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She shook her head, vaguely heard Nico hiss as she carefully picked up a large piece and turned it over in her hands, her long fingers caressing it lovingly. Her heart contracted, and her chest tightened, full of sorrow as she eyed the shards.
The energy in the room shifted, and she looked up at Declan as he let the barrier fall. She tried to cloak her true feelings but wasn’t successful.
“I’m sorry,” he said simply. There, deep within the recesses of his eyes, she saw a spark of compassion. It lightened his features briefly, then disappeared.
Weariness, bone-chilling and dense, swept over her, and she sighed softly as she began to gather the pieces together. She sensed Julian at her side the same time Nico’s growl warned her.
“You will not touch these,” she whispered roughly, hating the thought of anyone other than herself holding the pieces that meant so much.
He stood back, and she went about her task with careful precision. Long moments of silence accompanied her, and when she was done, she stared down at the pile. Her heart broke. She knew it was beyond fixable.
Just as her world would be if Cormac was successful. They needed to find the portal and destroy it immediately, or every loss she’d suffered would be for nothing. Every sacrifice she’d made would have been in vain.
She stood quickly and shook the sadness from her mind. There was no time for pity. She could deal with that later, when she was alone.
She looked up at Julian. “I agree that we can accomplish the task much more efficiently working together than apart, but I’ll only do it on one condition.”
Nico growled loudly, and she glanced at the animal in warning as mist crawled along his limbs.
Julian nodded slowly. “And what would that be?”
“You need to share everything. For us to work together, some kind of trust needs to be established. I need to know where you’ve been, what you went through.” She paused and glared at Declan. “What your endgame is because I sure as hell don’t believe it’s all about puppies and rainbows. You have an ulterior motive, and I want to know what it is.”
The dark energy that slid along Julian’s skin vibrated, and her breath caught as she felt the caress of his power.
Julian glanced at Declan and nodded. “I’ll tell you what you need to know when . . .” His voice drifted off and he arched an eyebrow.
“When what?” she mimicked, irritated at his superior attitude. She was going to have to break that real quick.
Julian nodded toward Nico, who now stood in his human form a few feet away and snarled.
“When your boyfriend puts on some clothes and leaves us alone.”
Chapter 7
It took a considerable amount of energy to control the darkness that tickled along the edge of Julian’s mind. And it was fierce . . . the need he felt to crush Nico in such a way that maximum pain would be involved.
The warrior stood proudly, his naked body a testament to his hard past. His skin glistened with sweat, and the heavy muscles were adorned by several jagged battle scars.
Nico bared his teeth and took a step toward him as Julian clenched his hands, a vicious smile sweeping across his face.
“You will show her respect, Castille,” Nico snarled.
“Respect needs to be earned,” he said silkily, “then kept.” Julian nodded, his voice matter-of-fact, “something you know firsthand, no? Crazy Nico, isn’t that what they call you?” He stood loosely, with his hands at his sides, waiting for the warrior to strike.
“For fuck sakes, I don’t have time for this.” Jaden turned to him, her chest heaving and skin flush with heat. His eyes ran over her, and his gut tightened as she licked her lips and exhaled.
“You need to shut your mouth because I’m this”—she pinched her fingers in his face—“close to kicking your ass but good.”
Damn but she was fearless.
“I think I might enjoy that,” he whispered, surprised to find his thoughts falling from his lips so readily. His words were soft, meant only for her ears, and her skin darkened in response. It gave him perverse pleasure to know he was the cause of it.
“Move away from her,” Nico growled, and Julian glanced at the warrior, hating the way he looked at Jaden as if he owned her.
“You couldn’t protect your woman. What makes you think you can do any better with Jaden?”
Nico’s face whitened, and the air stilled, thinning, as if it were sucked away into a black hole of nothingness. It was a low blow, and he knew it, but Julian didn’t give a flying fuck. Truthfully, he just wanted to hurt, spread that lovely sensation wherever the hell he could.
