The thought came to me like a reflex, taking me by surprise. She wasn’t meant to be mine. She belonged to Melek. To Ajax. To Az. Not me. I didn’t want her.
At least… Ishouldn’twant her.
But her loyalty rang true, her honor a beacon my soul desired to repay.
She’d saved my Source. Forced it back inside me. Proved through her actions that she’d meant what she’d said about not wanting my power.
It could all still be a trick. A dangerous game to lure me into her inner circle. However, I’d seen her expression, her fear when she’d realized what was happening.
And even more than that, heranger.
She hadn’t wanted to be used in that manner, and she’d shoved back against the magic in response.
Since the moment we’d met, she’d vowed she was innocent. I’d just refused to see it because of her ability to reach right into my soul and take my power for herself.
Except, she had never used that power for her own gain, not really.
Camillia had only tried to survive.
She’d closed the portal that would have killed my people.
She’d never outright defied me, and instead she had followed my demands, if only to protect those she loved.
Ajax and Azazel were part of my inner circle. Seducing them hadn’t been a tactic to control me; it’d been a natural course of action for the female my own prince had chosen as his eternal mate. The very fact that she hadn’t fully mated him yet, that she even seemed reluctant to do so, proved that she had no desire to steal from me.
Because if she genuinely wanted to hurt me, Melek was how she would do it. She would have eagerly taken him up on hisoffer and claimed him long ago, then destroyed me from the inside.
Her very hesitation proved she wished to take her decisions seriously. She didn’t see what Melek was offering her, not yet.
The irony of it all was that she didn’t see her own value, or who she really was.
A future Hell Fae Queen, if Melek had his way.
And she fought like one.
Camillia De la Croix had dismantled that damnable dress—absorbedit—and found a way to return the power of my Source to me. Then she’d literally imploded in a grand display of power.
Melek had chosen his mate well, and now I finally understood everything he’d been trying to make me see.
Camillia wasn’t my enemy.
She was the most powerful ally I could possibly ever have.
So, where is the little temptress now?
When I searched my palace for any sign of her, I only spotted my personal guard. My Hellhounds waited like nightmares on the edges of the foggy destruction, their gazes more curious than concerned.
They didn’t approach me but waited for my command, their pointed ears angled in my direction. Those fiery tips were the only parts of them that moved while they watched me expectantly with their glowing red eyes.
Everything felt strangely quiet after the impact of my second fall.
The rest of my realm would be listening for my order, for my instructions, and for my reassurance.
They would want to know what had just happened.
Melek appeared in a glittering golden flurry of feathers, right on cue. “Typhos,” he breathed. “Take my hand.”
He held out his palm without hesitation as he stepped over the cooling rock.
