Grison cut Cecir a hard look. “Donotdiscount who has taken a seat on Dagda’s Council.”
“Shaye?” Cecir scoffed. “What would he do?”
Grison held Cecir’s gaze for a few seconds more, then lowered his chin to his fist. “Thaddeus may hold no kinship for the half-breed, but I would not trust the half-breed to place a word in Dagda’s ear that allows Thaddeus a hairsbreadth of self-defense. Should Liam get ahold of Thaddeus’s mind, we’re doomed. Forget not, we are dealing with the very Fae who thrust Dagda’s own dagger through his heart.”
“He’s ruthless.” Grison snickered at Cecir’s obvious observation, lacking any humor in the sound. Ruthless was a kindness. “What would you suggest we do to handle this matter?”
“Eliminate this newest problem. Then we’ll bringThaddeus back. Remind him what our vision is, and in whose name.”
Cecir blinked, lifting his chin slightly. “The mortal woman?”
Grison’s lips tightened as he pierced Cecir with his hardened gaze. “Kill her.”
Thaddeus might become their biggest threat, but ’twas the Council, Liam specifically, who had the potential to drive their guilty verdict forward to their deaths. None could close their minds to the powerful Council member. Grison had a story prepared, playing words and situations to benefit him and Cecir. A single look into Thaddeus’s mind—a mind that frightened even Grison—would demolish all of his careful planning.
Should Shaye hold even the slightest bit of compassion for an old friend?
Grison lowered his head and sighed.
He was beginning to regret saving Thaddeus.
12
“Take down the veil. I know you’re here.”
Thaddeus did away with the weak magic, casting aside the invisibility spell with a flick of his hand and a ripple of fingers. He’d heard Cael approach, but had become so lost in his thoughts, trying to keep that strange darkness beneath his control. His thread of magic provided more information than he’d anticipated. Though Grison believed he’d been present, the foolish Fae never secured his little sanctuary once it was determined he’d left.
Cael settled beside Thaddeus where he leaned against a tree, staring out at the endless expanse of dark water. He’d returned to Cael’s home, needing time to work through the tumultuous emotions that knotted deep within his chest. So many things he thought he’d lost the ability to feel. Decades of disassociation, the only emotions revolving around a princess whose face he couldn’t draw to his mind. A princess who’d left him to die when only the eve prior she’d promised him the world.
Nay. The only person who haunted his mind was aredheaded, fragile mortal. A mortal woman with ethereal green eyes and milky skin, a faint spray of freckles over her nose, beneath her eyes, pillowy lips…
A sharp breath fled his lungs. He dropped his arms from his chest, letting his head fall back against the tree trunk.
“The mortal woman?”
“Kill her.”
The command cooled his blood, stirring that alien darkness.
Let me see you try.
“Had I wished for you to leave me in solitude, I would’ve erased the energy path in my sift and woven stronger spells to keep you away,” Thaddeus said at last. He cast Cael a sideward glance. “I knew you’d come.”
“I can follow your sifts, even if you have the gift of erasing any and all traces.”
“Aye. Blood sense.”
“Mm. Indisputable proof we’re brothers by blood, whether you like it or not.”
Thaddeus huffed, hooking his thumbs on his belt. “I never denied our kinship. Doesn’t mean I can’t erase all tracks from your keen senses, Cael. Should I wish not to be found, I can easily make it happen.”
“And yet you wanted to be found, otherwise you wouldn’t have left such an evident energy link to your current position after your brief return to check up on your woman.” Cael plucked a leaf from one of the low branches and traced the edges. “You didn’t bother to try and hide the fact that you healed her completely tonight.”
Thaddeus remained silent, staring out at the sea. Aye, he’d healed her beneath the guise of torment. He sowed seeds of loathing deep into her mind while stealing the tiniest ofpleasures by holding her against him. Cael believed his mating with a mortal woman a gift. A second chance for the wrongs he’d done in his life. What he could never understand was the degree of torture ’twas for him to suffer. The Goddess dealt him a punishment worse than death in Rori, all while tormenting him with old, suppressed emotions and sensations coming back to life.
Cael would never be privy to the severity of the wrongs Thaddeus had committed. He could never learn the worst of them. The very action that marked him as a dead Fae.
“Your actions confuse her, and she doesn’t deserve such treatment. Why do you choose to stalk her from shadows only to perform little miracles and disappear, leaving her rolling in uncertainty?”
