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It felt too good to be true. I gripped Wane's hand tighter as we retraced our steps to the lobby and found the door Harvey had shattered in his beast form.
Two steps away from freedom, my curse marks flashed crimson, and I spun with a gasp, expecting a monster to be racing at our back.
But the lobby was empty. So was the garden and the path to the gates.
I pulled my wings tight to my sides, unease shuddering down my spine. Wane swallowed, feeding from my fear, but no dark magic roared to life when we approached the shattered door.
"Honey," Wynvail said when we crossed the threshold, the sun watery and dark. Like everything else here, even the sunrise was grey. He paused as I descended the short steps, waiting on the gravel path. "Can I talk to you?"
Wane stiffened but it was Kai who spoke.
"So you can fill her head with lies?" he snarled, rushing past me to put himself between us. "I don't think so, dickhead."
"Kai," I chided, my chest hurting.
"Remember everything he's done. Remember what he is," Kai said harshly, not pulling his punches.
I was too fragile for this right now.
Wynvail gave up on getting close to me, and spoke around Kai, spearing me with a desperate look. "I never had a choice in any of it. It was all a role I played."
"That you took immense enjoyment in," Kai hissed, tongue flicking out in warning.
Wynvail stopped two steps down the driveway, his breathing coming faster. His eyes never wavered from me even when pain chased through them. "I'd change it all if I could—hunting you, getting to the house too late to save you, treating you like shit."
"Making us fight each other," Emlyn put in, his voice deep and disapproving.
Wynvail's bronze throat bobbed. "I had to make it convincing. I couldn't let Cronus realise I only took you three so he couldn't keep you. I tried—Wane, I tried so hard to get you, too, but he wouldn't give you up."
I froze, and even Wane hesitated beside me, confusion spilling from his soul to mine.
"I don't understand," he murmured.
"Cronus only let me take Harvey, Malakai, and Emlyn because I promised to make them suffer. He watchedeverything.I had to make it look real."
"Itwasreal," Harvey argued, crossing his arms protectively over his chest, naked as the day he was born. "For us."
Wynvail clenched his jaw and nodded. "I'm sorry. I did the only thing I could. The arena, the cells—it wasnothingcompared to what he'd do to you."
Questions swarmed in Wane's eyes but he kept them quiet. "He's right," he said instead, though he seemed loath to admit it. "You were better off far away from here."
Wynvail caught my gaze, warmth in the molten silver. No wonder he had Wane’s and Harvey's eyes if he was made from them. "And I'm sorry I had to do this. I tried to warn you, but nothing came out. This—" He threw a hand at the house, at the realm around us. "This was my whole purpose. The only reason Cronus created me. This is why he needed me." His eyes drifted to Wane, remembering his warning below. "I'm sorry."
"What did you do?"Kai snarled, launching himself at Wynvail and delivering a punch hard enough to break his nose.
Wynvail landed on the gravel with a wet grunt, and stayed there. A laboured breath lifted his chest, and the bottom dropped out of my stomach as I felt weakness creep through him.
"Kai," I gasped, breaking away from Wane to shove past my mates and collapse beside Wynvail in the gravel. "What the hell did you do to him?"
"Not him," Wynvail rasped, coughing up blood. "Inevitable."
"What are you talking about?" I demanded, grabbing his shoulders. I wanted to shake him, to tell him to start making sense because none of thismade sense.I wanted to scream and rage and hug him. Why did he feel so weak?
"I tried to warn you," he repeated, fighting back another cough and holding my stare. "But you need your mate. You need Wane."
I didn’t understand. I didn’t know what was happening.
Something inside my chest began to ice over, going numb. The part of me connected to him.
