I
snorted. “True.” They were deceitful little fuckers who loved to play tricks with time. To ask a favor of them required significant payment, and even then, it was never guaranteed that they would follow through without leaving some devious surprise lying in wait. “Still an avenue to keep in mind,” I said. Because all options had to be considered.
“Not really. I think we’d end up bonding her regardless of how we played it.”
He wasn’t wrong. “I felt the pull from the moment I first saw her.”
“Me, too.”
We shared a long look that ended in a mutual sigh.
“What I still want to know is what Shade has to do with all this,” Zeph continued. “He knew this would happen.”
“What do you mean?”
“He wasn’t surprised at all tonight. Just accepting. What kind of Midnight Fae doesn’t mind two other men taking liberties with his mate?”
I frowned. “I’m certainly not keen on her being in his bed right now.”
“Exactly.”
“Yet I allowed it,” I added.
“Because you’re not opposed to sharing women. But Shade is notoriously alpha in his preferences and not the type to share.”
“True.” I sat up, my hand rubbing down my face as I thought it all through. “He didn’t seem pleased by my suggestion to bite her, though.”
“He seemed worried,” Zeph agreed. “But not about our claim. He was concerned for her and what would happen if we couldn’t get her power under control. There’s a difference.”
“Yeah, there is,” I agreed, recalling the fear in his eyes as he watched her fall apart before us. “He really does care about her.”
“He also saved my life tonight when she blew up that first time. If he hadn’t shadowed me out, I would have burned right along with her. Only, I’m not equipped to survive cerulean fire.”
That was when I’d arrived, having felt her power mounting through our bond. I’d been able to absorb most of her destruction, keeping the energy centered in that courtyard with an electric current stirred directly from the source.
“This is such a mess,” I said, blowing out a breath. “I asked him about his motive tonight. He replied with his usual cryptic bullshit.”
“Do you trust him?” Zeph asked.
I scoffed out a “No.” Because I absolutely did not trust that bastard.
“Neither do I.”
“So what do we do?”
“We monitor him. And we protect Aflora.” He locked gazes with me as he said it. “There’s something about her, Kols. Something important. And it goes deeper than her Quandary Blood.”
“She’s an abomination,” I reminded him. “That could be what you’re sensing.”
He shook his head. “I keep feeling like she’s the key to some long-buried secret. It’s just a sense I get. One I want to understand before we decide how to proceed.”
Zeph’s instincts had proven reliable over the years, and I wasn’t about to deny them now.
“We should start by looking into her origin,” I said, thinking about her past. “Her parents supposedly died when she was young. Everyone thought it had to do with the Earth Fae plague, which they later realized was caused by an abomination.”
“I’d put money on there being more to that story,” Zeph replied.
“Me, too.” I’d have to involve Exos or Cyrus in this to request some details. Maybe I could ask them for information on her background and claim I needed it to help exonerate her or something.