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"His signature's on the cone," I replied, my voice so calm it even freaked me out. "He wants us to follow it."
"How do you know?" Arkan demanded, appearing beside us with Joseph, both looking spitting mad.
"Because I know him," I muttered. "I know the way his mind works. And I know, deep down, he doesn't want to kill me. You guys, sure, but he wants to control me, not murder me. The candyfloss is safe. Want some?"
They looked at me like I'd transformed into a fluffy pink unicorn when I held out the cone to them.
"You people are insane," the supermodel warrior breathed, shaking her head as she went back to the winged redhead giant. He kinda looked like a ginger Santa Claus, or maybe a Viking. I gave him a little wave. He returned it, his cheeks turning pink.
"You should stay here," I told my mates, trying to sound casual. I turned the cone over in my hand, unsurprised to find a message scrawled in red sharpie. It reminded me of the blood message at the training hall when his minions kidnapped Joseph.
My glance slid to Joseph now, then to everyone else. All here except Dev. Fuck, I wished my devil was here.
"Like hell we're leaving you," Taj exploded, a dark vein pulsing in his forehead. "Are you crazy?"
"Thoroughly," I deadpanned. "Which is why I can do this. If you're with me, you'll just be a distraction. You should stay."
So he couldn't kill them. So he couldn't take anyone from me for good this time. I looked at the black spiral staining my palm, and let hate harden me. No more hesitation, no more leverage held against me, no mates threatened.
"That's not happening, princess," Arkan argued, snatching the candyfloss from my hand and inspecting the message written there.
I raised an eyebrow. It was written in gibberish; no way could he decipher the code.
Cold fingers threaded through mine while Arkan distracted me, and gripped tight enough that I couldn't extricate my hand if I tried. Not that I did; it was a stressful day, I needed my hand held.
"We do this together, or we don't do it at all," Joseph rumbled, half his face still bone white and skeletal.
I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip, masking my fear as irritation. "You'll get in the way."
I snatched my candyfloss back and bit a sugary cloud from the top, turning back to the room full of wraiths and winged demons.
"What does the message mean, Aveline?" Arkan demanded, following my every movement.
"Exactly what it says," I chirped. "There's a squirrel in the lasagne and the treehouse has a personal masseuse and spire. I'm looking forward to it; should be a fun time. Anyway, gotta go."
I yanked on my hand; Joseph's hand didn't budge.
Taj and Ark blocked my way, twin walls of muscle ominous shadows. The disapproval that hit me from both of them was like a kick to the stomach. But it was X who drove the knife into my heart.
"I'm scared too, Av," he breathed, watching me with heavy purple eyes. "And you're probably right, everyone knows it's me. We're not being subtle."
I looked up at the ceiling when X tore off the glamour, my familiar, beautiful, scarred mate in front of me. The ol'glance up to stave off tearstrick wasn't working so great for me; they lined my eyes anyway.
"We'reallscared," he murmured, elbowing Arkan aside so he could hold my face and bring my gaze to his. A pesky tear slipped free, the rebellious bastard.
Joseph's bond went mental, the cat I pictured his soul as racing around in a blind panic, claws out, howling at the top of its lungs. Joseph's soul needed some Feliway. Stat.
"Sweetness? Shit. It's okay, it's okay, I'll kill him for you and then everything will be okay and you'll never cry again. Okay? Okay!"
My lips drew up into a smile, the numbness I wore as armour chipping away. "That's a lot of okays, Joejoe."
"Last time, we were separated," Ark murmured, his mouth pressed thin and his face even more gaunt with the severe expression he wore. "Eidolon trapped us, hurt us, and got the advantage when he took Taj. This time, we're together. We're a complete circle."
"It won't be enough," I disagreed, trying to sort through the storm of feelings in my core to find my own emotions. Someone was absolutely furious, and I couldn't tell who; they seethed like a raw, bottomless inferno. Ark, maybe? It felt like darkness for sure, like the fire and rage could swallow me into a void. "I wish it was different, but you guys can't come."
I tried to muscle past them, to no avail. Beyond us, wraiths watched with their sneering faces and sour expressions. So damn disrespectful of their prince heir. Unless…
"Hey, Ark," I whispered. "Have your family always been so blatantly scornful of the devil?"
