Finally, his obsession had a name. Blythe. “The little girl. Yes. I saw her. Then she disappeared, andsheappeared. The woman. But I stopped. I was swinging, but I stopped. I would never hurt a child. But by then, the two were already gone. Then the darkness came.” His brow furrowed. “If they remain inside me, why do I not sense them?”
“They’re buried too deep. At least, that’s what my niece told me when she took over your body and spoke to me.”
What! The child had overtaken him? He opened his mouth, a curse poised at the end of his tongue. Then the rest of her admission caught his attention. Niece. That meant Blythe was more than a phantom. She was Taliyah’s sister, a harphantom, and a daughter of Erebus. Enemy!
“No big deal,” Taliyah interjected with a breezy inflection. “Nope! Not another word from you. Just let your shields down, and I’ll draw them out.”
No big deal? Seething, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Lower my shields for a phantom?” Any phantom? Never. Surely he wasn’t so foolish. This might be a trick, after all.
Her expression hardened. “Do it willingly, or I’ll make you do it by force. One way or another, I’m getting my girls out. No, you know what? You don’t get to think about this, and you don’t get to fight it. Kneel.”
He laughed without humor. “I will not.”
“I wear your Commander’s stardust. I’m his wife and hisgravita. I’m also acting harpy General, as well as the granddaughter of Chaos. You will show me the honor owed to me. Kneel.”
Again, he ground his teeth. That she’d echoed his earlier thoughts...
The stardust was a problem. Astra produced it for a fated mate and no other...and Taliyah indeed wore the glittery powder on every inch of visible skin. She was the first to do so, though Roc had wed twenty others before her. But problem or not...
Even as Roux worked his jaw, he slowly lowered to his knees.
“Good boy. Now, this might sting a bit.” Chin up and shoulders back, Taliyah eased closer... He tensed, his muscles like rock. Her body ceased moving just before contact, yet her spirit kept coming, slipping into him.
Electric pulses raced along his synapses, sharper than the pangs, and he stiffened. Pressure built in his torso. Then, he heard Taliyah whisper inside his head. “Blythe. Isla. I’m here. Follow my light and reach for me. I’ll do everything else. Isla, help your mother. Blythe, you’ll both be safe, I swear it. I’m not sure what you’ve witnessed, but you have my word the Astra won’t hurt any of us.”
For the second time, black dots wove through Roux’s vision. Moderating his inhalations, he held steady. Finally, the pressure eased and the dots dulled. Taliyah succeeded, extracting Blythe from the confines of his spirit and the young one from the confines of hers. At first, the General worked with invisible beings. Then the pair solidified, becoming visible to Roux as well.
His tension instantly mounted. The daughter sank into unconsciousness while the mother fought to awaken. The most incredible scent wafted from one or both, and he wondered how he’d missed the intoxicating mix of honeysuckle and roses the day of the invasion.
As he drank in the sight of his dark-haired beauty, various words streaked through his mind.Exquisite. Phantom. Enemy. Want. Mine!
Want? His? Roux didn’t...he couldn’t...no. Impossible. And yet, parts of him warmed, soon growing hot. Hotter.
Sizzling.
Suddenly, he was gnashing his molars, emitting a low growl, and huffing his breaths, as if he’d sprinted across three galaxies.
The beauty slit her lids and leveled pale blue irises on him. Wrong. Pale blue no longer. Black flooded their depths. Hatred all but iced her skin, and it—she—captivated him.
What if he burned hot enough to melt her?
“Enjoy your last days,” she rasped for his ears alone. “I’m coming for you.”
3
THE BEGINNING
Present day
Blythe stabbed her target in the gut. Twice. A one-two punch with her favorite daggers. Merciless, she spun and rammed her combat boot into the underside of his chin. Upon impact, a blade ejected from the boot’s toe, slicing into his mouth.
The life-size dummy with steel rods for bones seemed to smirk at her.That all you got?
Not even close.With a grunt, she elbowed his jaw, bending the rod, then punted his groin. Once again, the blade in the toe of her boot ejected on impact, slicing through his nut sack. For fun, she concentrated on those dangly bits until nothing but shreds remained.
Sweat dampened her skin, and her breaths came fast. Shallow. She’d been at this for hours. Ever since she’d tucked Isla in to bed. Training and strengthening, strengthening and training. Blythe’s new obsession. She was still out of practice, but she improved by the day, thanks to the gym she’d installed in her bedroom at the harpy palace.
“Look at you,” her sister, Taliyah, said from the doorway. The tall, slender goddess leaned against the frame, gorgeous in a skimpy red dress, with her pale hair falling around her shoulders. “Rumor says a switch flipped in you when you escaped the Astra. Bye-bye, Good Blythe, hello, Evil Blythe. Ice-cold yet brimming with fiery rage. Utterly unlikable. Detestable even. So of course there’s now talk of erecting a monument in your honor.”