CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN – REFUSING TO LET GO

Those fathomless eyes bored into hers, stripping away every last vestige of pretense and leaving only the raw, naked truth laid bare between them. "But I'll be damned if I stand idly by while those depraved cretins threaten to extinguish the light of my world. You are everything to me, Charlotte - my heart, my soul, the very air I breathe. And I will burn the whole bloody world to ashes before I let them take you from me." His words hung in the air like a vow sealed in iron, the intensity of his conviction sending an involuntary shiver rippling through Charlotte's frame. This was the man she had given herself to so completely, the indomitable force of nature who had claimed her heart and set her soul ablaze...and who now stood poised to step into a maelstrom of darkness in order to shield her from its encroaching tendrils. Could she let him take that step, no matter how valiant or noble his intentions? Could she be party to bargaining with the very same depravity they were fightin