even longer than I’d ever remembered it being. Dirty almost, like he hadn’t
showered in days. Strands of dark hair fell in front of his eyes, and that alone
was a red flag. My dad always, always had his hair slicked back.
And his eyes…
Madness and desperation didn’t even begin to encapsulate the emotions
peeking out through them. They were wild and unhinged, angry and volatile.
He was a ticking time bomb on a short fuse, and I just knew that whatever
had occurred caused him to finally explode.
And everyone would pay the price.
Finally, when it felt like I couldn’t take the suspense anymore, I managed
to choke out, “What happened?”
“Your mother’s dead,” he gritted out, and the words felt like a wrecking
ball destroying the very last piece of my soul. My mother wasn’t the kindest
woman in the world, but I knew she loved me in her own way. She was strict
and forceful, bigoted and rude, but she cared about me in a way only a
mother could. I hadn’t seen her in a few months—she preferred to spend her
time in the Shifter Kingdom while I remained at the capital—but she would
write to me weekly. And now, she was…dead.
That word felt so final, so absolute. A part of me wanted to scoff at my
father, to tell him that he had it wrong and my mother wasn’t dead. How
could she be, when we planned to meet next month and have dinner? When
she promised to celebrate my birthday with me in a few months? I still had a
card sitting on the nightstand beside my bed with her name on it for Mother’s
Day, one of the few human traditions that we kept when the Sins descended
on this Earth.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
My legs wobbled underneath me, but before they could collapse
completely, my father gripped my arm, yanking me upright.
“Don’t fall apart on me, boy,” he hissed, giving my arm a shake. “We
have things to do.”
I could barely get my next word out. It scratched at something raw and
bloody in my throat. “What?”
And then my father smiled, and it was so disturbing and unhinged that I
knew whatever remained of the man before my mother died had gone into
that grave with her.
“Humans to kill.”
“LUPE.” SOMEONE SHOOK MY SHOULDER. “LUPE, WAKE UP. LUPE!”
I jolted awake, my heart racing a mile a minute as I struggled to orient
myself to my surroundings. Realizing I was still in the stolen vehicle with
Devlin driving, I rubbed a hand down my face and released a heavy sigh.
“Fuck. How long was I asleep?” I questioned, shifting in the
uncomfortable leather seat in an attempt to stretch out my sore muscles.
Devlin barely took his eyes off the road as he answered. “Only a few
hours. But you started thrashing, man. Bad dream?”
“Bad memory,” I responded cagily, my words nothing more than a
guttural growl as my bear struggled to break free. I didn’t like talking about
my dad any more than Devlin liked hearing about him. We all had our
demons, but mine so happened to be one of the biggest dictators in fucking
history.
Though I was sure my father and half the nightmare population wouldn’t
agree with my assessment of the evil man.
“I thought your dad went back to the Shifter Kingdom,” Devlin
murmured as we began to drive through the twisting path of the mountain
towards the capital building. “What is he doing back here?”
“I’m not sure,” I responded warily. I didn’t trust this one fucking bit.
Fuck, I should’ve been with Z, but instead, I was traipsing through the
fucking capital without a word of reasoning.
Thoughts of my mate had a cold, icy fear slithering through my intestines.
I knew my brothers would look after her with their lives, but that didn’t stop
the irrational terror from strangling my airways. I should’ve been with her
too. Looking after her. Protecting her. It was my job as her mate to always
provide for her. What if something happened while I was away? What if I
didn’t get to say goodbye to her? What if—
“She’ll be fine,” Devlin told me softly, removing one hand from the
where my thoughts had taken me. No doubt, his were on the exact same
airwave as mine.
“I don’t like this,” I said as we pulled to a stop in front of the capital
building. Devlin’s jaw clenched as he nodded once, putting the car into park
and then turning off the ignition. For a moment, we simply sat in silence,
staring up at the large building which had served as our home for the better
part of our childhoods.
It sat in a valley created by the mountains, the stone burnished in
glittering gold. A dozen pillars held up a large balcony that blocked out the
sunlight the closer to the entrance you ventured. There were hundreds of
windows lining the perimeter of the building, each one displaying a copious
amount of artificial lighting. A large body of water sat directly to the right of
the mansion, and I spotted more than a few mermaids splashing about.
Anger darkened my vision at the thought of one of those mermaids being
Dair’s father, but I shoved that rage aside. For now, I had to remain
levelheaded.
At least until I could figure out what the fuck my father wanted and get
back to Z.
I exchanged a glance with Devlin, no words needing to be said, before we
exited the car and stormed towards the front entrance.
The peach-colored walls were no doubt designed to give the room a
cheerful atmosphere, but I knew better than anyone that the bright colors
couldn’t hide the darkness and blood staining every available surface. The
Damning was held here every five years, and every five years, more bodies
fell to the ground. Just thinking about the death and cranage that had occurred
when Z won sent bile rushing up my throat.
All of those lives…
Most of them were murderers who deserved far worse fates, but some of
them were innocent. The girls there for the Matching, for example, had no
part to play in it. Yet their bodies were some of the many that littered the
capital’s halls and stained the carpeting bright red.
As if she felt me thinking of her, Mrs. Grinshaw, the organizer of the
Matching and one of the palace’s workers, hurried around the corner. Her
gray hair was tidied back in a slick bun, and she wore a floral gown that
cinched at her waist.
“Prince Devlin, Prince Lupe. You’re here. Come.” She turned on her heel
without another word of greeting, stalking in the direction of the throne room.
I glanced at Devlin once more, his confusion mirroring my own, before
hurrying after Grinshaw.
“What’s going on?” Devlin straightened his spine, clasping his hands
behind his back. Even without his crisp black suit on, he played the part of
arrogant prince to perfection.
Grinshaw hesitated, almost as if she wanted to say more than she was
allowed to, before simply stating, “I was instructed to bring you to the throne
r
oom.”
Unease gripped my heart in an iron vise and squeezed until it felt like
blood was sloshing around in my head. I couldn’t ignore the tiny voice in my
mind screaming that this was wrong, that it was dangerous, that I needed to
turn in the opposite direction and run far, far away.
But my father had threatened Z. He knew what she was to me, to us, and
he wouldn’t hesitate to exploit those bonds for his own gain. She would be
forced to travel back to the capital in less than two days, and if there was a
trap waiting for her, I needed to know.
Grinshaw pushed open the door to the throne room, and we entered to
complete fucking silence. Not a single breath of air punctuated it, causing my
unease to amplify.
Six of the kings sat on their thrones staring down at us. The only one
absent was Ryland’s father, the shadow king.
I could feel the power of their gazes as they pressed down on me,
strangling my airways. The boy in me wanted to cower, but I held my chin up
stubbornly and met my father’s gaze.
“Father, what is this?”
This was more than a little concerning. It was fucking nauseating.
When we left to rescue Jax, all of the kings had returned to their
respective kingdoms. What were they doing back? What the fuck was
happening?
“We have a traitor in our midst,” my father said lazily, rising from his
seat. His yellow robes cascaded around his ankles as he moved. I’d always
hated that fucking color. It looked like puke and piss mixed together. But as it
was the official color of the shifters, so I had to wear the pu-iss color more
than I cared to admit.
“You called me back here to discuss a traitor?” I scoffed in disbelief,
though my heart was racing rapidly inside of my chest. I was half afraid it
would develop arms and legs, burst through my rib cage, and then flop
around on the floor like a dying fish.
I moved to readjust my reading glasses on my face before remembering I
hadn’t put them on. In all honesty, I had no idea where the fuck they’d gone.
My father snapped his fingers, and a moment later, a door on the opposite
end of the throne room opened and two guards entered, dragging a familiar
man between them.
Everything stopped. Paused. Tilted on its axis.
Devlin sucked in a sharp breath beside me, his eyes riveted on the figure
held between the two guards.
“This traitor,” my father’s lips curled as he spat at the prisoner’s feet,
“has been accused of helping the resistance destroy us from the inside out. “
The resistance?
As in…the Alphabet Resistance?
“We had a plan to destroy their base of operation a second time, after they
regrouped after our first attack,” Dad continued, his upper lip peeling away in
a sneer. “But when we arrived at the caves our spies told us about, we found
the area completely deserted. It didn’t take too long until we discovered that
they’d been tipped off by this fucking bastard.” He kicked at the prisoner’s
stomach, and the man wheezed, his face contorting in pain.
“W-what am I doing here?” I demanded, dragging my father’s attention
off the “traitor” and towards me. What the fuck would he do if he discovered
the truth of Z’s involvement in the resistance? No doubt, he would kill her.
And me as well, despite our shared blood.
“You need to prove your loyalty to the kingdom and to me, your
immortal king.” A slanted, wicked grin pulled up his lips as my mind froze
on the last two words of his statement. But I couldn’t focus on that, not when
my gaze was drawn to the broken man before me, his face mottled with
bruises and scars but the defiant spark in his eyes unmistakable.
“And what would that be?” Devlin interjected, and another scowl pulled
at Father’s lips at being addressed by the genie prince.
“Torture the information we need out of him, the same way you did to
that disgusting human.”
T. He meant T, whom I was forced to hurt in order to spare his life.
I clamped my mouth shut to stop the flurry of insults that wanted to erupt.
Bile swarmed in my lower stomach, but I kept my face carefully impassive.
A few things became painfully clear.
First, the kings, despite their haughty attitudes, still didn’t know about Z’s
involvement in the Alphabet Resistance, which was probably the only thing
keeping her alive.
Second, the kings had something to do with Aaliyah. I didn’t know what,
only what Jax had told me about the exchange he’d witnessed when he was
her prisoner, but I didn’t trust it for one goddamn second.
And third, this entire time, the shadow king had been a spy for the
resistance.
Fuck.
TWELVE
Z
Everything hurt, but I was alive.
Which was more than could be said about the hellhounds and
dragon. My eyes latched on to a familiar symbol etched into the
nearest hellhound’s shoulder—numerous thin black lines that morphed into
thicker red ones, creating a makeshift circle. It was the same mark that had
been on the gorgon and kraken, on the basilisk and fae.
If I had any doubt before about who’d been behind this attack, it
dissipated at the sight of those markings.
Aaliyah.
“Z.” Dair’s familiar ocean scent engulfed me a second before his arms
did. I squeezed my eyelids shut and leaned into his embrace as emotions
bombarded me from all directions.
The first one was anger—anger at Aaliyah for trying to hurt me and my
mates. Anger at the world in fucking general.
And then there was sadness, though I didn’t know what it was directed at.
But underneath all of that, and growing larger and larger like a snowball
moving down a hill, was hope and joy.
I spun in Dair’s arms, tears of surprise and awe filling my eyes at seeing
my mermaid mate standing before me.
Standing.
Near the edge of the tree line, I could see his discarded wheelchair and a
jar of goo.
“How…?” I asked numbly, my fingers trailing over his muscular arms
and gripping his biceps. My nails dug into his skin through his T-shirt, but if
it hurt him, he didn’t complain.
Instead of answering right away, Dair pressed his forehead to my own
and breathed me in as deeply as I did him. His beautiful eyes fluttered shut,
obscuring the clear ocean blue from view, before he reopened them and
speared me with a look full of love and joy.
“Paco,” he answered simply.
“Paco…?” Before I could further articulate my question, another body
hugged me from behind, and though his natural scent was tinted copper from
the blood on his body, Jax’s arms around my waist were unmistakable.
“You’re okay,” he whispered repeatedly against my hair, his body
shaking with each exhale. Dair released me, though reluctantly, and I turned
to face my vampire lover. There seemed to be a war waging just beneath the
surface—one second, his eyes were crazed, moving rapidly across my face
but never sticking on one feature in partic
ular, and the very next, coherency
shown through. My heart ached for him, for the internal battle I couldn’t help
him fight. All I could do was be there for him, love him, until he was able to
pull through on his own.
As he continued to murmur, “You’re okay,” over and over, I placed my
head in the crook of his neck and wrapped my arms around his waist. My
touch seemed to ground him, because a second later, his violent shivers
stopped and the breath he released next was a deep exhale.
When he spoke again, his voice was soft. “You make me feel normal
again,” he whispered.
And then I was out of his arms and in Killian’s before I could even think
of a response.
“Yes. Yes. Everyone wants to see pretty mate. But Paco don’t want to see
no pretty mate. Paco wants to sleep,” a growly, accented voice stated from
the front of the shed. I froze, my muscles tensing like a bolt of electricity had
been zapped through my veins, as I turned towards the mage.
The power he’d wielded…
It was incredible. I didn’t even think the king was as powerful as him.
With a single flick of his fingers, he was able to stop an army of resurrected
supernaturals without breaking a sweat.
And how did I know he wasn’t breaking a sweat?
Because the man was completely naked and was indolently tapping his
cock against the railing of his front porch.
“Um…Paco, I presume?” I stage-whispered to Killian, who immediately
placed his hand over my eyes.
“Don’t look at the cock, Z. Do not look at the cock,” he said an ominous
tone, and I scoffed, biting down on his palm until he yelped and pulled it
away with a narrow-eyed stare in my direction.
“Afraid I’ll get horny?” I teased as Paco gestured for us to enter his home.
The old giant immediately turned on his heel and stomped inside, giving me a
view of his flabby ass.
“If you get horny, I’m afraid I’ll have to rescind my offer of being your
mate.” Bash moved to stand in front of me, his eyes sweeping over my body
from head to toe and cataloging any injuries. But besides a few cuts and
bruises and the general feeling of shittiness, there wasn’t anything majorly
wrong with me.
“Awww, Bash-hole.” I took a step closer until I could squeeze his cheeks.