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Finally, Alek’s eyes snapped to mine. “You really think your mother would be willing to help you? After everything we did to her?”
“No.” I let out a breath of air. “Why does it feel like we have all these pieces to the puzzle with no way of putting them together? Theia is the keeper of the veil. She should be the one fixing this mess, not us.”
“Trust me,”—Alek placed both his hands on my shoulders and turned my body toward his—“we’re better off without her help. We can figure out your father’s intentions without her.”
I raised a brow. “Is that before or after he gets what he wants? Should we even be leaving him there alone with Wrath and the others? What if he was just waiting for us to leave before—”
“Lyra,” Alek snapped, cutting me off. His voice softened. “Everything will be okay. Forget I ever brought up your father. We’re here to relax, remember? Wrath is strong. He can take care of himself.”
Alek dipped his head to mine, letting his warm forehead press against my skin before he lifted my chin with his finger.
His breath caressed my cheek, warming my freezing lips. This was safe. This was home.
I trusted Alek with my life. With him, I knew everything would be okay.
I didn’t wait for him to close the few inches between our mouths. I pushed onto my toes and pressed my lips against his.
Alek responded immediately, snaking his arms around my body and holding me while he worked his mouth against mine.
“This,” I mumbled to him, “I missed this.”
Alek’s chest vibrated when he growled, possessive and instinctual, as he pulled me off my feet and deepened the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, surrendering to him as he coaxed my mouth open with his tongue.
My heart pounded against his as darkness wrapped itself around us, the wind roaring against the trees for miles and miles in the distance.
This. Alone with Alek, away from all our problems. This was exactly what I needed.
Still, the weight of our problems could never disappear entirely. Not when so many fates relied on us.
On me.
I tensed, and Alek kissed me once more gently before setting me back on the ground.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked.
Everything. “I just can’t stop thinking about him. He’s a total stranger, I know, but something about him feels…familiar.”
“Come here,” he said. “I want to show you something.”
I followed Alek inside, through the large glass doors and perfectly arranged living room of the lake house, before returning down the same hallway I had been in before.
Then he took me into that room. The one covered in paintings and pictures, with memories of the past. His past.
Apparently, my past, too.
The air shifted once we were inside, stilled almost, as if preparing for something.
“You never knew your father,” Alek said. “But I did. I knew him well; I knew him for years. I know you have questions.” He relaxed against the wall, watching me. Always so observant. “Ask them.”
I scanned the wall of pictures, now recognizing this man as my blood. My father. Not just a random demon I would never grow to know, not someone dead and gone in the past. This man was very much alive, was very much here.
Alek was right. I had questions.
“I don’t know where to start. This didn’t seem like a conversation we would ever be having.”
“No.” Any jokes or flirting had disappeared from his voice. The only thing remaining was this seriousness, this urgency. “But we’re having it now. You deserve to know what he was like. Through my eyes, anyway. That’s all I can give you.”
I stepped through the room, trailing my finger across the edges of the frames that littered the dark walls. “My mother told me he was powerful.”
