She twisted her head, releasing her chin from his grip before leveling her hate-filled gaze on him. She strained against the bindings.
“You use magic to keep me here because you know I’d have been long gone otherwise. Why don’t you find yourself another faery princess to waste away your time playing bedmate with and stop wasting your precious time with the likes of little me? While I’m going to be saving lives, you threaten to take them.” She leaned toward him, against therestraints, and said between clenched teeth, “Tell me, Thaddeus. Who’s truly worthless out of the two of us?”
Despite the lick of frustration that tread a dangerous path along his mind, he braced his hands on the wall on either side of her head and lowered himself to her. He narrowed his eyes, the tension in his body at the breaking point, and closed the gap between them. To his surprise, Rori held her ground, not leaning away. Her breaths came heavy, the smell of lingering blood greeting his nostrils.
“The worthless one would be the one who doesn’t survive. There is no worth once dead, little one.” He chuckled, a low rumble that resonated through his chest. He shifted, slipping his cheek against hers until his lips brushed her ear. Dear Goddess, how the subtle tremor that suffused Rori at his touch set his entire body aflame. “You’d best remember that.”
The front door opened. Thaddeus grinned to himself, drawing his lips across her temple before he cut her free of the restraints.
“Rori?”
She shoved at Thaddeus’s chest with a fierce grunt, forcing him away. Thaddeus snickered, straightening up as Cael rounded the corner, two plastic bags dangling on his arm. His brother’s relaxed expression hardened, his eyes on alert, as he caught Rori in a one-armed embrace when she collided with him. He dropped the bags to the floor at his feet.
“What are you doing here?” Cael groused.
Thaddeus folded his hands behind his back, holding his brother’s infuriated gaze steadily. “Purging your place of unwanted vermin.”
“Then why areyoustill here?”
Thaddeus smiled, nothing shy of chilling. “To ensureitdoesn’t return.”
Cael hissed, gathering Rori beneath his arm and guiding her out of the abode, mumbling Gaelic curses beneath his breath.
The instant Thaddeus heard the door slam shut, the farce he’d kept himself hidden behind shattered. The potent burn of raw magic poured over his skin, bolts of unspent energy seeking escape. His mind whirled in a deadly dance with the darkness that he’d managed to keep at bay while in Rori’s presence but now it consumed him. The vile thoughts that swarmed his mind, the vision of red and black pulsing with each hard beat of his heart, sent him stumbling to the sofa, where he fell into the cushion, squeezed his eyes shut, and focused on grounding. His blood simmered with a heat he’d never before known. Not an eve with Daeanna, nor any other woman. It singed his veins and left him to suffer an indescribable agony throughout every other part of his body.
’Twere the wounds that brought him to the brink of losing control. The ache he suffered through some connection with the woman. The jagged tear in her lip, the marks around her neck. Goddess only knew if there were other wounds he didnotsee.
His fingers bit into his knees. Energy circled from his palms to his legs, a closed-circuit cycle until he finally began to bring it under his control. The blistering heat cooled, but the invading darkness remained, and it wanted blood.
Through the muffle of his energy, he heard the door open, close, and Cael’s steps approach. Slowly, he opened his eyes and met his brother’s infuriated gaze.
“You’re a fucking piece of work, Thad. I’m beginning to wonder if the arrow missed your cold heart so you could torture me for some karmic balance bullshit.” He rounded the chair and started to close the gap between them.
“I’d keep my distance if I were you.”
“Well, you’re not me, thank the Goddess for that.”
“Cael.”
“You’re in my fucking place?—”
Engulfed in the blackness, Thaddeus launched from the sofa, grabbed Cael by the throat, and slammed him to the floor. A sheet of magic rippled over Cael’s body, his brother defending himself through his own magical efforts. Thaddeus’s lips pulled back from his teeth as he bore down on his brother, bringing his face close, narrowing his eyes.
“Who?” he snarled. He barely recognized his own voice. “Who did it?”
Cael growled. A burst of power threw him backward. He hit the side of the sofa. Cael rolled onto his hands and knees, gasping for breath between coughs.
“Goddess damn you, Thad!”
He threw a scathing look back at Thaddeus. Thaddeus met it with a deep scowl as he pulled himself onto the sofa, limbs trembling with a mix of spent energy and adrenaline, and resumed grounding.
“I warned you to keep your distance.”
“Youneed to control yourself.” Cael stumbled to his feet, swaying as he gained his balance. Thaddeus followed his brother with his gaze as he shuffled to the chair directly across from him and dropped heavily into the seat. “What’s your trigger? A woman in my home? Oh, wait. Amortalwoman, right?”
Thaddeus’s jaw tightened. “Whywasshe here?”
“I asked her to come. Had I known you’d take it upon yourself to invade my home, I would’ve changed plans. As for a reason why, that’s none of your concern.”
