Page 137 of Facade

He pushed off the ground, taking to the sky, but didn’t get far.

I snatched his wing—one of the highest crimes of our kind—and held firm.

He angled his head, trying and failing to pull free.

“They’ll never stop hunting her. Or you.” His voice was low and pained, but a vicious laugh escaped him. I paused. “You may wield power, but it’s nothing compared to what lurks within her veins.”

A warning pulsed beneath the cloud of anger.

“I always knew there was something wrong with you,” he spat blood at my feet. “When I saw Evanee’s coloring… that she matched you, I suspected you had magic in your veins.”

“What are you getting at, Aiden?” My chest rumbled, patience gone.

He grunted, shifting and trying to free his wing. “These past years, I studied the forbidden texts. Of our ancestors and their magic. About…” He paused, his mouth curving in a way that unsettled me. “Mate bonds.” He let out a low, vicious laugh as my brows creased further. “I know what she is to you, brother.” His gaze flicked to my bicep, where that banded tattoo hid beneath my form. The one that matched hers in every way.

The words struck deeper than any blade.

My eyes flared—just enough to confirm I didn’t know. Aniah had thought it a possibility, but I’d shrugged her off. Told her it was impossible—mate bonds were dead. Then again, powers had been too.

My stomach sank as his mouth turned cruelly upwards.

“Poor bastard. You really didn’t know, did you? You should also know that if you give in to that bond and seal it, you’ll be her biggest weakness. Every mated bond of the past ended the same.” He ran his tongue over the blood on his lip. “You’ll be her death sentence.”

“Enough!”

I couldn’t kill him—I slammed him into the ground.

But I could break him—I raised my sword.

Fear replaced the cockiness in Aiden’s eyes as he tried to wrench his wing free.

“Ryker, no. I-I’ll do anything! I can barter with the King on your behalf or-or make things right with Evanee or—”

“You will never speak her name again,” I snarled, that sliver of control shattering with her name on his lips. "Pray to the fucking moon, I never see you again. If I do, I’ll kill you.”

The whites of his eyes showed—

The world seemed to hold its breath, silence spreading around us as I brought my sword down, slicing clean through the joint where wing met bone. Hot blood sprayed over my face and chest, his scream guttural, burrowing into my soul. Still, he tried to pull away. I raised my sword again, severing the other.

Bile burned my throat as I held his wings in my hands, the leather heavy and limp. Blood steamed as it dripped stark against the snow.

I crouched before him as he sobbed and grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking his head back until his dulled blue eyes met mine.

“You wanted to be with the Fae so bad, little brother? You got your fucking wish.” I leaned closer, voice deadly low. “You’re no longer a Gargoyle.”

I let his head drop and stood, sheathing my swords, and threw the gory remnants before him.

He reached shaking fingers toward the severed appendages, grazing over them, before I braced for flight.

“I hate you!” he screamed into the storm. “I fucking hate you!”

Even as I left to aid our allies in the battle at the castle, his screams followed me—echoing in my head long after the storm swallowed me.

41

Evanee

Freesia dropped me with Malachai and Lyra in the woods—then dove straight into the fray.