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The dying branches wailed from being snapped under my boots, each one a spine I cracked, a bone I broke, a life I took. They became a symphony in my head, a sonnet of sorrow and pain.
Tad was dead. I murdered the most powerful Druid in history because he was trying to save a child. From me.
You could feel a slight shift in the air. Something was off. Wrong. This city was all sorts of wrong. Or maybe it was me. Nothing had been right with me for weeks now as if I were on the precipice of falling.
Ash couldn’t fight the grin hitching the side of his mouth as we strolled to our motorcycles. We both knew it wasn’t his hands that were getting him off almost every night. You’d never know by how they acted during the day, but two people were slipping into his room at night, and shit got loud.
It had been just a little over two weeks since the night she left—since everything went to hell, and the Wolf was being held back by a thin thread. He wanted to hunt her down. Claim his vengeance.
My sister was even part of the patrol, most likely out here tonight with horse-face.
Tall and built, his blond hair hidden under a beanie, Lukas looked like that guy who should be out fighting crime and saving babies. The classic hero, where I’d be the villain. A half smile curved up Lukas’s mouth, his gaze coyly trailing over Ash, both pretending it wasn’t their fault I was kept up half the night. Behind Lukas, I spotted the third member of the party that had me wishing for earplugs.
I snarled at Scorpion, and he flipped me off. I wanted to hate the fucker, but I couldn’t. Not even in the worst torture would I ever admit this, but I had faith in him. I trusted him with Kovacs. I knew he’d do anything to save her life, to protect her. Because of that I couldn’t detest him, which made me want to hate him more.
Not a bit of me wanted to contemplate that day or believe I shared anything with captain one-pump.
looking every bit the pompous ass he was before, though his dark cargo pants, long-sleeved shirt, and worn boots took him several levels down from douchebag. “Report,” he demanded. Never mind. The douchebag was still flying his flag.
I shouldn’t. There was no way I should be aware of this information. But I could see the exact spot, every detail of the room, though I had never been in Marko’s office.
“How did you know that?”
“Because you know.”
Rosie had this presence, like she had on stage when I saw her years ago as Nina Petrov, the young ingenue flouncing onstage. Seeing her perform had made something in my chest tighten, take notice, remember her years later. The play was horrendous; however, something about her had me returning to see it again.
“Whatever you say, Lord Killian.” Though she meant it to be derogatory, my spine heated as the title fell from her lips, my dick hardening at her insolent tone, fury rolling my hands into fists. I turned away, sucking in long breaths of air. What the hell was my problem? She was a human. Not at all worth my energy. Why did she irritate me so much?
Birdie continued to smirk, her hip leaning into Scorpion’s chair. “You seem so adamant about her not going in. Why is that?” I blinked at Birdie, my mouth opening in response, nothing coming out.
But the horrors of Věrhăza, what nobody saw, the impact of wearing iron daily had taken a toll. I had to hide my shaking hands, my panic attacks, the dark voices in my head still calling for me to end it all.
told myself it was to get a full list of items Rosie needed from the market before I headed out. There was no other reason I was heading straight to the healing room without even stopping to get coffee. I snarled at the half-truth clinging to the back of my mind.
The girl who bit and clawed me, full of vigor and venom, boiling my blood with aggravation and overwhelming my brain with headaches, stared blankly at the wall like she was waiting for death.
I wasn’t that person until you got to know me a bit. The most comfortable I had been with someone was Brexley. And that was because she was in every fiber of my being.
She could approach the most feral, bloodthirsty dog and would have it snuggling on her lap in ten minutes, licking her face. A.K.A… Warwick Farkas. But that bastard wasn’t just licking her face.
She might be feisty, but she was way too pure for me. I had a firm rule of not shitting where I eat. I kept sex and home separate.
What I liked… it wasn’t for the faint of heart. And she was far too delicate and innocent. Plus, I think she actually hated my guts.
“Everything will be okay. I will make sure of it, little viper.” “How?” Her chest heaved out a gust of air, her eyes glossing with more unshed tears. “I don’t know, but I’ll figure it out. You know I have no moral integrity.” A smirk hitched up the side of my face. “I’ll go far as I need to.”
I still waited for Maddox to walk into a room like his absence was only because he was running an errand or on a mission.
“It’s where the freaks and shunned of the fae world, those who don’t fit with their own, can find a place.”
The fact I was even here, guarding his back, twisted more ire through me. Gritting my teeth, it took everything in my power not to strike out, fury constantly bubbling under my skin, which seemed to be the only thing I’d felt since that day…
That's Warwick's essence all right
More than Istvan, Sonya had been the biggest threat, but no one saw it coming because of how subtly she wiggled in and took over. Her beauty, charm, and pretty words had the fae completely enamored with her as their leader.
I needed a shower. I needed a drink. I needed to punch the shit out of something. But most of all, I needed her.
I had lived centuries; my time with Kovacs was a blink in the scheme of things, but I couldn’t handle not being connected to her for a moment. To not know where she was. To not hear her voice, see her smile, feel her skin, taste her, capture her moans. Everything felt off. Wrong. I saw no color.
I should be able to find her. To feel her. To know exactly where she was. If she wanted to run. I would have run with her. She couldn’t protect me from her. It was too late for that. She had already leveled me.
Exhaling, I twisted to see the imp sitting on my ass, wearing a leaf choker and animal skin shorts, her fingers up and flying around, flipping me off. “Yeah, fuck you too,” I replied. “And get your fingers away from my ass.” Chirp!
“He’s here. He stays close to you. So does death. They loiter at the edges.”
“That old man is quite persistent.” “What old man?” “The Druid,” she huffed, folding her arm, her head flicking out to the space beside me. “He’s right here.”
Uncle Killian?” Simon hovered his piece over a square. He had taken to calling me that when we were in the cabin, and I never corrected him. I would never admit it to anyone, but whenever he did, I felt a warmth, a sense of belonging I never had before.
It was where I met her. Where I got my name. Where I became a man. Where my heart was broken.
Kitty’s condition seemed to only be declining. The prison destroyed her will to live. To be part of this world.
“And tugging my hair?” A derisive smile twisted her lips. “That’s beginners’ foreplay. You’d have to do a lot more than that to even set the minimum bar for me. And you are far too uptight for that, Majesty.”
Anyone could get this response from touching me, right? It wasn’t her—not a human.
I noticed him flirting with her before, hanging around the healing room when she was working like a pathetic puppy. His intentions were obvious. Did she like him back? Whatever came over me roared with resentment, tinting my vision green.
“Wesley is not going.” “Then who is?” “Me.”
The thought of not being with Rosie to protect her made me more unsettled than the idea of turning away from my rightful duty.
With Brexley, there was no choice. She was rooted in my blood. Was part of me. Family. Because she wedged herself in, she must have left a crack open for others to sneak in. More specifically, one other slipped through, filling my thoughts and pounding my chest with worry.
that night I helped you.” “Oh, the night I got to punch you in the face?” Warwick snorted. “Yeah… Good times, pony-boy. Like to do that again.” “Not sure your sister would approve.” Zander shot back, a hint of a smile on his face as he looked through the binoculars.
Warwick’s statement didn’t stop me. I started running, only one thought coursing through my mind. Hanna.
It was strange, but it was like I could smell Brexley here, as if her fear and heartache were imprinted against this very curtain. I didn’t have the connection to her as Warwick and Scorpion did, but there was still something between us. Something that made me feel like she had stood right here, her own terror bleeding into this very fabric.
The guard’s voice tugged Warwick’s focus to the scene behind me. To the soldier who held a picture of me. Tracker. Dressed in a Ukrainian military outfit. Captain of his troop.
“I don’t know who you are or what you’ve done… but the Master just made you part of the family.”
I went to scoop her up with a growl, but a figure darted in front of me, blocking me and stopping me in my tracks. Ash went down on his knees at her bedside, leaning closer to her. “Kitty…” His voice was soft. “Listen to me.”
“Took me a long time to acknowledge it… to see my ego and broken heart lashed out at you for something you couldn’t control any more than what I felt for you.”
