I want to punch him as well, but Sabelle jumps in. “Ice… The Doomsday Brethren need you.”
“Yeah, your brother needs slave labor, just as he did during his early Council days.” I glare at Bram. “I’ll bet you never told anyone I did most of your research or wrote a great many of your speeches.”
Bram curses. Surprise transforms Sabelle’s face. Score.
“I’m good enough to break my back for you, but not good enough to be beside you in politics or family. Nice.”
“No, it’s not nice. But it’s reality.” Bram huffs. “Stop being idealistic. The Council would have laughed at your nomination two hundred years ago. Today, magickind will benefit from Sabelle mating to Lucan so he can ascend. We cannot allow Mathias on the Council. But we need your useful muscle. I freely admit you’re our most prolific killer. I need you for your ability to spill blood, not your political acumen. And definitely not your insistence on fucking my sister.”
I clench my fists. It’s all I can do not to pummel the fucking prat.
Sabelle whirls on him. “I don’t know what the devil is wrong with you, but if you say one more cruel word to him, I’ll throw you out myself.”
Anger tightens Bram’s face. He looks ready to lash out at Sabelle when I step between them. “I value your sister above all others. If you’re talking to her like that, you clearly don’t.”
“Fine. You want me to lick your arse so you’ll stay. You’re the most fearless warrior we have. The fucking best. Happy?”
“Shut up!” She explodes at her brother. Then she turns to me, clasping my shoulder, her expression full of soft regret. “Please… Don’t abandon the cause. We need you. If you hadn’t been with me these past few days…”
She would be dead.
Fuck, the pair of them ask too much of me. Stay where I am not wanted but needed? Remain for the good of the bloody cause, where I’ll be forced to watch the witch I love mate with another?
But if they all die because I turned them away…
“What would Gailene have wanted?” Sabelle murmurs.
It’s a brutal question, but the answer is easy: for me to do the right thing. Gailene, bless her, always had an unbending moral compass. She did what was right, regardless of the pain or personal sacrifice. Her sense of rightness, of fairness, always amazed me, especially since our father showed her no such example.
Thoughts still race through my head when several more gongs sound. MacTavish, Lucan and Caden. A Wolvsey ring follows. What the hell? I’m being invaded. Clearly, all the warriors followed Bram. It was humiliating enough to reveal the painful plainness of my home to Sabelle. But to have every other Privileged warrior here as well? Give them a reason to forever mock me?
“Go the fuck away, all of you!” I storm from the room, down the hall, to the back of the cave, seeking the secret exit that leads to the vast expanse of lake and forest, not to mention blessed privacy.
Instead, Caden’s voice stops me. “Ice, let us in! Tynan is injured, and Sydney is freezing.”
Fuck. I don’t want to see a decent wizard die unnecessarily. And while I hate Lucan MacTavish for stealing Sabelle, I don’t want his human sister-by-mating to suffer. But the last thing I want is everyone invading my personal space and secretly mocking how I live.
“Why the devil are all of you here?” I roar, marching to the front of the dwelling. “Sterling’s fine estate has plenty of rooms for you.”
“My uncle’s home is no longer safe,” Lucan shouts through the door.
Grumbling, I drop my defenses long enough to let them all close, then fling the door open. First, I admit the pretty redhead, who huddles in a coat I recognize as Caden’s. Her mate follows, carrying a limp, bleeding Tynan. Lucan and the Wolvsey twins sidle in from the cold, Ronan curling a pretty blonde at his side. Their magical signatures declare her human and them mated.
Sterling MacTavish emerges from the back of the pack and pushes his way in front of his nephews, just past my front door. “Clifden O’Shea is dead. Attacked and slaughtered. Signs point to Anarki.”
I nearly stop breathing. Mathias is moving bloody fast.
“Tynan went to visit him and encountered a fight. He was injured but managed to get himself out,” Duke adds. “It’s clear Mathias intended to finish off Clifden’s heir, too. Damn near succeeded.”
I curse. Tynan, I somewhat like. For a Privileged, he isn’t all bad.
“Can we come in?” Caden holds the injured Tynan, who looks dirty, bleeding, and unconscious. “If Tynan dies, Mathias will have another open Council seat to vie for.”
Bloody hell. I can’t let that happen.
“I should go,” Lucan announces, gaze lingering on Sabelle. “I merely came to check…the situation.”
In other words, make certain I haven’t raped or harmed her. As if I could.
