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“Umm ...”
“It’s for your safety. Jana couldn’t have acted alone. When you were being attacked I—” He broke off, and the emotion in his voice made me stand.
“You what?” I asked quietly.
“I tried to get to you. I could feel your panic. Your pain. But the door was warded shut. Someone put a silencer on your room. Jana may be powerful, but that takes magic she doesn’t possess.”
Indecision warred within me, but I couldn’t argue with his logic. He was absolutely right. Jana hadn’t acted alone. I wanted to fight him, argue that he couldn’t tell me what to do, but for what purpose? Even if I talked him into putting me and Clara together, all that would do is putherin danger. I didn’t offer up six months of my life for her to die for me.
“All right, I’ll stay here,” I said simply.
He looked surprised I had given in so easily. I couldn’t blame him when basically everything he said had just given me ammunition. “That’s it? No pushback?”
Where could I start? The dream, the attempt on my life, Clara giving me advice—all of it had my head in a tizzy. I wasn’t all that interested in fighting him anymore. Not without good reason. For now, I would settle with facts. They were easier to deal with than emotions. “You’re right that she wasn’t working alone.”
Caius's expression darkened, his entire mood shifting in an instant. “Tell me why you know that.”
After giving him the replay of events, Caius scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. He paced like a caged animal, one that I couldn’t stop myself from watching in fascination.
“Fuck!” Caius turned and sent a fist through the aterstone. It fractured like shale beneath his power.
“Caius . . .” I put a hand on his shoulder, and he tensed. “It’s, well it’s not fine, but it’s over. I’ll stay here. I won’t fight you on this. We can figure this out?—”
Caius turned, and it occurred to me just how big he was. Rough hands cupped my cheeks. The same hands that so easily broke stone held me so tenderly, and it left me speechless. “No one is going to try anything because we’re going to tell them we’re mated.”
My lips parted. That was not what I was expecting him to say. “Um. I’m not sure that’s?—”
“No part of our deal has changed, Reagan, but they need to see you differently. Not a soul in this realm would dare harm their king’s mate.” His thumb brushed over my cheekbone, sending a shiver through me that I failed to suppress. Caius dropped his hands as if I’d burned him.
I realized he thought I was afraid.
“I’m sorry, love. I should have foreseen this when I brought you back.”
“Excuse me, but I walked through on my own two feet.”
He paused, taking in my words and what I was trying to say. “Is this your way of saying that you’ve come to your senses about us being mates?”
I really needed to woman up and quit being a pansy because that most definitely wasnotthe vibes I was trying to put out.
“No,” I began, sighing and thinking of how to phrase it all. “You wanted to get to know me. I want to get to know you. The real you. Your past. I’m just ... ready to listen.”
“I sense there’s something you aren’t saying,” he said cautiously.
Cursing under my breath, my cheeks flushed, and I closed my eyes, trying to hold onto the words. What was the point? Anything else would be a lie, and there was nothing good that could come of it. The rest of it came out of me in a rush so I didn’t have to think about them or get wrapped up in the potential consequences.
“I dreamed of you losing your soul.” Shitdamnfuck. “That’s not how I meant for that to come out. What I’m trying to say is I had a dream and I think it was a memory. When Abraxia ...” Betrayed him? Stole half his soul? Trapped him here?
Caius froze and I followed suit, sensing the predator side of him not far off. As if the words triggered a shift, when I stared into his dark eyes, I saw an abyss—and I could have sworn something else stared back.
“It was real, wasn’t it?” I whispered softly. "She cut your hair ...”
Caius shuddered. “That was a long time ago.” When he turned away from me, it hurt in a way I didn’t expect. Over the last week I’d gotten used to him inserting himself in my space and part of me didn’t care for the sudden distance. Which was crazy. That’s exactly what I should want . . . but the truth was, I didn’t. Not now that I’d learned he was someone else entirely.
“She was your lover, wasn’t she?”
He nodded, unwilling to speak of her.
“You weren’t at war with other primordials, were you?”
