Page 72 of Haunted Nightmares
That asshole knew about the Prophecy of Three, knew about his mother’s standing as a demi-god. He knew about the bayou, Lorna, all of it, and it’s why he essentially exiled her there. Atticus didn’t have the balls to kill her, though. I’m still trying to figure that one out, considering he didn’t hesitate to cut off all the rest of the branches of his family tree. Funny enough, I was able to get a clearer picture of the prophecy from Atticus’ thoughts as well, and it all worked rather copacetically together.
“Because my generation is the third.” Leaving my inner rambling, I refocus my eyes on Wraith, my mate shaking his head at me yet again with a rather knowing look on his face. “The prophecy is in the original treaty, and the stipulation between species was that it was forgotten, right along with the gods and their language,myjak, and every other fucking thing that makes us the superior beings. My sire wiped out my siblings, my cousins, he tried killing me so many times I lost count. Atticus knew the third generation was the threat, the ones to fix what he ruined, and he did everything he could to try to stop that.”
“But you can’t stop fate,” I say with a defeated sigh. “Even if Drusilla is still out there armed with at least some of this knowledge, and I’m sure she has the beginnings of a plan to pick up where her mate left off.”
I know that to be true, actually.
It’s part of why I came back.
Faya chose New Orleans because it’s a hotbed ofmyjakshe could feel from thousands of miles away, and because she knew it was the place we would all need to be in when the Species War happened. There are portals here, openings in the universe that allow for travel between realms, this bayou is sitting onone, and Nate and I were trying to find the only other one that’s functioning.
Lorna has been very busy behind the scenes and part of her job has been to patch up those tears to prevent anything from coming through. Anything meaning creatures like that troll decomposing in the other room.
Drusilla knows all of this.
Partially because of Atticus, mostly because she snooped to get blackmail material on him, and the rest was because she is directly connected to the double agent who’s hanging out with the Purists. I don’t know who that is, I didn’t see when Drusilla and I made contact but I’m positive she was the puppet master and might still be, and I don’t think Atticus had one damn thing to do with any of it.
I have a sneaking suspicion that Drusilla was making a lot of backdoor deals and running some sort of game herself, given she paid attention to everything Atticus did and said. And since Hans is also missing, I’d put money on the super serum crap Wraith and Declan found being something they were in on together, and not with the previous High Elder. Which pisses me off almost more than anything Atticus did, and I don’t know why. Maybe because I can’t wrap my head around a mother who doesn’t do everything in her power to protect her children, maybe because she’s a coldhearted bitch with terrible taste in clothes and males.
It doesn’t really matter, though.
Just more fuel for the fire.
I can’t wait to kill that sorry excuse of a female.
“On that murderous little thought,” Wraith growls as he presses a kiss to my shoulder before patting my butt and nudging me to my feet. “Our leathery center piece had something rather interesting in his multiple guts.”
“Oh? More interesting than the hand?”
My mate takesmyhand and leads me out of the panic room, securing the door behind us before we wade through the mess and head back to the kitchen. “Much, and I’m sure you’ll find it just as curious as I do, my love.”
Squeezing his hand a little tighter and grinning like the lovesick moron I am because I am beyond happy to be with this male again, I follow him to the sink then watch as he lets go of me to turn on the water. He rinses whatever he dropped inside the basin earlier, carefully clearing what I’m sure is a disgusting amount of troll goo from it and with an annoyed grunt, Wraith lifts it in the air as he turns to me.
My jaw fucking drops.
“Is that… no, no that can’t be, I didn’t?—”
“Afraid so, love.” He wiggles it back and forth between his thumb and forefinger then holds it out to me. “Mummy dearest is missing her ring.”
I’ll say.
It’s not just her ring, though. It’s Drusilla’s entire finger along with a thick band bearing two rows of diamonds and Atticus’ gold and blue seal in the center, still wrapped around the base. And it definitely looks like it was gnawed off.
18
All the King’s Men
WRAITH
“Should we start a fire?”
Pausing mid-sentence while testing the equipment I’m secretly using to stream the meeting to Zephyr, I turn slowly toward Archer with what can only be the blankest of looks. “What?”
“A fire,” he says with a grunt as he drops the podium on the makeshift stage. “We are outdoors, it’s a nice night for it.”
I blink just as slowly as I turned, finding myself unable to process what he’s saying due to how incredibly moronic it is.
“It’d keep the nasty little buggies away, as well.”
