Free Seduced by the Wolf by Bonnie Vanak

fading even as he held her tight.
    Ariel struggled to speak, her pale lips moving. He sensed each breath was a struggle.
    â€œThe land, it’s tainted with blood. Father and our people cleansed that, but they could not erase what seeped into the earth and took root. What you buried there, Jarrett.”
    Â 
    Ariel did not want to fight anymore. It felt too exhausting. A dull ache pounded in her limbs, making them feel sluggish. She wanted to fall down and sleep, avoid the light. The light that showed the truth.
    Lines of tension whitened his mouth. “The burial was a secret. No one saw it.”
    â€œYou blame…yourself… for the deaths. For Chloe. For the violence. You’ve shut yourself away from your feelings because you could not bear to face them. Hoping to keep them locked away. You banished your guilt into the ground when you erected the fence…and put a spell on it to restrict the land. My father tried…removing it. It was siphoning off our energy, started when you returned. Guilt, tried returning to you. Spell backfired, and went into my people. Barefoot, it pricked them, infected them. Infected… me.”
    She struggled to pull air into her lungs. She had to tell him, save him somehow. “The monster leaching life from my people…it’s you.”

Chapter Eleven
    Jarrett had done this. Horror clawed down his spine. Ariel looked lifeless, as desolate as he’d once been. Hell, of course, she carried his guilt inside her now. All of it, all that damnable negative energy.
    Now he understood why his men had failed to track out the dark scent tainting the mountain. It was his.
    Jarrett clasped Ariel’s cold arms. A ghost image of her former self, she seemed insubstantial as mist.
    â€œForgive…only way.”
    â€œI’ll take it back,” he said frantically.
    â€œNo!” She coughed and grasped his wrist, her grip feeble. “It multiplied in the earth, the blood and death…making it strong. If you take it back, kill…you.”
    If he took back his guilt, he would die.
    If he did not, Ariel would die.
    Her eyes closed. Ariel collapsed on the ground. Jarrett picked her up, rocking her back and forth. He moaned, feeling her heart slow, seeing the edges of death push around his vision.
    No. Not Ariel with her boundless energy for life, her nobility and courage and passion. He must not allow this.
    For years he refused to forgive himself. He’d lived with the knowledge his guilt was buried in the ground, hidden away from all. He could not forgive himself. He’d taken lives and caused pain.
    And now he was killing Ariel and her people. More would die.
    Because of me .
    Forgive. The words hung in the air. Jarrett touched the Luminaire, watching the light wink out.
    With extreme care he set Ariel on the cold rocky ground. Jarrett stood up and stretched out his arms.
    â€œNo. Take me. Come back to me, damnit. You’re mine. You will not claim another life, unless it’s mine.”
    Closing his eyes, he let go of all the rage, all the guilt, all the sorrow. He saw Chloe’s face, their hope for the future and the child they’d never held, and let go of that as well.
    Silence quivered in the air. Jarrett opened his eyes.
    The Fae remained still on the mine floor. Ariel slumped against the wall, motionless and pale.
    Didn’t work. Damnit, what more could he do? Jarrett opened his fingers. “Please,” he whispered in a broken voice. “I forgive myself. Release them.”
    A mocking silence answered him.
    He hadn’t felt this helpless since Chloe died. This was worse. At least when he’d lost Chloe, he’d tried to save her, tried to stop the bleeding. Now he didn’t know what he could do. Let go of the guilt? Fine, he let go. Didn’t work.
    â€œWhat the hell do you want from me?” he screamed.
    Jarrett sank down beside Ariel. He gathered her into his arms, her body like a block of ice.