Page 22 of Fated In Ruin
“Memories don’t lie. They just…are. You’ll have to draw your own opinions from what you see, but I can show you everything I’ve seen, enough for you to trust me.”
“I’ll never trust you. I gave you my word, that should be good enough.”
And maybe it should have been, but I wanted more. Ineededmore. Some stubborn, male part of me—probably the same goddamned part that wanted to bed her—needed Evangeline to help me because shewantedto, not because I was forcing her.
Foolish, but there was the ugly truth.
I shook my head. “I need your loyalty, Vicious. Not this…” I waved my hand at her, “halfhearted sham at keeping your word, so you can kill me later. Iknowyou had your fingers crossed.”
That earned me one of those wolfish grins. “At least you aren’t deluding yourself I’ll fall in love with your traitorous, lying ass.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Just fucking…look at my memories and then I’ll unbind your magic. Teach you a few ways of controlling your power before we do some reconnaissance.”
Interest ignited in those gorgeous eyes.
“Yes, we’ll find Ravok, and whatever’s left of Silas and your uncles. See what we’re up against. Are you ready?”
Because we were out of time and I was an asshole, I gripped her arms, shoving my memories into Vicious, feeding them to her one after the other, not letting her take a single breath, because if she told me no, I would have to stop, and I couldn’t.
Not when she had to know the truth.
The memories left a coating of bile in my mouth, a sourness I knew I’d taste for days, and I wrapped my arms around a shaking Evangeline as my past played out in her head. Every horror Ravok was capable of, every part her bloodline had played in Caine’s terrible ascendancy.
Not everything, but what she needed to convince her we had to fight for survival.
Hers. Mine. Everyone’s.
10
EVANGELINE
I’m…standing in an ancient stone alleyway choked with dust.
A shallow stream of brown water flowed to my left, reeking of piss and shit, and the air wasn’t any better, ripe with rot. One glance down had me dodging away from the cloaked figures hunched in the shadows, scabbed arms reaching toward me, hands and wrists covered in seeping sores.
What the fuck is this?
Memories of the past. Nothing here can harm you. Now be quiet and watch. Malachi’s voice echoed inside my head, but when I scanned the narrow space again, me—and the beggars—were the only ones here.
Until an enormous male dematerialized out of thin air, filling up the narrow space, sending the beggars skittering deeper into the shadows.
He was tall, with a brutal, muscular body made for violence, and even though his arms were covered in scars, he moved like a male who had no challengers, faced no real threats, because he was the biggest predator around. My lungs hollowed out as he drew close enough for me to glimpse his face, harshly brutal and cruel, set with glittering black eyes that didn’t hold a shred of mercy.
No, they danced with savagery and madness in equal parts, and…
A tiny figure appeared out of thin air, some invisible wind whipping the edges of her cape around her legs before it settled. Her mouth thinned out, “Caine. I do not appreciate being summoned like this.”
The female was classically pretty, and a haze of power filtered the air around her, keeping the dust—and maybe the stench—at bay. Pale blonde hair, almost the color of Angel’s, framed her heart shaped face, her blue eyes brimming with hate.
She had to tip her head back to peer up at Caine. “I have already given you your answer, it is not my problem you cannot comprehend the word no.”
Well, I liked her already.
“You still assume you have a choice in this, Aoife.” He pronounced her name likeEE-fa. “You do not. You and your coven will either obey, or cease to exist.”
Her smile turned dry. “Better we cease to exist than serve at the beck and call of a monster such as you.”
“Hmm. We will see.”
