Lucian reached the side of Ave's bed and stopped. He had looked forward to when she'd regain consciousness and had imagined many times how he'd first react. He'd imagined himself hugging and kissing her and vowing to protect her from ever being in danger, but now that she was awake, staring up at him with teary blue eyes and a bitter smile on her pale face, Lucian dared not move forward. She had tears in her eyes—did she blame him for putting her in this condition? Was she angry at him for not being able to stop drinking from her even though she'd trusted him with all her heart days ago?
She had faith in him and kept reassuring him that he wasn't going to hurt her, but in the end, he'd ended up doing worse than hurting her; he'd almost killed her.
