Chapter Thirty-Three
Ryker
When I rounded the corner from my chambers, Riordan and Callum were waiting for me. My brother gripped the collar of my tunic, slamming me up against the wall.
“I say this with love, Ryker, but what in the gods’ name is wrong with you?”
A hollow laugh scraped against my throat as it worked its way free.
“What’s so funny?” Callum said through gritted teeth.
“The ring was only a whisper of what I’m prepared to do. If it means protecting her, keeping her close, I’ll do worse. Far worse. If you’re rattled now, then you have vastly underestimated how ruthless I can be when I want something.”
Callum lunged for me, but Riordan dropped my collar and turned to intercept him. “Take a breath, Killer.”
“Don’t pretend this was just about protecting her,” Callum said, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “You wanted control. You always have.”
“I saved her fucking life!” Shadows curled around my ankles, itching to strike. “Forgive me for prioritizing her survival over her feelings. Or would you have preferred I let her die with her pride intact?”
Riordan shoved at my chest in warning. “Enough. This solves nothing.”
I knocked his hand aside. “There isn’t anything to solve. She’s alive. That’s all that matters.”
“How can you allow him to get away with this?” Riordan flinched, and I narrowed my eyes at my mate’s brother. “You say you love my sister, then prove it.”
My brother’s shoulders slumped. “It’s… complicated.”
Riordan had benefited from my ruthlessness more than once. He knew how far I would go to protect what’s mine.
“You’re a coward and a hypocrite,” Callum said through clenched teeth before he spun around and stormed down the corridor.
Riordan stood rooted to the spot as he watched Callum’s retreating form. When he turned the corner, my brother ran a hand through his hair as he let out a defeated sigh.
“Thank you for that, Ryker. Everything I’d done to make him warm to me was just unraveled.”
I smirked, unable to help myself. “It was never going to happen. Cadence said he likes women.”
Riordan rounded on me. “I like women, and I also like men. Maybe Callum is waiting for the right man to broaden his horizons.”
Shaking my head, I started down the hall, my brother in tow.
“I’m serious, Ryker, you better not fuck this up for me.”
After a beat of silence, Riordan’s hand shot out, gripping my forearm as he pulled me to a stop.
“You crossed a line.”
I craned a brow, and Riordan huffed.
“Another one. One of many. Call it what you want, but you fucked up, Brother.”
“I know what I did,” I said, my jaw clenching.
“Do you?” Riordan’s tone was uncharacteristically harsh. “Because from where I stand, you’ve just sabotaged any chance you had with your mate.”
His words had me grinding my teeth. It was impossible to work on my relationship with Cadence while my enemies sought to destroy her. At least when she was by my side, there was someone who never looked away. Someone who would obliterate the realm just to keep her breathing.
I did what none of them had the stomach to do. I ensured she couldn’t be broken.
“You’re unraveling, Ryker. The way you treat Cadence, it isn’t protection, it’s possession. You need to wake up before it’s too late.”
I wrenched my arm from his grip. “I am the only one seeing clearly.”
“You’ve been spiraling since you realized she was your mate. This isn’t about keeping her safe. It’s about keeping her.”
The shadows at my feet thickened, responding to the rage building in my chest. “And what would you have me do? Let her go? Let her face my enemies alone while I sit back and respect her fucking autonomy?”
“I would have given her a choice, Ryker. I would have trusted her to make her own decisions.”
“How fucking noble.” He didn’t understand. None of them did. Losing Cadence wouldn’t only drive me mad, it would fucking annihilate me. There was no point to a world where she did not exist, and I’d rather her hate me than see her perish.
“You claim to protect her, but you’re becoming the very thing she needs protection from.”
My shadows coiled around my calves like serpents, climbing higher, ready to attack.
“Careful, Brother.”
“No, you be careful! Despite what Callum thinks, I do love Cadence.”
A primal growl rumbled inside my chest without warning, but Riordan didn’t stop.
“You lock her away in your chambers as though she is some rare artefact, or you find new and creative methods to tighten the collar at her throat.”
My feet moved of their own accord as I began pacing. “She’ll understand. Eventually.”
My brother stepped closer, gentling his tone. “Will she? Or will she just hate you a little more with each passing day?”
When I said nothing, Riordan sighed. “There is a middle ground between imprisonment and abandonment, Ryker.”
His voice had taken on that infuriatingly reasonable tone, but I was about to destroy his illusions.
“, the attack on the palace, I killed a woman. Do you remember?”
Riordan’s face paled, but he nodded.
“It was her mother.”
Riordan’s composure fractured in the quiet that followed. He dragged a hand over his mouth, his gaze simmering with something between guilt and disbelief.
I turned away, jaw clenched so tight it hurt. It was always difficult for me to watch my brother battle his demons.
Riordan cleared his throat. “How can you be so sure?”
“Once I learned Cadence was one of the Wraith Borne, it triggered a memory, a flashback, if you will.”
Riordan furrowed his brows as though he was trying to recall every vivid detail of that night.
“Do you remember her face? Her hazelnut hair? And those eyes, fuck, those eyes.”
Riordan’s own eyes widened, shock and terror flicking across his features as he tried to suck in a breath.
“Cadence’s hatred for me has always run deeper than someone merely taken against her will. It was her mother. I’m certain of it.”
“I think you underestimate how much people don’t appreciate having their lives upended,” Riordan muttered.
The sigh that escaped his chest was one of resignation. “Still, I can see it. Honestly, it’s surprising it took me this long to recognize the resemblance.”
The silence that followed was oppressive.
“Tell her the truth. Be honest with her. Give her a chance to lead, Ryker. She just might surprise you.”
“That’s your middle ground?”
Riordan merely shrugged. “Sounds simple, but it’s effective.”
“Doesn’t sound simple at all,” I said, making Riordan chuckle.
My brother closed the distance between us, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I want you to be happy.” His eyes searched mine. “Cadence makes you happy, I see it. You watch her as if she’s the last light in a world full of darkness.”
I swallowed hard, my throat tightening.
“Keep suffocating her, and you’ll snuff out that light. Then what’s left? A broken woman who can’t stand to look at you.”
I jerked away from his touch, my shadows retreating. “You think I don’t know that? That I can’t see the way she looks at me? Like I’m the monster she cannot escape?”
“Then why —”
“Because dead is dead, Riordan!”
The words tore from my throat before I could stop them. It felt as though a hundred tiny daggers had sliced through my flesh, and I resisted the urge to claw at my skin.
“Hatred I can live with,” I said in a fractured whisper. “Her despising me, cursing my name, plotting my downfall, I’ll endure it all. But I cannot survive her death. I will not.”
Vulnerability didn’t come naturally to me, and the admission lodged itself inside my chest.
My brother’s expression softened, but I couldn’t stand the pity I saw there.
“Tell her the truth,” he implored, but I shook my head and stormed away.
If living without her love was agony, then losing her would be a ruin I’d never return from.