Typhos’s fall was triggered by a corrupt deal. A greedy fae wanted to steal his energy—hislight—and to do that, she needed Typhos to willingly die.Which was no easy feat for a Virtuous Fae.So after years of pretending to be his mentor, she tricked him. And he fell.
That wasn’t the whole story, but it was enough. Typhos could elaborate upon it at a later date.
The fae who caused his fall was Vivaxia, my former owner.
CHAPTER31
CAMI
Former owner…?Those two words whirled around in my mind, the concept one I couldn’t wrap my head around.
Az was too dominant to have anowner.
How?I nearly asked. Howcould someone own you?
Apparently, I wasn’t very successful at keeping those thoughts to myself, because Az huffed a laugh and drew his fingers through thick hair.
“Trust me when I say it wasn’t a voluntary arrangement.” He uttered the words out loud, his deep voice riddled with sardonic undertones.
This part of his past was clearly painful for him to relive. But I couldn’t seem to bring myself to tell him to stop. I wanted to know this. I wanted to knowhim.
Vivaxia found me when I was in my early twenties. She was instantly intrigued by my mixed genetics and asked if I was interested in making a deal with her. I was proud and a bit naïve, so I agreed to hear her out.
His violet gaze took on a distant gleam, his cheekbones even more pronounced as he clenched his jaw.
She offered to upgrade my mother’s nest to something more accommodating, as well as to set her up with various necessities and superior goods, all of which were meant to improve her quality of life.His eyes narrowed a little.You see, my father… was no longer in the picture. My mother wasn’t his only mate. And he chose his Paradox Fae mate over my mother.
Oh. He sounds charming,I muttered.
Az’s lips twitched.Hardly. But he’s been dead a long time. I rarely think of him.
His commentary made me wonder if Az had been the one to kill him, but I didn’t want to interrupt him again. I’d already done it a few times by accident, essentially nullifying my promise not to say anything until he finished.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to mind my curious questions.
Unfortunately, my mother didn’t have much. And as a result, neither did I. So Vivaxia’s offer to improve my mother’s quality of life appealed to me, especially since she would be doing so as a favor to me, thus making me feel like I had an opportunity to take care of my mother.
Hmm,I hummed to myself, careful not to share my thoughts with him.I think I know where this is going…
There was only one thing she wanted in exchange for all of this, and as I’m sure you’ve guessed, what she wanted was me,he said, his eyes gleaming while he spoke into my mind.
Yeah, that was my guess,I thought, but I didn’t send him the response. Or I tried not to, anyway. Having all these “channels” in my head was interesting to manage, to say the least.
As I already mentioned, I was proud and naïve,he went on. Proud because I wanted to be the man of the nest. Naïve because I didn’t ask Vivaxia to clarify what she meant. I just assumed she wanted me for sex. I was wrong.Verywrong.
I shivered as a handful of his memories reached my mind, the barrier between us seemingly gone. Except he was controlling what he showed me, and I knew from his thoughts that he was doing that to protect me.
He didn’t want to hurt me.
Which meant he had some images in his mind that I probably never wanted to witness.
And I didn’t think they were about things he’d done to others, but what had been done to him.
She wanted my Phoenix, not me—the man.The muscles of his arm flexed as he lifted his hand to run his fingers through his hair.She cast a spell on me that forced me to shift, then she controlled my animal’s every move. Like a glorified puppet.
Ajax’s spell,I whispered.
A stronger variant of it, yes.He swallowed, his pain trickling through our bond as he thought about how much it had hurt to hear those words on Ajax’s lips.I suppose we’ve both done things to one another that elicited dark echoes from our past. Neither of us intended to harm the other in that way, though. At least, I don’t think we did.
