Chapter Thirty-Two
Cadence
The second we reappeared inside Ryker’s chambers, his shadows peeled away, releasing us from the darkness. The shift was always disorienting. One moment, the world was nothing but cold, ink-black silence, and the next, we were standing within the familiar walls of the palace.
As the last tendrils of shadow recoiled, my gaze lifted to find Callum and Riordan already waiting.
“Finally!” my brother said as he ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “Everyone told me you’d be all right, but I couldn’t relax until I saw it for myself.”
Guilt knotted my stomach. “I’m so sorry, Callum, I should have sent word.” Closing the distance between us, I threw my arms around his neck, and his familiar scent surrounded me.
“It’s all right, Cadence, it wasn’t your fault.” His narrowed gaze shifted to the man behind me, and I could feel the vibration of Ryker’s body as he fought to contain his laughter.
When I released him, he returned to the armchair he’d been occupying. The same one where Riordan sat perched on the armrest. Callum didn’t seem to mind the close proximity, which was… interesting.
I hid my smirk as I stepped back into Ryker’s embrace and entwined my fingers with his. Callum tilted his head as he studied us, and a broad grin spread across Riordan’s face.
“Looks like the time away did you both some good.”
The ring on my finger felt heavy under his scrutiny, and I twisted it around the digit to stifle my unease.
Riordan followed the movement. “Ah. Or it could be that.”
“It could be what?” Callum and I asked in unison.
“The ring.”
“Riordan,” Ryker warned.
A wave of icy dread washed over me, hollowing me out as my body began to shake.
“What about the ring?” Callum pressed.
Riordan’s gaze found his brother’s, who had gone still behind me. “You said you would tell her.” The accusation in his tone was unmistakable.
A low growl was Ryker’s only answer.
“Tell me what?”
Riordan’s eyes pinched as though he were in pain. When I peeked over my shoulder to look at my husband, I could see the tension tightening his jaw.
“Ryker?” My voice was quiet, but he still heard me. His steel-grey eyes locked with mine, and the weight of his stare threatened to bring me to my knees.
“The ring,” Riordan said, his tone gentler, “commands loyalty.”
I blinked, unable to process what I was hearing as I looked down at the piece of jewelry adorning my finger.
“Those who wield its power are tethered to the bloodline that created it. My mother’s bloodline. Now that you have channeled the magic it houses, you will always feel a kinship, a sense of duty, to those who share my mother’s blood.”
My throat went dry. I stared at Ryker, mouth agape, as my fingers moved to the ring that clung to my hand like it belonged there.
“Is that true?”
His jaw flexed, but still he said nothing.
“Ryker, what did you do?”
His eyes searched mine, and I watched in silence as resolve settled in his grey depths. “I saved you.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He stepped forward, his voice tight. “The magic in that ring gave you the strength to survive the final test. Without it, you would be dead.”
The room tilted. I clutched the edge of the nearby chair as my breath caught in my throat.
Tethered.
My thoughts returned to the first time I wielded it, to the sudden, aching pull I felt toward Ryker immediately after.
Was being fated mates not enough for him? He had to strip away my last vestige of control as well. “I never would have agreed to this.”
“I know,” he said without an ounce of regret. “That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
A heavy silence settled over the room. Even Callum seemed too stunned by Ryker’s actions to speak.
“None of it was real,” I murmured.
Ryker took a step toward me, and I stepped back. “Yes, it was. Every fucking second!”
“Not for me!” I screamed as I slammed my palm against my chest. “Not when you were manipulating my emotions!”
Ryker raked a hand through his hair, tugging on the white-blond strands. “I gave you a taste of the life we could share, if only you would stop being so stubborn and accept our fucking bond.”
His words slammed into me, and I stumbled back, my legs colliding with the chair behind me.
“Accept our bond?” My voice cracked, and I swallowed. “You mean, submit to your will.”
“Cadence —”
“Don’t.” I held up my hand, the ring catching the light as though to mock me. “Don’t you dare try to convince me this was for my own good.”
Riordan finally found his voice. “Brother, what the hell were you thinking? You should have told her.”
“I was thinking,” Ryker said, his shadows beginning to writhe at his feet, “that I would rather have her alive and furious than proud and dead.”
“I never would have needed the godsforsaken ring if you hadn’t caged my powers!”
“And have everyone discover you are Wraith Borne!”
It was only The Morrígan’s quick thinking that spared me, but Ryker didn’t know that.
I yanked at the band encircling my finger, twisting frantically. When it finally loosened, I hurled it at Ryker, hitting him in the soft tissue below his left eye.
“Take it! I don’t want its fucking power.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Temptress,” Ryker said. “It’s already done.”
Callum rose from his chair, his face pale. “Cadence, maybe we should —”
“Stay out of this.” The command came out sharper than intended, and I winced.
Ryker’s shadows grew taller, climbing up the walls as they responded to his agitation. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted a mate who fucking hates me?”
The viciousness of his tone made me flinch. But underneath it all, I couldn’t deny the hurt his words inflicted upon me. “And whose fault is that?” I snapped back, not wanting him to know he had wounded me.
Ryker stalked toward me, his eyes alight with fire as he stared at me. “Mine. It’s my fault. Is that what you want to hear?”
Riordan cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should —”
“Stay,” Ryker barked without looking away from me. The authority in his tone was absolute, and Riordan and Callum shared an uneasy glance.
“No, go,” I said, but they stayed rooted to the spot, as if frozen.
“I’ve made countless mistakes with you, Cadence, but keeping you alive will never be one of them.”
The sincerity in his voice chipped away at my anger — until I felt it. That pull, that sense of connection I’d been too blind to recognize as unnatural.
His violation was unforgivable.
“You made me believe I could love you,” I confessed on a broken sob.
Ryker blinked at me, unsure what to make of my admission. But it was irrelevant because none of it was real.
“Get out.”
When Ryker failed to move, I screamed, “I said get out!”
My fingers wrapped around the closest object, and I sent it sailing toward him. He ducked, avoiding the candelabra by inches.
Next, I grabbed the inkpot. Its murky contents flew through the air, landing against Ryker’s chest and staining his tunic.
“Get out! Get out! Get out!”
I was panting heavily as my fury coursed through me with the strength of a raging tempest, fierce and unrelenting. Riordan and Callum quickly made their exit, leaving me alone with the source of my wrath.
“I fucking hate you, Ryker, and no amount of time will ever undo that.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. “You’re angry, I get it.”
A choked noise escaped my throat, my body trembling in sync with my thudding heart.
Angry did not begin to describe what I was feeling.
“When you are ready to talk about this, I’ll be waiting.” His gaze raked over me in assessment. “This changes nothing, Temptress. You are my mate, and I will do whatever is necessary to keep you at my side.”
With his parting words, he turned and stalked out.
Alone in the suffocating silence, I let my tears fall.