“He’s safe,” my grandmother said, reaching for her hand. “Trust me.”
“Safe like Aflora’s parents were safe?” Zakkai asked. “Or safe like Aflora is now, safe?”
“Careful,” Grandfather Kodiak warned in a low growl.
Zakkai looked at him without an ounce of fear. “It’s a fair question, Kodiak.”
“Your uncle has him,” my grandmother said. “With Kyros.”
My shoulders sagged in relief. If Tadmir and Kyros had Ajax, then he was fine. Unless… “Does he know about Emelyn?”
“Yes.” My grandmother’s expression was sad. “That’s why Tadmir has him. He’s trying to calm him down.”
“Does he know about his parents yet?” Zakkai asked.
“His parents?” I repeated.
Aflora gasped, dropping her fork. “The two bodies under Anrika…”
Zakkai cast her an apologetic look. “Yes, little star.”
“Oh, Fae…”
My appetite dissolved, the food in my stomach beginning to turn restlessly inside me.Fuck. “I need a minute,” I said, pushing away from the table to step outside.Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
Ajax’s parents had already been attacked once. Now they were dead? And Emelyn, too?
I felt Kols join me, his warmth a presence at my back.Why would Ajax care about Emelyn?he asked softly, his mind searching mine. I didn’t reply, but he found the answer he wanted lurking inside my mind.Ah. I see.
He leaned against the house, blowing out a breath. “Shit.”
“An adequate summary,” I muttered, pacing and running my fingers through my hair. Ajax was strong. He could withstand a lot. But this… “I need to find him.”
“No,” he replied.
“What do you mean,no?” He had to know me well enough by now to realize that I didn’t adhere to authority. I managed my own life, made my own choices, and I wasn’t about to bend to his will in the process.
“I mean,no,” he reiterated, his tone all regal elegance. “You can’t go to him.”
“Fuck off,” I said, no longer interested in whatever he had to say. “Just because we’re bonded doesn’t mean you have a say in what I do and don’t do now.” Only Aflora had that right. No one else.
“Yet you felt the need to remind me of my purpose here when you felt my yearning to go to Tray, and that was all of, what, thirty minutes ago?” His bronze irises narrowed. “Is this truly so different, Shadow?”
His words hit me in the heart, the rightness of them drawing a curse from my lips. Because fucking Fae, he was right.
I gripped my hair by the roots and closed my eyes.
He pressed a palm to my lower back half a beat later.
Then he pulled me into his arms, offering me a hug that I hadn’t realized I needed. Part of me wanted to punch him for touching me, for correcting my path before I could even walk down it. And a weaker part of me just wanted to collapse.
I’d played with time, nearly costing Kols his life.
And now Emelyn, Anrika, and Ajax’s parents were gone.
Never to return.
Dead.
