Shade released an insufferable sigh and sat on the bed, which was not at all what I anticipated. “Torture me all you want, Zephyrus. It’s nothing compared to the pain I’m already in.”
Kols put his hand on mine, lowering the wand. “He’s not going to remove the block, even if you hurt him.”
“Maybe not, but hurting him will make me feel a lot better,” I muttered.
“No, it won’t,” Kols said softly. “The only thing that will make any of us feel better right now is Aflora. I think we should try to reach her in her dreams, but tread carefully.”
Shade huffed a laugh. “The irony.”
“What irony?” Kols asked.
“Zakkai used to visit her mind while she slept between both of you.” His lips twitched. “You never noticed. Maybe he won’t notice either, except I’m guessing he’s waiting for you right now.”
“Since you know him so well, maybe you should come with us,” I suggested, only half meaning it.
“Actually, that might work,” Kols murmured. “You might be able to sense his energy signature.”
“His energy signature?” Shade repeated. “Aflora is drenched in his energy. They bonded when she was seven, and his magic has been growing with hers ever since.” He pulled his knee up onto the mattress and leaned against one of the posts at the foot of the bed.
A strange sort of silence fell between the three of us as we considered what that meant. Shade had mentioned the age of Zakkai’s bond to Aflora earlier, but hearing it again really drove the point home.
Fifteen years.
I hadn’t even been bonded to her for fifteen days.
“Aflora inherited the earth source shortly after their mating,” Shade added, his tone lacking his usual snark. “You can imagine what that’s done to her, right?”
“It caused her powers to mingle with his, which is what marks her as an abomination.” Kols sounded wary, but he mimicked Shade’s position by leaning against the headboard with one leg drawn up, the sheets pooling at his hips.
If Aflora walked in and saw this, she’d probably faint. Three of her mates, mostly naked, sitting in a weird triangle shape on the bed.
I would h
ave laughed if I had a sense of humor.
But nothing about this was funny or okay. And the dull ache in my chest only emphasized that fact.
“You said you were able to lower the barrier to check on her. Do it again. I want to feel her.”
Shade’s ice-blue eyes glittered even in the low lighting of the room. “My mental block isn’t the same as the one I put in her mind.”
“Then we go into her dreams,” I replied, done with this negotiation. “I need to know that she’s okay, and I’m not accepting your confirmation to the contrary.” He hadn’t earned my trust. Fuck, he was far away from that point.
“Call Kyros and put him on standby. If this goes badly, we’ll just shift backward in time.” Kols shrugged as though messing with the timeline mattered little to him.
His whole demeanor had changed since Shade had bitten him—an act that made my blood boil.
I was Kols’s protector. His Guardian. And a Death Blood had first-stage mated him while I’d been passed out from a spell.
A spell cast by the same Death Blood in question.
There really was no mystery here as to why I wanted to kill him.
The only reason I hadn’t touched him yet was because of Aflora. Hurting him would hurt her, and she was in enough pain already.
My eyebrow lifted with the thought. “Wouldn’t breaking my bond with Aflora hurt her?” I asked slowly, interrupting whatever the Death Blood had just been saying to Kols. “If your claim regarding his care for her is valid, then would he risk harming her in that manner?”
Shade stared at me. “Breaking the bond would hurt, yes. As to whether or not he would go through with it, I’ll just say that he’s not opposed to risks.”