Understanding.
Hurt.
Anger.
Pain.
Each emotion hit me in the gut, making me feel worse by the second. Because yeah, I knew the guy as a result of my own research in regard to how to break bonds. Specifically, the protection oath I’d spoken to Kols. He needed someone else, someone better suited, to guard him. And I’d proven more than once now not to be the right man for the job.
Case in point, he’d gone and mated an abomination on my watch.
That marked me as the worst Guardian in Midnight Fae history.
“We’re going to discuss how you know him later,” Kols finally said. “For now, can you reach out to see if he can help us mask the mating bond?”
I nodded, saying nothing more. He could bring it up all he wanted, but it wouldn’t change anything. What was done was done.
“It’s a temporary solution that gives us time to figure this shit out.” Kols blew out a long breath, his focus shifting to the dawning sky above. A million thoughts ran through his features, each one tied to an emotion I could taste from his aura without him having to say a word.
Because I felt the same way.
This was so utterly fucked up.
When Kols suggested the three of us bite her at once, I didn’t hesitate. I’d accepted the solution almost eagerly.Tooeagerly. To the point where I hadn’t once considered the consequences. I’d just wanted to save Aflora.
I should have killed her instead.
It would have made all of this so much easier.
Had I just taken her out when she first arrived, Kols never would have mated her, his future wouldn’t be in jeopardy, and he could have lived his life the way it was meant to be lived.
She’d been a weakness to us all from the day she arrived. Part of me hated her for it, hence Raph’s behavior in class today. He’d acted upon my aggression toward her, taking it out on her precious familiar.
Wrong, yes.
However, it’d felt good at the time to expel some of my frustration so violently. Until the guilt hit me square in the chest.
The female had some sort of magical pull over all of us, creating a web of dangerous choices that both Kols and I had fallen into almost willingly.
I despised her for it.
And adored her at the same time.
“I’m glad my solution worked,” Kols said, his mind clearly following a similar path to my own because I felt the exact same way. “It’s wrong, and I hate her, but I hated watching her suffer more.”
“Because you don’t really hate her.” Just as I didn’t.
“I know,” he agreed quietly. “But I want to.”
“I know,” I replied, purposely repeating his words.
A moment of mutual understanding fell between us, our minds aligned in that eerie way we’d come to respect over the years. It was why we worked well together, even when we shouldn’t.
“I’ll handle my father and Shade, while you...” Kols trailed off, his focus falling to the ground. He bent to pick up a discarded wand, his lips curling down. “I guess I’ll talk to Aflora, too. This is hers, right?”
I hadn’t actually studied her wand much, but it looked right. “Yeah, I think so. But I don’t remember her using it.”
“She probably summoned it without realizing it.” Kols eyed the magical tool with interest, raising it into the light provided by the rising sun, and frowned harder. “Her essence is all over this, so it’s definitely hers, but I swear it’s changed somehow. See that blue streak? Looks like a crack, doesn’t it?”
