We were in a room in the academy basement that had served as a prison cell. When I’d asked why there was a prison cell in the basement of a school, Cara had merely stated that it hadn’t always been a school.
Kiko had told me some of the history of this place. I vowed to discover more of it.
The enclosed space made it oddly intimate, sitting here with Havoc. Only I wasn’t alone in my vigil. Kiko sat beside me, while the Dragona leaned on the wall.
“You two don’t have to stay,” I said.
“Cara told you to leave.” The Satyr planted her hands on her hips. “And as you are clearly not going to listen to her, I’m not leaving you alone here with him.”
Vali looked around her and shuddered, but added, “That goes for me, too.”
I appreciated their support. Wasn’t sure I deserved it. I tried to offer them a smile, but it only translated to an upward twitch of my lips. It was all I had the energy for. If it hadn’t been for Cara giving me a boost after she’d worked on Havoc, I’d be as flat out as him.
The Watcher had pushed for me to leave with her. I’d asked for a few more minutes, and she’d granted them. After all, this was the blasted Dragon that had bitten me.
I had questions, and some revolved around Vali. “How do you know Havoc?”
When she hesitated, I hurried to add, “You don’t have to tell me. I was just curious.”
She tucked her hair behind her ears. “It wasn’t really Havoc I knew. It was his twin brother.”
I stared at her. “Havoc has a twin brother?”
Her full lips twisted. “Hehada twin brother. Ace—died.” She blinked and looked away.
The undercurrent beneath the words—I didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”
When she looked back at me, her eyes were luminous with tears. And then she told me. About two Dragons bred to be monsters. About their powerful bond. And about Vali meeting Ace when he’d escorted Xumi to a session with her father.
She stopped, suddenly, and when she continued, her voice had dropped to hardly more than a whisper. “We knew from the first moment our eyes met. But I was an underlord’s daughter. And he was a slave.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. She was talking about Fate.
“I convinced my father that we should try to buy Ace off Xumi, that he would be a valuable asset. My father agreed—of course, now I know why. He was planning his own bid to gain power. But Xumi wouldn’t sell him…”
Her voice broke, and she wiped angrily at the tears threatening to spill over. And then she told us the rest of it. How her push to buy Ace had led to Xumi’s experiment to discover the secret behind Havoc and Ace’s success as Derangers. Of Ace dying, horribly.
“We’d already started the bond, although he refused to bite me until he was free.” She choked. “But it was far enough along that I felt the moment when he died.”
The only sound in the room was Havoc’s heavy breathing. Vali’s pain-glazed eyes met mine. “A big part of me died with him. Fated mates rarely survive the death of one half. Yet when Brock’s pinions took my family—Havoc was supposed to mate me, to make me a breeder… a womb. When he came for me, I was prepared to die rather than let that happen. But he set me free.”
I stared at her. Havoc?ThisHavoc?
“Havoc blames me for Ace’s death,” she whispered. “But he still let me go. I don’t know why, but he did.”
My heart hurt. So much pain and death. And that stuff about fated mates—what happened if instead of one dying, they left? Never completed the bond?
I remembered what she’d said to me. That if I lost them—there would be a hole inside me that could never be filled.
“Was Ace a lot like Havoc?” Kiko’s voice was hoarse, and there were tears in her eyes, too. I got the feeling that she already knew Vali’s story. Knowing Kiko, she’d likely kept at it until she’d wrestled it from the Dragona.
Vali shook her head. “No. They were like two sides of the same coin. Ace had the monster inside him, you could feel it, but he was ashamed of it. He loved to read—” She swallowed. “The monster is stronger in Havoc.” She shot me a look. “But they were close as can be, and there must be something of Ace in him, for him to have set me free.”
I looked away. Havoc had seemed to be a creature ruled by his monster—and if that was the case, I shouldn’t be here when he woke up. I glanced at my watch—a few minutes down here had stretched into half an hour.
I swear I sent a signal to my feet to stand, but nothing happened. Fang’s beady little eyes stared at me from her perch on Havoc’s chest. My mouth opened, and words dropped out.
“You two should go.”
