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Her chin came up. “If he is, then he’s planning to take his rightful place as the leader of this whole plane. The humans have done nothing but fuck things up.”
I was getting to her. If I could just get her to see reason, I had a chance to save her. “Lucifer won’t cede the Earth plane. Not when he could take it. Do you honestly believe Myrddin can beat Lucifer Morningstar? The demons will make slaves of us all if you close the door to the Heaven plane. No souls will be able to move on. It will be Hell on Earth. Is that what you want? Do you want us all to die because you lost your power?”
Her eyes suddenly flashed fire. “I got it all back and more. It’s obvious you’re going to be stubborn. So I’ll simply take what my master needs.”
The tendrils in the outer chambers of my brain suddenly became talons, and she began her assault.
I slammed my mental shields down.
“Fuck,” Liv shouted in obvious pain as the world shifted around me and she was gone.
Like I said. I’ve bested far better mind readers, and that was before Marcus taught me how to truly control it. In my case, the demon blood in her system made her more susceptible to my power.
If only she was susceptible to my reason.
“Kelsey? Kelsey, baby?”
I blinked and Trent stood in front of me, worry plain on his handsome face. “So you weren’t the one who was stuck.”
He breathed a major sigh of relief and dragged me into his arms. “I was trying to tell you that we’ll be perfectly comfortable in the primal nest and you stopped. Like someone turned you off. You didn’t blink or respond.”
“Mistress, we were most worried. I arrived here and Master Trent couldn’t bring you out of it. I was about to transport back to Frelsi to bring a doctor.” Eddie put a hand to his chest as though trying to slow his heart.
My own heart felt heavy. Liv was so far from me, and the words she’d said had done their job. I felt guilty. I had brought her into this dangerous part of our world. Oh, I know on an intellectual level in many ways it had been the other way around. She and my brother, Nate, had helped the king bring me in, but I understood why now. That was something I’d forgiven long ago. Now I was left with the worry that she wouldn’t be here had I not brought her into my investigations, put her on the team. She’d been a happy teacher with a fiancé. I think what happened with Scott would have happened no matter what, but she was right about what had happened to her. It was my fault. I should never have involved her in such a dangerous case.
And then I’d disappeared. When we started this journey of ours, she’d been the happy one. I’d been the sad sack with no connections other than her. She’d been the one with all the power.
When I’d disappeared she’d had no one, and I’d become one of the most important people in the supernatural world. I could see where she might think I’d had something to do with her fall.
“It was Liv.”
Trent’s whole body went on alert. “She’s here?”
That told me everything I needed to know. Trent genuinely believed Olivia was a threat. He believed she would hurt him, hurt me, hurt our family.
I shook my head. “No. She was in my mind somehow. I kicked her out.”
“She attempted to get into your mind?” Eddie asked. “She was looking for clues to where the king is?”
“Well the only thing she got out of me was a mad earworm and probably a hell of a headache,” I replied. “How long has she been taking demon blood?”
“I don’t know. She was like this when I got back from the outer planes,” Trent replied. “It had been years, and she was one of the first witches who tried to catch the kids. They were barely in their teens the first time. Rhys recognized her, and she almost had him when Fenrir caught a scent he didn’t like and attacked. It took a long time for Rhys and Lee to believe she’d been trying to harm them.”
“None of us wanted to believe it.” The fact that Eddie’s tail was out and swishing like an upset cat’s was proof he was unnerved. While Eddie almost never changed his demonic form around his family, he did typically keep his tail in check. “Olivia used to be the kindest soul.”
Fuck. Eddie was the most formal of demons. He always called friends of the family by Miss or Mister and always Sir or Ma’am. Not calling her Miss Olivia or Mistress Olivia meant she wasn’t part of our clan. She was an outsider and not a trusted one to Eddie. My butler tended to give the people around him the benefit of the doubt. If he’d pushed Liv out of his trust circle, she’d done something to deserve it.
“No one tried to help her?” I couldn’t forget how lost she’d looked when she’d talked about those first few hours. She might not have even known I was gone. “Did Gray reach out to her? Did you?”
“You should talk to Casey about that. He knows more than I do. I was busy trying to save the kids. She’d forgotten them by then.” Trent’s bitterness was a palpable thing. He took a deep breath and seemed to banish it, his expression softening. “Are you sure she didn’t hurt you?”
Tears pulsed behind my eyes. She didn’t even know I was pregnant. Probably shouldn’t know. I’d dreamed about this, dreamed about Liv and I starting families around the same time and our kids being best friends, too. I knew when she fell for Casey that part wouldn’t happen, but I certainly never thought I would have to protect my child from the woman who should have been his godmother. I couldn’t respond to him. Emotion was running hard through me. I simply nodded.
She hadn’t physically hurt me.
But she’d shredded my heart.
Trent’s arms came around me. “It’s going to be okay, baby. I love you. Let’s go and have dinner with our son and then I’ll show you around the nest and take you back to bed. I’m going to show you how happy I am you’re here. I’m going to take care of you and this new son of ours.”
“And I have a magnificent feast planned for you, my beautiful mistress,” Eddie promised. “It’s all of your favorite things. Please come and see the home I’ve put together for our stay with the primals. I think you will find it comforting.”
I found him comforting. And Trent. I nodded. “Let’s go. I don’t think she can follow. I got the feeling she slipped in because I wasn’t guarding against her.”
I’d wanted to talk to her. It had been in my head all day. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Eddie put a hand on me and the sun blinked away, and I was surrounded by darkness.
