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“Why the hell have you been helping her?” The reaper takes a step closer, interjecting in the conversation for the first time since the ancient showed up.
“I don’t see how that’s any of your fucking business,” he snarls.
“Ember has suffered enough at the hands of sadistic fuckers like you,” Sullivan replies. “Therefore, it is my business.”
Wally shakes his head angrily. “I have my reasons for wanting to help her.”
“And just how did you escape imprisonment?” Ridley questions. “If that is, in fact, what happened to the rest of your kind.”
Wally’s eyes—now a bright silver—switch focus to my brother. “When I left Faerie, I needed to survive. So, I started working for people who needed problems dealt with. Problems that would otherwise cause them inconvenience.”
“You’re a bloody assassin,” Ridley comments.
“I was,” he snaps.
“You killed people? For money?” Ember whispers. Her bottom lip quivers as faith in a man she trusted is shattered.
I’ll kill him for that alone.
Wally nods. “Until I was hired to kill a woman and her child.”
The more this asshole talks, the more I don’t fucking like—or trust—him. Dark energy simmers to the surface in response to the emotion, but I shove it back down. I’m here for Ember, and no matter what this creature is, he won’t be getting through me to get to her.
“I was hired anonymously,” he explains. “A large payment if I killed them, so I accepted. The woman was a supernatural—a powerful one, but easy enough to deal with. But when I went to take care of the child—” He shuts his eyes and sucks in a breath. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps he’s reliving the moment. “The child was screaming. So loud it pierced through me. I leaned over the crib to put her down, but when she saw me, she smiled.” His silver eyes shimmer with power, and he cocks his head to the side in an unnatural move that reminds me of the reptiles back in Faerie.
“It was the strangest thing,” he says. “I was overcome with an emotion I’d never experienced. My kind, they don’t feel things. That kind of attachment is weak. But I felt something for her.” His gaze lands on Ember. “For you.”
Ember chokes on a sob and covers her mouth with a shaking hand. “My mother.”
“I am so sorry.”
“You’resorry?Fucking sorry! You slaughtered her mother!” My brother is furious, but it is nothing compared to the rage bubbling within me.
A plant on the bedside table begins to wither, but I pay it little notice.
Ember scoots closer to me, though her movements are slow. “You killed her. For money. And you were going to kill me.”
“I expect you to hate me,” he replies. “But I did not harm you. I never would harm you. I’ve watched over you, keeping you safe all this time. Living among humans so I could adapt until you were ready to know the truth.”
Swallowing hard, I try to focus as my vision blurs.Kill the ancient, and steal his power. Kill him now. Kill him!
Ember’s emotion-filled voice brings me back. “You killed my mother.”
“But I saved you,” he insists. “After I dropped you at that orphanage, I stayed around and kept an eye on you. I kept you safe,” he repeats as he takes a step forward.
A low warning growl leaves my lips.
“I’d stay right the fuck where you are,” the reaper warns. “Unless you want Rafferty here to put you down.”
“He does not possess the power to put me down,” Wally growls.
“We can test that theory,” I offer.
Wally looks from me back to Ember. “I protected you,” he says again. “Kept you from ending up in the home of anyone who wouldn’t appreciate you.”
The moment the words leave his lips, I see this for what it is: an obsession. This man is not in love with her as I originally thought. He’s formed some twisted obsession with her.
“You chased all the families away. Anyone who would have adopted me.”
