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“Think you anyone here would be persuaded to help Zain besides Richard Gray?” I ask.
“Shock would,” Lucan spits.
Bram sighs. “Don’t start that again.”
“Zain is his brother!”
“Shock has been here all day and never once asked about the bastard.”
“Because he’s too crafty to call attention to himself. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to free Zain! Now they’re both gone. Shock also failed to appear for the guard duty he volunteered for when we captured his brother,” Lucan points out. “Maybe he was a no-show because he was too busy telling Mathias that Marrok had the book and where to find him.”
“Coincidence.” Bram shrugs. “I don’t think he’s our villain.”
“You’re my friend; I know your shortcomings. Your worst is that you always want to be right, and you’re dead wrong about the crotch stain.”
“The crap between you two over Anka?” Bram growls. “Bury it. You’re as bitter as he is. Why? She’s your mate. He’s endured a century of celibacy, stealing or skimming energy from half-encounters to survive. He must be starved for a full charge. What’s your excuse?”
Lucan looks pissed. “You know his bloodline. If the rumors are true, he doesn’t have a right mind to be in. Whole families tend to join the Anarki, and Zain has followed in his kin’s footsteps. How do you know Shock hasn’t as well?”
“Without a doubt? I don’t. But he’s been more helpful than you know. If it will ease your mind, I will send Duke after Shock and see if he’s harboring Zain.”
“My gut tells me this is Gray,” I add.
“Of course you think he’s guilty. You hate the dodgy prat,” Lucan pipes in.
“The way you hate Shock?”
Lucan smiles. “Touché.”
“The lot of you need training, but now methinks ’tis imperative to retrieve Olivia’s diary key. If Gray is Mathias’s man, he will hoodwink or force Olivia into surrendering her emblem. If she and that key fall into the wrong hands…”
Bram nods. “The three of us combined should provide her sufficient protection while she retrieves it. I hope.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Olivia
“Olivia?”
At Marrok’s knock on the door, I tense.
The man confuses me, accusing me of betraying him to please my father one minute, then telling me I’m his everything the next. I kind of get why he doesn’t trust my father, but he doesn’t even trust me. Yet the minute he lays his hands on me, I can’t deny him anything.
Where does that leave us? I need his touch to survive. But more and more I ache for him in a way that has nothing to do with magical bonds and everything to do with my heart.
“Olivia?” He opens the door.
Since we had sex against the wall, I’ve showered and donned my clothes. But pinned under his gaze, I feel not just naked but bare. “What?”
He eases onto the bed beside me. “’Tis sorry I am. Baring you in the hall was thoughtless. No matter how badly I wanted you—”
“I don’t care about that. I’m angrier that you were rude to my father and that you’d think, for even an instant, that I would betray you.”
“’Tis sorry I am for that, too. Though Gray is your sire, he seeks to separate me from my mate. Adjusting to our bond takes time.”
I turn his words over. If that’s true, he’s guilty of nothing more than an overdose of concern and some poor judgment. How am I supposed to stay mad at that?
He takes my hand. “Love, time is ticking against us. With Mathias on the loose again, we must secure your diary key. Opening that book can change the world, and not for the better.”
