Undying Hope by Emma Weylin

much about her when she didn’t know anything about him.
    “You will ,” he promised and continued his search. When he got to where she’d carefully tucked all of her memories of Mason and her grandfather, she went rigid in Quinn’s arms and tried to pull away, but he refused to let go. He saw everything—the beatings, the humiliation, the inability to do anything at all without express permission, and the dreaded fear she had of both of them. His chest vibrated, filling the room with a low, violent rumble. “ I almost have it, sweetheart. You’re doing well.” He reached deeper into those horrors and pulled out something that Haven knew didn’t belong in her head.
    Haven struggled against Quinn, to make him let her go and get out of her mind. He held on tight and fought with the compulsion that tried to claw its way back into the crevice of her mind. Her head pounded like she was being stabbed by a thousand ice picks, but Quinn held firm. He pulled the devil out and then crushed it until there wasn’t anything left. The pain in her head vanished, and she sagged against him.
    Quinn stroked her hair, holding her close to him. “ You’re okay, sweetheart. He’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
    She was afraid to speak, so she didn’t. She burrowed into the safe harbor of his arms. “ What was that thing?”
    “The compulsion planted by Mason. He knows he won’t be able to control you anymore, but he also knows you are now mine.”
    The comment was barbaric, but there was something in the way his words flowed through her head that made them more soothing than anything else. “But we just met.”
    He leaned down, resting his head against hers. “ Then learn who I am. I won’t hide anything from you.”
    Instinctively, she understood there were things about him that she didn’t want to know. Her search through his mind started with last night in the diner. She felt his calm in the face of Kyros’s evil. The way Quinn’s body had reacted to her despite his wish that it wouldn’t. His utter loneliness suffocated him, even when he was with the people he loved and cared about. They knew him, but they never saw him. He was the rock they all leaned on, but no one took the time to see if the foundation was crumbling or not. He didn’t blame them. In fact, he was glad they didn’t look too close. He needed them safe, able to move from task to task without worry for him. His unwavering grief at the loss of each life he had to take or was taken from him overwhelmed her. The absolute resolve he had to keep the world and everyone safe from harm in a way no one else could. More than that, she saw a man pure of heart, a man who would do and did the most difficult of things for the greater good, willing to risk his own soul so another would not. There was a savage darkness in him, but it was tempered and tamed by his will as hard as diamonds and as unbendable as steel. He carried the world on his shoulders, and he wore the mantle with pride and with the undeniable truth that if he failed, the world would fail with him.
    Tears collected in her eyes and shed unabashed down her face. Her breath caught. He was the greatest of men, for all time, and he was utterly alone in the world.
    His head was still resting on hers. “Don’t cry for me. I accepted my fate long ago.”
    It was impossible not to cry for him. There was no compulsion in her desire for him; everything was true and coming from her. She knew how to check for it now, and she did, just so he would know that she understood. The pads of his thumbs brushed at her tears. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sorry.” His arms loosened their hold on her before they fell to his sides.
    She went up on her toes and hooked her arms around his neck, pulling him down closer. “I’ll pretend with you.”
    Awe and wonder filled his eyes before he lowered his head. His mouth claimed hers.
    “Mine,” he demanded.
    “Yours.” And she meant it. It was as if