AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah? Add it to the list we have already,” I yell as my hands rip through my hair. “I’ve got bigger problems right now. She wants to dissolve the bond. She wants us to fucking leave her here. She wants to die to save us.”
I’m ready to yank it out by the roots. I know she wants us safe—wants the best for me and the rest of us—but Fates be damned, I want her. I refuse to give up on Aurelia just because Iva has a grudge.
No, we’re doing this together.
“Well, she’s not going to have to save us,” he informs me, adjusting his grip on the blade in his hand. “We’re going to have to save ourselves. We’re surrounded.”
Well, of course we are, I think. What else can go wrong?
And then the power goes out.
I had to ask.
Chapter Nineteen
AURELIA
The blackness fades to gray and then to white. When my eyes finally focus, I realize I’m looking at a white dress. I’d know those skinny-ass hips anywhere.
“Do you like your accommodations?” Iva’s Irish brogue stabs through my brain.
I hate that voice.
Given I’m chained to another slab in another gray room when my real body’s somewhere else, not so much. She smiles for a second, and suddenly, the bonds are gone. The room seems to melt like candle wax, and now I’m standing on my own two feet in a dimly lit ballroom. The ceiling is vaulted, with a delicate crystal chandelier casting an ethereal glow.
Iva’s holding a glass of champagne, gently swaying to a smooth Jazz number on the parquet floor. Her dress is backless and form-fitting, her hair arranged in a neat chignon. Her blood-red lips pull into a smug smile.
“Neat trick.” Bitch. “Wanna tell me how I got here?”
“You aren’t anywhere,” she answers with a shrug, still swaying to the music. “You and I are inside your precious little noggin.”
I fucking hate Jazz, but somehow, I’d be willing to bet she knows that already.
“In my head? I’ll buy that. How long have you been squatting inside my brain, you soulless little bitch?”
Her eyebrows rise at the insult, but she seems to let it go. I guess she’s having too much fun.
“Well, for the longest time it was impossible to find you,” she admits before sipping her drink. “I’d thought I had eliminated all of your kind, but you, darling, you slipped past me. Very tricky, my dear.” She raises her glass in a snide mock-toast. “I’d venture a guess Nicola was behind that little coup. Don’t you worry. I’ll take care of her later.”
Iva sashays to a table that seems to have appeared from thin air. Carefully, she peruses the selection of hors d'oeuvres before plucking a canapé from the tray and popping it into her mouth. After taking a fucking age to chew, she shifts to face me.
“I tried finding your Rhys, but he was hidden as well. I blame that infernal Wraith King for that. And then we used your blood. Well, you shed a bit of that for Javier, didn’t you? And after I suppressed your Aegis, it was a simple thing to crack your head wide open.”
Suppressed not eliminated.
Either she's lying, or Iva has just fucked up.
“Since you’re probably going to kill me, could you tell me why? Is it just to secure your throne? For revenge? Or are you just a psychotic bitch on wheels with a God complex? Really, what exactly do you get out of all this?”
For the longest time, I don’t think she’s going to answer me. Then, she sips from her glass and gently rests the flute on the table. Next to the glass is a sharp-as-sin Morganite knife. She lovingly caresses the blade before wrapping her slender fingers around the hilt, gently picking up the weapon.
“It’s a bit of all three, really. But what do I get?” she whispers menacingly as her red lips twist into a cruel smirk. “I get to kill you. I get to rip your mind apart bit by bit, thought by thought, inch by tiny inch.”
RHYS
I’m lucky I have friends who can focus during a crisis. While I’ve been ripping my hair out at Aurelia’s bedside, my friends have been raiding her house for weapons.
My wife has weapons tucked away in every nook and cranny of this house. There are knives and handguns inside cabinets disguised as floating shelves, a gun safe hidden behind a wall mirror near the garage door. Every table and bar stool has some kind of weapon affixed to the underside, and that doesn’t even include the huge weapons cache hidden in the dojo.
