Even when I wanted to.
He returned the embrace, his tongue laced with Aflora’s blood as he delved deep into my mouth in a dominant sweep of power. I returned the move in kind, taking him with a ferocity I knew he couldn’t deny, and smiled when he groaned.
Now wasn’t the time or place.
I also wanted to add Aflora to the mix. We were all going to hell anyway, so I might as well grant myself the taste I’d craved for weeks.
But first, we needed a plan, and to properly form that, we required time.
“Your father would have felt the disturbance of power,” I said, releasing Kols almost as swiftly as I’d grabbed him.
He nodded. “I know.”
“Either you tell him the truth and damn us all or you give him a cover story. And if you choose the latter, then we need to do something to hide our connection to Aflora.” Because everyone who walked near us would be able to smell her in our blood and vice versa. It would be obvious to them all what we’d done tonight, and word would spread quickly through the ranks. Especially when several Council members’ children attended Midnight Fae Academy.
“I can handle the cover story,” Kols murmured. “But we need to make sure Shade is on the same page, as he’ll be the alibi.”
“You’re going to tell your father the two of you engaged in an illegal duel,” I translated.
Kols nodded. “It’ll explain this.” He gestured around the burnt clearing that Aflora had created with her explosion of power. “My father will reprimand us both, but it’ll be a verbal warning more than anything else. He’ll claim it’s a rite of passage for us to fight.”
A good and fair point. “That’ll work, but we need something to hide the bonds.”
“That’s going to be harder,” he muttered.
“No, it’s going to cost us,” I corrected. “A lot.”
“What do you mean?”
“I know a guy,” I muttered, massaging my jaw as I considered what I was about to reveal. “He can help hide things, like bonds.”
Kols narrowed his eyes. “Like protection oaths?”
“Yeah. Like protection oaths.”
He fell silent, his astute gaze holding mine as a myriad of emotions ran through his expression.
Understanding.
Hurt.
Anger.
Pain.
Each emotion hit me in the gut, making me feel worse by the second. Because yeah, I knew the guy as a result of my own research in regard to how to break bonds. Specifically, the protection oath I’d spoken to Kols. He needed someone else, someone better suited, to guard him. And I’d proven more than once now not to be the right man for the job.
Case in point, he’d gone and mated an abomination on my watch.
That marked me as the worst Guardian in Midnight Fae history.
“We’re going to discus
s how you know him later,” Kols finally said. “For now, can you reach out to see if he can help us mask the mating bond?”
I nodded, saying nothing more. He could bring it up all he wanted, but it wouldn’t change anything. What was done was done.
“It’s a temporary solution that gives us time to figure this shit out.” Kols blew out a long breath, his focus shifting to the dawning sky above. A million thoughts ran through his features, each one tied to an emotion I could taste from his aura without him having to say a word.