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Corvus sighs.
“Fine,” he says. “If you have to know…I’m Corvus en’Diavolo. The ghost without a Gift.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
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ATLAS
I need to talk to Penn.
I need to find her. I think it’s about time we came clean. We both have secrets. I could help her, if she wanted me to. Keon is right, if he had told me in the first place, I might’ve killed her when I first set my eyes on her.
But I was bewitched by those wide brown eyes from the moment that I first laid out on her. This innocent human, I should’ve known from the beginning she could’ve played me like an instrument.
She was so willing, so pliable, so ready to give into all my desires. I was too absorbed in her beauty and her desire to think too much past it. It’s my duty as king to see past my own wants.
Even now, though, as I storm toward her room, I realize that I’m doing this for me.
I want to see Penn. I want to see my wife.
I do, of course, want an explanation from her. I would be a fool not to, now that I have the information I have. Of course she’s First Wave. Every single important person in my life has tried to murder me. They’ve never succeeded, obviously, but their betrayals hurt me to varying degrees. Some left their scars in my mind, some in my body; all of them took a little piece of me.
I fear Penn’s betrayal is the most cutting.
Worse than that, I should’veseenit coming.
I’ve been such a fool.
Guards are posted outside her door when I finally get there, two of my most trusted men. They stand upright and at attention when they see me, but I don’t miss the glance they quickly exchange.
My stomach drops. If they’re out here, then who is in there with her? Two other men have followed me since I left Keon’s room and activated my shield again, so that means the only guard who could be with her is Shayd.
He might just be watching her while she rests in her room.
The door slides open for me, and the room is empty. The bed is made, the window is open, and a cool raft of breeze chills me to my core.
The silk robe one of my men undoubtedly gave her is on the floor, crumbled up. It smells like her–like her arousal, like her anger.
I guess, after Keon told me who Penn really was, I didn’t really expect her to be angry at my departure. But the room does smell like her; heightened emotions, raw desire, pure rage.
I need to talk to her. I don’t think she’s here anymore.
“Leave,” I say to my guards over my shoulder.
Maybe she’s hiding. It makes sense that she’s embarrassed. If she hasn’t killed me yet, maybe she’ll still give me a chance to explain. Plus, in a scuffle, I would still be able to call for help.
And she would get electrocuted before she got too close.
So granting her privacy is the least I can do to spare her feelings. But when I look around the rest of the room, she’s definitely not there.
Fear churns in my stomach as I realize that she must’ve left through the window, in the dead of night, hoping I wouldn’t come looking for her.
Why didn’t she kill me?
I look down toward the courtyard, at the path I think she could’ve taken. I don’t know where Shayd is, so there’s a chance she’s still with him, and he’s going to bring her back to the villa after she calms down.
I close my eyes, trying to zone in on where he is, but I’m having a hard time detecting him. His electrical pulse seems to be far from the villa, blocked off by nature itself. There are things Aelyds can do to mute how reachable they are. The Gift makes it easy for me to reach my guards, to call my people for help. I’m able to identify where they are quickly. But it’s not just about my Gift, they need to be receptive to it. If they aren’t, I’m not able to find them. I know Shayd is alive, but his presence is muted. And there’s no way for me to feel Penn. She’s not at my service, she’s my wife. Maybe not that anymore.
