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The words are a punch to the gut, stealing what little breath I have left. Vance, with his secrets and his cold blue gaze, had always kept me at arm’s length.
And now I know why.
Because I was a threat to his leadership.
Maybe he wants to get rid of me. Maybe this is all a convenience for him.
“Lianna!” Caius barks suddenly, and she appears from the shadows, her presence a silent threat. “Keep our guest entertained. I have business to attend to.”
Without another word, he strides out of the room, leaving me to the mercies of the woman who seems intent on tearing me away from the woman I love. Her touch is cold as she resumes her work, tracing the lines of ink that bind me.
“Does it hurt?” she asks, her voice deceptively sweet.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I reply, voice rough like gravel, even though the pain isn’t from her touch—it’s the ache of a wound much deeper, invisible, and untouchable.
The door slams shut behind Caius, sealing my fate with the click of a lock. Alone with Lianna, I’m left to ponder the cruel game of chess where I’m the expendable pawn, my moves dictated by masters who hold kinship as a knife to the throat.
Vance…
…and Aisling, too.
Aisling, who hasn’t come for me yet.
Probably fucking Oberon right now, leaving me behind.
“Family,” I mutter under my breath, the word now a curse that tastes of betrayal and lost chances. And as Lianna’s fingers dance over my skin, the symbols becoming part of me, I wonder if they’re not just markings but epitaphs for the trust and bonds I thought unbreakable.
It’s just me now, and whatever hell I have to walk through next.
Chapter twenty-three
Aisling
This is the last time.
The last time I trick them, use them…because I remember everything, and I know this isn’t fair.
Because I’m not just an omega.
I was Patient 0.
When we were in the thick of it, running from the Eclipse, everything started to click into place. The memories, which before had been a jumble of sounds, smells, and images—they started to make sense.
I remembered.
Not just the emerald green forest, the grey ocean, mist hanging on the horizon…no, I remembered other things too. Needles. Holding cells.
A desperate escape that sent our old, underused ship to the bottom of the ocean, along with everyone I ever loved.
My grandmother.
My mother.
The women who taught me chess under a brilliant summer sun.
But when I washed up on the beach in Pacific City, I realized that I had a certain kind of power—a power that only omegas have, and that I had in spades. Because the experiments those doctors had run on me gave me a special kind of perfume that gave me powers of persuasion beyond what any normal omega could do.
I used it to get myself to safety, to woo customers at the club, to keep my secrets.
