We’d been together for a very long time, which meant he could read all my tells. However, this situation was different.Verydifferent. And unlike anything else we’d ever experienced.
Pushing away from his desk, he came around to take over one of his leather chairs. “Tell me what happened with Ajax and Camillia first.”
Sighing, I sat across from him and told him everything. Including the part about my Phoenix biting Ajax and Cami.
Hiding the truth wouldn’t help anyway. Age and experience had proved that to me millennia ago.
Typhos didn’t interrupt me while I spoke, not even when I mentioned Vivaxia’s spell. However, I felt his fury pulse through our bond when I mentioned her name and the memory of what she’d done to me countless times before.
I finished by telling him Ajax’s terms.
“And Cami wants me to train her,” I concluded right as Melek appeared in the room. His blondish-brown eyebrow arched, curiosity coloring his features, but he didn’t comment, simply wandered over to the bar to pour himself a drink.
Interestingly, he chose ice water instead of something alcoholic.
He fixed three glasses and brought them over without a word before taking over the sofa across from us.
Typhos remained quiet while his prince moved around the space, his focus on me rather than Melek.
“Train her how?” Typhos asked, his tone giving nothing away, just like his expression. Yet I could feel his anger humming through our bond like a live wire. It’d been thrumming since I’d mentioned the spell and hadn’t weakened at all, just continued to build.
“To protect herself against you and any other perceived threat,” I told him, not hiding the details. Because every bit of information mattered when agreements were made.
“And do you intend to see that term through?”
“Yes.” There was no point in concealing my intentions. Typhos deserved to know. He also needed to understand. “My Phoenix mated her. My animal’s spirit is bound to hers. Protecting her is now as important to me as protecting myself. So yes, I will be training her. Ajax, too, if he’ll let me.”
Which wouldn’t be anytime soon, given the current state of our relationship.
Fortunately, I’d essentially spent the last decade teaching him how to fight.
Of course, physical prowess meant nothing around Typhos. His fights were never physical; they were psychological in nature.
“I see.” He picked up the glass Melek had poured for him and took a long swallow, his gaze assessing. “Your Phoenix has complicated matters.”
There wasn’t anything I could say to that other than “I know.”
“I disagree,” Melek interjected. “I think they’ve improved matters. Now you have even more control over the girl. You’re connected to her by me and Az.”
“You keep assuming that these connections are not some sort of manipulation,” Typhos returned, a hint of his anger deepening his tone. “Az’s Phoenix finally found a mate after several thousands of years, and it just so happens to be the same female you’ve bonded yourself to. That’s not a coincidence.”
“I never called it a coincidence.” Melek smiled. “I merely pointed out that the circumstances have improved the situation by affording you more control.”
Typhos set his now-empty glass down. “So long as she’s not actually the one gaining control over both of you, which remains to be seen.”
“I really don’t think that’s the case,” I confided. “My Phoenix bond lets me see her mind. She was stunned when my animal bit her. It was very genuine.”
“Then maybe someone is using her in a fashion similar to the Unseelie father,” Typhos suggested.
“To what end?” Melek asked. “Shehelpedyou, Ty. Why would she do that if she wanted to hurt you?”
The Hell Fae King’s jaw ticked, his irritation palpable.
He didn’t like to be wrong.
But more than that, his instincts warned him that something wasn’t right. And until he figured out the cause, he’d continue to investigate this.
“I don’t trust her.” The words weren’t unexpected, but the admission was, especially since Typhos uttered it in a soft, barely there whisper. “I don’t trustthis.”
