While she seemed to have no qualms about turning her back on me and our family, I couldn’t knowingly hurt her, even when my heart felt as if it had turned to dust in my chest.

“Come with me now, and I’ll forgive you,” I told her.

The sobbing abruptly stopped, and Ciana turned her tearstained face to me in surprise. “Wh-what did you say?”

“If you come with me now, I will forgive you,” I repeated, trying to entice her away from Bain. Anything to get her as far from that motherfucker as possible. He might genuinely feel some kind of affection for her now, but it wouldn’t last. No one with O’Brion blood running through their veins could. If it weren’t for Mom and Nova, I may never have felt it either. But I’d been lucky. I’d been given two people who had taught me how to love. Bain had been raised by people who knew nothing of that kind of emotion, and it would slowly wilt Ciana’s soul if she stayed with him. “We don’t even have to tell anyone about your relationship with Bain. You know Zia would lose her mind if she found out you hooked up with him.”

Hope filled her brown eyes for all of five seconds before she took a stumbling step back, and she lowered her lashes with a sad shake of her head. “I-I can’t go with you, Ryan. I belong h-here.”

“Ciana, if you don’t come with me, I’ll never forgive you,” I threatened, unsure if I meant it or not. I wasn’t sure if I could forgive her even if she did come with me, but I had to at least try. “Your deceit has cost me the one thing in the world I can’t live without. If you had been loyal to me, to Nova, she would still be here. That’s on you. All you had to do was speak up, damn it!”

Huge tears spilled over her lashes. “I know. And that makes what I have to do now even more important. You are the person in the world I love the most, Ryan.” A wounded, snarling sound came from behind her, but neither of us looked in Bain’s direction. Our gazes were locked, both of us willing the other to understand. “You’re my best friend, my twin by choice. I won’t have your death on my conscience too.”

Before I could make sense of her words, she jerked away from Bain and ran back into the house. Bain shot me a weird look, but I was still trying to figure out what my cousin had meant by that last part.

The man holding the hatbox stepped in front of me and shoved it against my chest.

“Take your gift and leave,” Bain commanded. “Ciana has made her wishes known. Convince your people to leave and return home. Choose to stay and attempt to take her from me, and not a single one of you will see another sunrise.” He thrust his hands into his pants pockets, seeming bored once again, as if we were simply discussing the weather. “It’s up to you. I honestly don’t care what you decide at this point. Just know that I will not allow you or anyone else to take that girl from me.”