The familiar masculine voice rang with fury, authority. Dylan barely registered the leap of his heart before a blast of power followed, one so strong he was thrown backwards, the knife flying from his hand.
Darkness instantly followed.
‘Wake up,’ came the voice. Softer than usual. Warm fingers lifted his chin. ‘Dylan, you open those gorgeous fucking eyes for me, right now.’
Callum.
Dylan tried, but it was like they’d been soldered shut.
His eyes flickered and he was rewarded with a hazy vision of the Empyreal he’d told himself he’d never trust. The momentary glimpse made Callum seem like he glowed with inhuman power, gave him the sense of being suddenly bigger, stronger,more.
But the gut-deep relief at Callum’s voice didn’t last. ‘My sisters, Dad—’
‘Upstairs.’ Callum said as he untied him. ‘We’re going there now. Can you move?’
‘I – I don’t know.’ Dylan forced his body into compliance. His limbs tingled and cramped but they shifted, weighted with extreme fatigue. He knew he shouldn’t be moving, but there was no time for that. ‘We need to get to them now,I heard Bells scream.’
Callum hauled him up and they came out into the hallway. It was white and clinical but for the spray of blood and the bodies. Dylan staggered over them after Callum, who stalked down the hallway as if he expected more.
‘You won’t be able to stop them, you’re just as bound as Kyan is,’ Dylan said.
Callum didn’t stop. ‘Wrong.’
‘You found a way to stop the oath?’
He turned. ‘There’s something you should know.’
Dylan leaned against the wall to catch his breath. ‘I’m all fucking ears.’
Callum’s lips quirked. ‘You’ve been right about me from day one.’
Suspicion sharpened Dylan’s gaze. ‘About?’
But he could feel the knowledge simmering as he looked at Callum, standing there with barely any blood on him despite the carnage they’d just walked through.
The one Callum had involved himself in to save Dylan.
‘You’re not an Empyreal, are you? I’ve never actually seen you transform.’
‘So youhavebeen paying unusual attention to me. And here I thought you were just playing hard to get. You know, you’re the only person to ever notice.’ He’d come closer. ‘I wonder why.’
‘Tell me,’ Dylan said.
‘Guess.’
‘Guess?’ Dylan growled. ‘This isn’t a game. We don’t have time for this.’
Callum’s eyes darkened, and suddenly he was more serious than Dylan had ever seen him. ‘Yes. Yes it is a game. And once you start playing it like one, you have a chance at survival. I’ve been playing for millennia, Dylan. So, use those instincts and tell me. You’ve been convinced from the start I’m not who and what I claim to be.’ Something that looked close to pride glittered in Callum’s eyes. He walked closer and closer still, till they were a few breaths apart. ‘Soyoutellme.’
Dylan almost couldn’t speak over the pounding in his ears, over the sudden clutch in his stomach.
The answer whispered to him. Deep in the back of his mind, he knew.
Callum’s gaze lingered on Dylan’s lips. As if there was something in Callum thatwantedhim to say the words. Dylan’s throat was suddenly dry. But when he said the words, they settled over him with a cool rightness.
‘You’re a god.’
At Callum’s slow grin, Dylan knew he was right.
