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The elder appeared far too pleased with himself for surprising me. “Your mates have you locked down tighter than Fort Knox, and when one wants something, sometimes one has to get creative.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I hadn’t pegged you as the creative type.” Some of the mirth faded from his features, replaced with ire.
“I see you found the Book of the Keepers.” Elan cut to the chase, then stepped around the desk and paused. His gaze dropped to the book in question, and I saw the greed that infiltrated his dark eyes.
“It’s just an old book,” I tried to lie, but Elan just smiled wryly.
“A very old book with a wealth of magick. Just feel that.” The elder looked high off the power radiating from the grimoire. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Book of the Keepers, but there’s no mistaking it. You finally found it. Your bitch of a mother actually hid it away in the Shadow Realm.”
I wanted to rear back from the venom in his tone, but I held steady, refusing to give him the satisfaction. I’d never get the chance to meet my mother, but that didn’t change the protectiveness that flared to life at the slight against her. Elan was one of her chosen. He was her mate. I thought he’d loved her, but clearly, I didn’t have the entire story.
My heart-rate kicked up a notch, and I tightened my grip on the leather-bound book.
If my mother hid the book away, there had to have been a reason. I had the sinking feeling I was staring at that reason right now. I’d never liked Elan. He was abrupt and dour, but I had no reason to distrust him. Until now.
By kidnapping me, he’d shown his true colors, and slowly the pieces came together.
“You’ve been following me.” Or his shades had. How else did I explain how he knew where the grimoire had been? Or where I’d been, for that matter. “You’re the one letting the shades out of the Shadow Realm,” I gasped, throwing out my accusation and seeing it if stuck.
My stomach churned as he pushed away from the desk and strode toward me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tye tense.
Anger infiltrated my heart as swiftly as a bullet, strong and damaging. Elan wasn’t working alone. Tye was his lackey, and that hurt far more than it should.
Did Tye hate me that much? Thinking over all our encounters, I couldn’t see it, but his involvement to undermine me alongside his father was undeniable.
The betrayal was so thick I could barely breathe, because I was certain Tye was my seventh mate.
My heart ripped apart as the dots connected.
Tye’s magick was colored black. I’d seen it the night the shadow touched had attacked me during the pack party. He’d helped me. And yet the assailant who’d helped Avalon take my dad hostage had magick the same color. If that wasn’t enough to speculate, the scar I’d witnessed on Tye’s arm? He’d gotten that in the same fight the day my dad had been captured and purposefully possessed by a shade—a demon—and we’d learned our enemy was a shadow touched.
So much had happened. I hadn’t had time to process it all, but I saw it with complete clarity now.
All this time, it’d been Tye and his father.
I’d trusted him. I’d trusted them both. Goddess, I was a fool.
“Lorn,” Tye rasped and took a step closer as he witnessed my heartbreak. There was something wrong about his voice, but it also held a million emotions I couldn’t sort through.
Elan held up a hand and shot Tye a withering glare. His eyes flashed orange as bright as the fire that burned in the hearth. “Stop. Silence,” he ordered.
My clammy hands turned to ice despite the heat in the room, and the blood drained from my face when Elan returned his attention to me.
“Why?” I whispered, but I didn’t know who I was questioning. Was it Elan? Or did my heart desperately need a reason for Tye’s deceit?
It was Elan who replied smoothly, “Why what?” Looking like a cat who’d caught a mouse, he drew closer. A predator toying with his prey.
Speaking past the lump in my throat, I ignored Tye completely, though I felt his gaze burning into my profile with an intensity that was nearly physical. “Why summon the shades? What do you want?” I pressed, needing answers like I needed air.
“I want so many things, my dear.” He steepled his fingers, appearing every bit the villain. I half expected him to stop there, to make me work for an elaboration, but after a beat, he continued without provocation. “The witches and warlocks deserve to suffer for their crimes. They stole something from me.” Standing before me, he invaded my space until I had to tip my face to glare up at him.
“There’s blood and loss on both sides of this war,” I argued. “There is no winner. We’re all losers.”
“Such naïve conventions,” he patronized. “That’s where you’re wrong.” Reaching for the book, his eyes nearly glowed when his hands made contact. “I don’t lose.”
It took everything in me not to step backward or do something far more stupid, like spit in his face. My nails dug into the leather cover, and I was sure the marks would be forever engraved into the material.
“I must thank you for finding the grimoire for me, child. The elders and I have searched for many years for the Book of the Keepers. I should have known your mother would hide it in the one place I’d never be able to find it.”
