Kols and Zeph had just orchestrated the arrest and the collar around my neck.
I frowned, touching the leather now with the tip of my index finger.
It’d done nothing to stop me from blasting Emelyn’s power today. Or had it tried to thwart me and I’d just moved around it?
A consideration for later.
What was I even doing here, allowing Shade to hold me like this? The three males were conversing around me, their words slowly trickling into my ears.
“…dismantled Emelyn’s spell,” Kols was saying. “Then she put the bitch on her ass.”
“It was beautiful,” Shade put in helpfully.
“She used her Quandary Blood abilities.”
Shade shrugged, his hand still rubbing my arm gently. “No one noticed. She didn’t utter a single spell out loud. From what they could tell, she just sent Emelyn into a vision, which was today’s exercise, right? Not Aflora’s fault that Emelyn couldn’t handle a dose of her own medicine.”
“Is Emelyn all right?” Zeph asked, his voice low.
“She’ll be fine,” Shade replied. “Our mate will be, too, by the way. In case you were wondering.” The hint of annoyance in his tone created a tense atmosphere that caused the hairs along my arms to stand.
“Are you trying to imply that I can’t see, Shadow?”
“No, I’m suggesting you redirect your concern to the right female, Zephyrus. You know, the one who is our mate.”
“Say that a little louder,” Kols snapped.
“Is that a dare?” Shade countered. “Because you know I will. Unlike you two idiots, I’ve embraced my destiny. Perhaps you should try it.”
“Or I could undo it,” I muttered, more to myself than to them.
Shade froze against me, the air chilling in the room. “What did you just say?”
Right. Time to tell the boys my thoughts on this whole mating business. As we were all together, why not now? It’d already been one heck of a day. Might as well end it with a bang.
I pulled away from Shade so I could see all three of the males bound to my life and cleared my throat.
“I said that I could just undo it.” They all gaped at me as if I’d lost my mind. “What? I’m a Quandary Blood, right? Redirecting power is apparently my thing. Why not apply that logic to the bonds and sever them?”
Chapter Twelve
Zeph
Ice drilled through my veins. “Absolutely fucking not.”
Aflora blinked up at me in surprise. “Excuse me?”
“No. The answer is no.” I’d claimed her. Planned or not, she was fucking mine, and I wouldn’t allow her to undo it now.
She bristled at my tone, some of her inner fire climbing into her gaze. “No?” she repeated. “No? I’m pretty sure that’s not your call to make.”
“I’ll just bite you again,” Shade interjected, sounding bored already by the discussion. But I caught the hint of hurt in his icy gaze. He very much disliked this line of thought. For once, I agreed with him.
Kols, however, remained quiet.
I glanced at him, expecting to see rage but catching a glimmer of intrigue instead. “You can’t possibly be considering this,” I told him.
“It’d solve a lot of problems,” he admitted with a shrug.