Between Imminent Fates (The Immortal Accords #12)

11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Key

Something was wrong with Jax. When she’d attempted to teleport to him only a moment ago, it’d failed. His psychic signature, a thumbprint that had been burned into her mind since the moment they’d met, no longer registered to her psychic senses.

That could mean one of three things: his signature had changed, he was shielded somehow, or he was dead.

Without a way to communicate with him, there was only one viable option: his apartment. She had visited many times, and she could draw on her location memory to pull her there.

For a foreseer, not knowing what she would find inspired an anxiety that was foreign. Walking into situations not knowing the outcome was something she’d had very little experience with.

Closing her eyes, Key teleported into Jax’s kitchen. The apartment was eerily silent. She dared not even breathe for fear of missing something important. Her psychic senses exploded outward, finding that it was entirely empty. Even Zeus was missing.

Moving through the apartment on legs that felt numb, she found little to support her theory that Jax had been killed. Though there were several new gouges in the wood flooring in his bedroom, nothing else indicated that he’d been attacked and left for dead. At least not here.

Without a signature to follow, she had no leads on where Jax could’ve gone. If he’d been taken by Rayn, a man capable of weaving Shields, Key wouldn’t be able to find him. On the other hand, a massive change would’ve been required to alter his psychic imprint. It would’ve been nearly impossible for a human to accomplish that without a significant level of trauma.

And if he had passed away—

A sob tore from Key’s throat. Being with Jax had been the first time she’d allowed herself to truly let go, to not be the mastermind behind a plot that was vitally important.

She had allowed herself to be free with him—to have fun—and now, it’d come crashing down around her. Everything she did had an ulterior motive, but it’d never been forced with him. Her one thread of happiness had now spun into a noose.

Key collapsed on the couch. Snagging a pillow, she inhaled the scent of leather and spice that clung to it. For a moment, all she could do was hold it close. There had to be some way to find him.

As her mind whirled with the next best step, the sound of dog nails on hardwood made her still completely. A deep masculine voice hummed outside Jax’s door, and the moment keys jangled against the look, she shot to her feet. Relief poured through her as she recognized it.

Zeus was the first through the door, the dog happily surprised to find Key waiting for them. As he trotted over for pets, she simply stared at the person who’d entered behind him.

Jax Hunter was no longer human.

When he caught sight of her, his eye color shifted—to his wolf . “Key.”

Battling against the tears that blurred her vision, Key reached toward him, her fingertips settling against his breastbone. The steady heartbeat that thrummed in his chest and the masculine traces of spice and leather were uniquely him, but he’d been fundamentally altered. Jax Hunter had been bitten and turned into a werewolf in the short amount of time since she’d seen him last.

Instant, searing pain knifed through her at the thought. Unknowingly, she had let him go through the debilitating transformation alone. Deep inside her, her soul seemed like it was splitting in two.

“What happened?”

Recognition dawned. “I won’t stand by while people are being injured, Key. I won’t hide behind my humanity. If I can help these victims with such a simple change, then why wouldn’t I?”

“Jax,” she cried, “this wasn’t what I meant.”

Nothing about becoming a werewolf was simple. He had undergone the change alone, without a guide, and had no idea of the implications and dangers associated with it.

The last conversation they had came storming back into mind. She’d called him fragile. Said she couldn’t risk him. Her words had set off a chain of events that she hadn’t foreseen. As she reached for those visions, she realized that Jax had been notably absent. That fact terrified her.

“You may not have meant it that way, but I see you, Key,” he said. “You’re so, so alone, carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. As a human, I was a liability. I changed that.”

She simply let him hold her, her knees shaking. Too long she’d waged the fight against the sins of the Citizens alone, without even the solace of a confidant.

And here was Jax, supporting her without fail.

Inhaling his scent, she fisted the soft cotton of his shirt. The tsunami of visions threatened to separate her from the world, and holding tightly to Jax was the only anchor available.

Letting her fear fall away, she relaxed as he tightened his embrace.

The stress that’d built in the wake of Jax’s disappearance ebbed, leaving behind the familiar burden of her plans. Soon, she’d have a conversation with Nero that would determine the course of the war. It had been planned for centuries—and would take every ounce of her focus.

Jax’s fingers gently combed through her hair, and her eyes closed, the tickle of sensation against her scalp incredibly soothing. When the man holding her had vanished, Key had put everything on pause, including the daunting conversation to come. It was an unprecedented action throughout the centuries of responsibility that weighed on her shoulders.

She found herself warring with the foreign sensation of desire; Jax’s otherworldly appeal was off the charts. It had been ages since she’d allowed herself to be intimately involved with someone. Protecting the future had simply been more important—and a way to escape seeing another person she cared about die.

Retreating from Jax’s embrace, she studied the way his stunning hazel eyes softened as he regarded her. The way they dipped to her lips while his tongue darted out to wet his own. A hesitation as he leaned forward, then paused, searching her eyes.

His intention was clear.

Before she could think better of it, Key lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips against his. Desire swelled from a trickle to a tide in moments, overwhelming her reason as she balanced precariously against those soft lips.

Slowly, his corded arms cinched around her waist, claiming her irrevocably as his mouth worshipped hers. Nothing could’ve prepared her for the sensation. Jax was devouring her, and she was gleefully letting him.

As his mouth moved against hers, a thread of uncertainty pinged through her mind. Pulling on the string, she discovered the unraveling tapestry beyond. Her own feelings were a mess, and she couldn’t begin to fathom what that meant for him. Her heart thumped as she thought about the effects of Jax’s position through the muddied waters of her own emotions.

Leading him on hadn’t been her intention. She’d asked many things of him, and in doing so, she may have unintentionally ruined his life. Though he was immortal now, she had never wanted their relationship to be the reason behind his compliance.

As concern forced its way through the desire that’d greenlit his kiss, Key’s enthusiasm wavered. Immediately, Jax withdrew, frowning at her. Before he could speak, she said ruefully, “I have to go.”

“Did I do something you weren’t comfortable with?”

“No, Jax.” Key shook her head. Reaching up, she gently brushed her thumb along his jawline. “When I realized you were missing, I dropped everything to find you. In a few minutes, I have to speak with my sovereign about something he won’t like. I can’t stay here with you—as much as I want to.”

Zeus brushed up against them in that moment and gave Key reason to stop speaking. While she attempted to work through the complicated feelings that’d forced their way into her mind, Jax spoke once more.

“Do you need backup?”

A chuckle broke through the building tide of angst inside her. “No, but I appreciate the offer. Unfortunately, I have to do this alone.”

Capturing her hand, he pressed a kiss into each knuckle. “I simply want to help, Key. You tell me what you need, what I can do to help, and I’ll follow through. I’m no longer fragile.”

He never had been.

“You already are helping, Jax. Getting your commander to us will be the last part of a grander plan—and the list you retrieved is already putting things into motion. It’s been vital, and just hours ago, teams of immortals deployed to those locations. We have finally been able to rescue the wolves in those facilities who aren’t rabid.”

“Good,” he emphasized. “Getting them to safety is exactly what needed to happen.”

“The ones who’ve survived are finding dens to belong to,” she said. “But you—you’re now a wolf without a pack, Jax.”

“I’ve been alone a long time. This is nothing new.”

Her chest constricted. A werewolf without a pack was very different from a human who’d chosen solitude. Before long, Jax would need the den structure to support his development. Explaining that to him would have to wait until she knew more.

Key lifted her gaze to meet his without skittering away. What she saw in him was stubborn will and an enviable tenacity that was his by merit. When fate had cast their futures together, it hadn’t chosen wrong. Though Key knew where her path would lead, his was indiscernible. All she knew was that she trusted him—to any end.

“When I come over tomorrow night, we can talk.”

He smiled. “I’ll have Oreos and a movie ready.”

Key lifted on her toes and gently touched her lips to his cheek. She teleported back to Oahu without a word of goodbye.

Instead of trying to decipher the secrets of her own mind, she stood in her kitchen and refocused on the conversation ahead. The cool granite countertop under her hands kept her centered in the present, reminding her that she couldn’t afford to be distracted from her goal. By the time Nero appeared beside her, she’d realigned herself.

“Key?”

She swallowed against a too-dry mouth. “Yes, sovereign?”

“I felt your distress earlier through our clan bond.” His too-perceptive gaze speared through her as he let himself in. “Are you okay?”

Already, Key’s mind was filtering through the vision of what’d she already seen of this moment, of what needed to take place during their brief but important conversation. She felt rather than sensed her eyes frost white.

After this conversation, there would be no going back. Nothing could change the outcome if she breathed the words into existence. Part of her wanted to ignore the vision—and the future that came along with it.

It was a crucially important question, and one that’d both win the war and lose her battle. Everything hinged on Nero’s reply. The lives of their allies and the deaths of their enemies. A future where immortals could prosper, or one where they’d perish.

A war for self-preservation raged inside her. By asking this of her sovereign, she would sign the death warrant of those she’d been bound to protect. She would beg for it—even while knowing exactly what it would cost.

In the end, she was honor-bound to see it through. Swallowing against a throat tight with guilt, she spoke the words that would condemn her.

“Nero. I need to ask you a favor.”

“Name it.”

“When the time comes and I ask it of you, you must restrain Zeke.” The shock of the ask made Nero flinch. “You will have to Lock his abilities the moment I say.”

His mouth dropped open. “You would ask me to wield my abilities against one of our strongest allies?”

She nodded.

“Kiyonne, this goes against our code. I’ve signed a treaty with Zeke, barring action against each other. An attack of this nature—” he shook his head distastefully, “—it goes against everything I stand for.”

“And yet, it must happen. For immortal victory.”

He could only stare at her. Her sovereign was powerful, but his strongest ability was the one he rarely utilized. Nero was a Lock.

Feared among Raethkind, he never advertised the ability, nor showcased it to anyone outside his clan. Key had only witnessed the true extent of the gift a handful of times, the most recent being when he’d taken action against a man who had attempted to kill Jeremiah.

That Raeth—Myko’s father—was still without his abilities, essentially rendered human. The Lock would remain in place forever if Nero refused to remove it.

Not even a Blunt or a Shield could withstand him, and no one outside of their clan knew Nero had the ability. A Lock’s gift existed on a separate plane, untouched by other Raeths or their magic. It could not be manipulated or mirrored, changed, or shielded. It was pure psychic energy.

“Nero, if you don’t Lock Zeke when the moment comes, we’ll lose the war. We will all perish. The horrors that happen to our clans, our children, to your mate—the grim future of our kind would be guaranteed.”

“Zeke would never act against us. Explain what benefit rendering him powerless would achieve?”

“If I tell you that—no matter how much I want to—it will compromise everything we’ve worked for. You trusted me once before, Nero, and it saved the life of your mate. You found her because you had faith in my abilities. I’d ask that you do the same even now, when it feels like failure, and your morality is questioned. Please, Nero. This— this is the last thing I’ll ask of you.”

Turmoil reigned in her sovereign, but in the end, trust won out. “If you say so, Key, I’ll listen. When you ask it of me, I’ll Lock Zeke’s power.”