“Help me move these closer so I can do the trade-out.” Kendrick gathered a few of the gems and Caden picked up the others while I got myself vertical. My pussy was throbbing, begging for attention, but the safety of the nest had to come first.
I watched curiously as Kendrick maneuvered the gems through the ward and extracted the gold torque, all of us frozen and waiting for some cataclysmic response when he plucked it past the wall of energy. The wards shivered, but seemed to attach successfully to the stones.
Kendrick rose with the torque in hand and hooked it around my neck. “Yelena is going to hate this.”
I traced the warm metal. “Why?”
“In part because we fucked with the wards without getting everyone’s permission, but mostly because you’ll be walking around with something of mine around your neck. Might as well collar you and we would get the same reaction from her.”
Warmth rippled over my skin, the torque drinking it up instantly. “We don’t have a choice.”
He bent closer, and I thought he might kiss me, but it was only to examine the gold. “There’s a script etched into the metal. We should look up what they mean. Maybe that’s the answer to your sigil question.”
Caden wrapped his arms around my waist, pressing against my back. “Should we test how much it can take?”
“What if I break it?”
“You’re not the first witch to wear it in the last thousand or so years. I’m sure it can handle you.”
“Let’s fucking hope so.”
“I’m going to kill him.” I held Logan’s shoulders too tight, fury boiling in my gut that Kendrick would dare put such a public claim on her.
“I’ll help,” Velda offered.
“No one is killing anyone,” Logan insisted, reaching to cup my face. “My magic is getting erratic. There are only so manyoptions to contain it, and Kendrick was right that this is the safest choice.”
“He just wants his mark around your neck. He’s still pissed that I claimed you before he did.”
“That’s not what’s happening.” Her gaze was sweet, imploring, but it wasn’t enough to sway me.
“Precious, with all due respect, you don’t know Kendrick the way we do.”
“And you don’t know him like I do.” She stepped out of my grip, fury sparking in her gaze.
Should we throw him to the monster?Velda asked me.
More satisfying to eat him.
“Logan, we know you love to see the best in everyone,” Velda began. “Kendrick is?—”
“Helping me.”
She was a beacon of sincerity in the bond. What on earth had Kendrick done to get her to believe him?
“I know you don’t like him, but we need every resource we can get. Kendrick is helping me learn telepathy, and I don’t know what can help me if not this,” Logan said, laying her fingers across the torque. “Our options are limited. Whatever your past issues with him are, they’re going to have to wait until we get through this.”
Past issues. Ha. Kendrick was arecurringissue and a pain in the ass.
“He put the nest in danger by removing the torque. That should’ve been brought to us so we could discuss and vote. Neither of you have the authority to make choices like that on your own.”
Logan wrapped her arms around herself, digging her fingers into her biceps. Her nerves twisted through the bond, turning my stomach. “You have to be mad at me too, then. I could’ve told him we needed to wait and talk to everyone.”
“I’m not going to blame you for anything he’s done.” With a sigh, I stepped forward and drew her into my arms. “I’m sorry I’ve been so neglectful as a mate that you felt you had to go to him.”
That only made a flood of guilt come through the bond from her. “Yelena…”
“I’ll take over your telepathy training,” said Velda.
