“Not if I kill you first,”Hera whispered, her lips slanted in arrogance. Her shadows slowly crept across the ground toward us.
But Aram was swiftly on his feet, his wings flexed and his stance ready to fight. His brothers appeared beside him.
Somehow, I knew they hadn’t been bonded before this, but they were after their mother’s power passed to Aram. In that moment, their brotherly bond was forged. It was how their kind survived—generations of power. It wasn’t only their mother’s they’d gotten; it was their entire clan whose power they now wielded.
Still, it was his mother’s power he used.
“No,”Aram growled, his voice wrapped in silvery magic,“You’ll do it for me. Go eliminate anyone responsible for what occurred here, starting with those closest to you, the Originals. Leave no offender who took part in today’s massacre alive, and when that’s done, end your life and do the realm a favor.”
I was slammed back into my body, my chair skirting back, but Aram caught it before I hit the ground.
Overwhelming despair made it hard to talk. Everything he’d felt when his mother died came crashing down on me. The intense sadness and rage, the never-ending regret and shame. His grief swallowed me whole.
“Little mate?” he asked on a soft whisper. “What did you see? What has made you so sad?”
I swallowed, cursing myself for not being better at this. Tears tore down my face, and I rushed to wipe them away. I used whatlittle thought I had left to construct a lie that wouldn’t give me away.
“I miss everyone.”
Shaking, I slouched in the chair and ignored the prick of his disappointment at the mention of everyone else. The intense emotion finally started to ebb away, and I sucked in a grateful breath.
I didn’t know how to interpret what I saw and felt, but what I did know was there was more to this than what Jo and Cash thought and what the rest of the realm had theorized about them. What I saw didn’t back up the claims.
They’d said it was Aram and his brothers who destroyed their people, not Jo’s mother and whoever was referenced in his growling speech. Not only that, but something clung to that memory—regret, fear, paranoia.
It was a brief thought after I moved away from the memory, but I got the sensation that he was still looking for Hera, like he didn’t believe she was dead. If Cash broke through his coercion, then it wasn’t totally crazy to think Hera could as well. But I needed more.
I needed to find out what really happened with the Originals and if Aram and his brothers were really the ones behind the Organization. Something was off here, and I’d get to the bottom of it.
Chapter 27
In Bed With the Enemy
The Season’s urges were manageable all through the weird Fae orgy court or whatever it was, but the minute we returned to Aram’s room after I made damn sure Kate was guarded and safe in hers, the lust was all-consuming. It struck me as hard as it had with Cash that first day.
I struggled in the mirror, hands shaking, as I worked the dress off my body. A little chemise number was set out on the counter, and I glared at it, close to demanding another outfit and setting this one on fire just to make my point.
My vampiric hearing picked up every movement on the other side of the door. I heard the gorgeous villain toss off his cloak first, then his suit jacket and shirt. He didn’t use magic. Something told me it was because he wanted me to hear it all.
I couldn’t hear his thoughts or feel his emotions as easily the farther we were apart. At a certain distance, not at all. I’d discovered as much over the time we spent together. It was the same with Cash. I couldn’t sense him or Jo at all now that they were far away from where I was. No tracking ability, unfortunately.
The soft sound of Aram’s zipper coming down forced me to the stone counter for support. I gripped the sink, white-knuckled and generally disappointed in myself for not being strong enough to keep the lewd thoughts at bay.
Thoughts like if his skin was silky smooth or covered in scars. Or if he had any tattoos. Images of his pants sliding down powerful legs and his hair falling around strongly cut pectorals and shoulders. He was so big it only made sense he’d be bigeverywhere. My thoughts were consumed with how big.
Fuck, this is insane.
Jaw clenched, I stared at myself in the mirror. “He’s your enemy, V. Don’t give him a goddamn inch. Everything could be some clever illusion.”
But even as I said the words, I didn’t believe them. What I’d seen, what I’d felt, couldn’t be anything but memories he never intended to show me.
I couldn’t explain how I knew without a doubt he wasn’t warping my thoughts, that he preferred not to use his coercion, especially on me—only that it was such a strong feeling I didn’t have any way of denying it. Everything he did was simply to prove himself, and even if he hadn’t been bound by the contract we struck before he grabbed me and flew away, he would’ve still done it.
Aram wasn’t as he seemed. The discrepancies were adding up by the hour, but I needed more time. I needed to dig and ask the right questions: like if he knew Lux, or why he thought Hera wasn’t dead, or what happened to his clan the day his mother died.
A knock startled me, mostly because I hadn’t heard him walk over to this side of the house-sized bedroom. “Thinking of burning the nightwear I chose for you?”
I sensed his amusement through the door. My brows pinched together as I shot my eyes down to the outfit in question. “So youdidchoose it knowing I’d want to.”
