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We played dominoes. Told stories. Laughed. It was an almost perfect evening. The only thing that would have made it better was if Caius could have been there too. Before I’d left, he offered to come again as support, but I declined. Not only was this something I needed to do on my own, we needed to test his magic spreading outside the portal again, but first I needed to drop the mate bomb on my family. One thing at a time.
That night, when everyone had drifted off, I laid in a cousin cuddle pile in the back living room, thinking about leaving this place again. I stretched out on the floor with Jo curled into my side. The book I’d brought him had toppled off him when he’d fallen asleep. His soft breathing calmed me. I missed this. Nights where we’d all sleep over, sprawling out on couches and blankets, camping out in the middle of a big room.
My thoughts drifted to my house and the mural painted on my wall. The portrait of Tartarus and the castle that was now my home. I smiled. I didn’t believe in destiny, but I couldn’t argue with fate.
Caius and I belonged to each other, as one. Our future was entwined.
He loved me. My family would get used to it, and they would learn to love him as well.
That knowledge should have been enough to keep the nightmares away.
But like many things of late, I was dead wrong.
Chapter36
Reagan
Iwoke in Caius’s arms. His fingertips trailed down my naked back. I lifted my head and smiled at him, but the smile felt forced somehow. This wasn’t my body, I realized with a startle. I was reliving Abraxia’s life.
Again.
“Must you go so soon?” he rumbled, and my heart stuttered because I recognized the drowsy quality of his voice all too well.
“Afraid so,” she said, then leaned in to kiss one of his muscular pecs. “But I won’t be long, darling.”
The endearment tasted like ash on her tongue. I could sense love, but I also picked up on guilt. Denial. She was so conflicted. I wondered where we were in the timeline of her betrayal. One day before her heinous act? Ten? There was no way for me to know.
Abraxia shifted away from him, and relief filled her.
It confused me.
She got to her feet, not bothering to cover herself. His eyes were on her, and she felt them. She liked that. The way his gaze followed her as she dressed in a simple skirt with glass beads dangling from the ends and bandeau top with gold pieces lining the seams.
Abraxia kissed him goodbye, flashing a flirtatious smile, before dancing out of his arms on swift feet. The skirt swished with her movements, drawing his eyes to her hips. That’s where they stayed as she waved goodbye and exited his chambers.
At first her movements were easygoing, but the further she walked, the more hurried they became. Abraxia exited the castle, waving at the guards as she went, before pulling on a thin cloak. It was made of some sort of gauzy beige material. Light enough she wouldn’t overheat, but just heavy enough not to be blown right off her. She tugged the drawstrings at the neck, pulling the hood down as she crossed through the town. The further she got from Caius, the more impoverished the buildings were. Dilapidated homes gave way to ramshackle huts just before she entered the woods. With a cloak that matched so many others, no one bothered to see who she was or why she was here.
Dread formed in my gut as she stepped into the same forest as before. A warm breeze greeted her, playing around her ankles and making the glass beads on the skirt clink together.
She rounded a particularly large tree trunk and her heart surged. I felt her joy alongside her guilt as she threw her arms around the broad shoulders of ...Abyssian.
Shock paralyzed my thoughts for a moment as they kissed passionately, and it was decidedlynota familial greeting but something more.
Something like betrayal.
Nothing could have prepared me for it. His hands gripped her in all the places one would a lover. She was a two-timing hussy, but he was Caius’s half-brother, so that was worse.
“Did he suspect?” Abyssian asked.
“N-no,” she stumbled over her words, running her fingertips along his bearded jaw. It wasn’t the clean cut look he wore now, but I recognized him, nonetheless.
Gods.
Abraxia betrayed Caius with Abyssian.
Abyssian betrayed Caius with Abraxia.
Abraxia betrayed them both, damning them to Tartarus.
