life!” I threw my hands into the air. “And you can’t even tell me the truth about yourself!”

“I’m bound to the greater demon who captured you,” he blurted.

My blood turned cold and I jerked away from him. “What?”

“That’s why I didn’t want to go to Camelot.”

“What are you saying, Elijah?” I stood and glared at him.

“All I had to do was pass the outer wall,” he muttered. “Just stepping foot inside the city was enough.”

“Enough for what?”

His gaze met mine. “To let them in.”

“It was a set up,” I whispered, my eyes widening. “This whole thing was a trick to get back into Camelot.”

“Madeleine, no—”

“How dare you!” I screeched, hauling him off the bed and shoving him against the wall. The plaster cracked under the force of the collision and he held up his hands. Grey eyes, unnatural strength…what was I becoming?

“I didn’t know,” he pleaded.

“I betrayed my people and threw away my entire life for you!”

“Madeleine, I would have gladly died on that hill if I had known they were using me to get to you.”

“And now you’ve killed us both,” I snarled. “Why should I let you live? You owe me your life, Elijah.”

“That’s your Dark talking,” he declared. “You wouldn’t kill me.”

“Yeah? You wanna bet?” I curled my hand around his throat, my power simmering. It appeared within me, swirling like a red and silver oil slick, mixing then separating.

“Not really.”

Elijah’s power tugged on the invisible tether that bound us. My knees buckled and I collapsed against him with a frustrated cry. His arms wrapped around me, caging my body against his. I struggled for a moment, but his touch was soothing, and I began to settle.

Why was that? I trusted him, I supposed, even though we were still connected. Elijah hadn’t let me go, which meant he wasn’t afraid of what I was becoming.

That had to mean something.

“I don’t know what I am anymore,” I whispered, pressing my cheek against his chest. “I feel it inside me, trying to consume everything.”

“You know how to control it, Madeleine. You’ve had a lifetime of training that says you can.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“You’re already doing it.”

I tensed. “Doing what?”

“Can’t you see?” he whispered.

“Your…” My touch had soothed his inner demon.

“Take advantage of it while you can,” he drawled.

I didn’t know how. My people skills weren’t as developed as my warrior abilities.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“We save your friends,” Elijah murmured against my hair. “You fought for the Light your whole life. That doesn’t have to change. The rest will come in time.”

“If I go back, they’ll kill me. Wilder knows what I am. He won’t risk me turning to the Dark.”

“How do you know? You might turn up when it’s most convenient.”

“Your demonic duplicity won’t work on me.”

Elijah snorted and let me go. “Open your mind, Madeleine. It’s not about you.” I pulled back as if he’d slapped me. “All this time you’ve been showing me you can handle anything that’s thrown at you. What I don’t understand is why you can’t see it yourself.”

I wiped my damp eyes and sat on the end of the bed. It was a little late to deal with my existential crisis right now. I was broken, but so what? Everyone I knew was a little bruised and battered by life. Scarlett was orphaned at three years old when her parents were murdered by the Dark. She’d been ostracised, tormented, and ended up alone