Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
CAELAN
Donovan was a sonofabitch, and I was going to kill him.
Again.
Walking into that building and seeing my friend unconscious and slowly bleeding to death had set off a dangerous rage, the likes of which I hadn’t felt since I was a young wolf coming into my power.
We circled each other, Donovan bleeding from multiple bites and claw marks.
He was starting to limp, but I wasn’t in the mood to finish things.
He’d gone after Evie and tried to kill her.
He’d unsettled the Council, pitting us against each other.
I’d watched him slowly and meticulously undermine every Lord, sometimes taking years to dismantle their authority so he could pass something on his still confusing agenda.
I’d always hated the sonofabitch, and I didn’t mourn him when I’d killed him.
Or so I thought.
Donovan sat on his haunches and bowed, his body language asking for a break. As pissed as I was, even I didn’t have the heart to kill a weak man. I stepped back, keeping a careful eye on him.
He shifted in a flash of light and crouched in the darkness, weak moonlight reflecting off his pale skin. I did the same, carefully watching him.
“So it’s come to this,” he rasped.
“It’s come to nothing since you were supposed to be dead,” I said mildly. “I’m only trying to finish the job.”
He bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “You always were too clever for your own good. How’d you figure it out?”
“I didn’t. Evie did.”
At the mention of her name, Donovan’s eyes flashed with fury. For some reason, he hated Evie with a passion I’d rarely seen the man show. “And how did the Floromancer find out?”
I shrugged. “What can I say? She’s a very clever girl.”
And gone, which was the reason I was continuing to bait him. It was only he and I, Nadia was long gone. Well, maybe not long gone. A swan could never outrun a wolf, and I still had a good bead on her location. When I finished here, I’d go after her next.
“Still protecting your Floromancer?” Donovan snorted and rose to his full height. “She will be the death of you.”
“And what a death it will be. To be led by a woman firm in her convictions and immune to the political bullshit we deal with on a day-to-day basis, most of it our damn fault.” I smiled. “I’d gladly die next to her if I meant I finally stood for something.”
Donovan snorted. “When did you become such a sap?”
I lifted a shoulder in a careless shrug. “You’ve never been in love. Once you know the pain of your heart when it struggles to grasp the one who’s taken it, you will know why I speak the way I do.”
“Now you spout flowery poetry?” He scoffed. “You are nothing like the man I knew a few years ago.”
“You’re right.” I was better. Less prone to pick fights, more likely to listen before I reacted, and more invested in the people around me. While Evie was mostly responsible for the changes in me, I had to credit Rowan as well. He was the reason Evie stood by my side.
I didn’t give a shit what Donovan or any of the other Lords thought about me. “What’s this about? Why target Ben? And why involve Nadia?”
“If you’re expecting a villain monologue, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you.”
“Then there’s nothing left to say.”
Donovan held a hand up. “If you kill me in cold blood, you will bring war down upon the Lords.”
If the other Lords turned out like him, maybe it’s time we went to war. “The kill is justified. The Lords have already decided so.”
“And Ethan?” Donovan said, wearing a too satisfied smirk.
“Ethan won’t care if you live or die. I’m sure he’d prefer you in the ground. Just like the rest of us.”
“He didn’t tell the other Lords about me.” A crafty look slid over his face.
“I wonder why.”
When I stepped toward him, Donovan took a step back. “Wait. I have information you’ll want to hear.”
“Then spit it out.” My patience wore thin. Evie had taken off with Ben’s wolves, and the Lord himself had looked close to death. I wanted Donovan out of the picture, so I could track down Nadia and shake some sense into her. Then I needed to find Evie.
Relief filled me the moment I spotted them deciding to take off with Ben. She’d trusted me and trusted herself. This felt like…
I don’t know. I felt like we were winning. With each other. And wasn’t that a big leap from where we were a few short months ago?
Donovan swallowed hard at my expression. My patience was running extremely thin, and I was sick of looking at his sniveling face. “Nadia is looking for something.”
He licked his lips and shifted his eyes to the left.
Donovan wasn’t telling me something.
“You’ve got five seconds to come clean. I’m freezing my fucking balls off and have no interest in continuing this.”
Maybe he was delaying so Nadia could get away…
“She needs it for something.” He shook his head. “Won’t tell me what it is, but Gianna had it on her when she died, and it’s making her fucking crazy she can’t find the body.”
Explained why they were kidnapping the other Lords. “And you decided to go along for the ride, even though you know damn well where Gianna is buried?”
His eyes glittered with greed. “She didn’t need to know that. Not yet, at least. And I wanted to know what it was that she needed so badly.”
“What’s she looking for?”
Donovan licked his lips again. “She won’t tell me.”
I took another step forward, my claws sliding from my fingers.
“I’m serious, Caelan!” He held his hands up. “Whatever it is, it’s big.”
Evie might not have noticed anything when she sent Gianna’s remains to the earth. She would have been focused on only biological material. We needed to look at her property when we got back.
“Tell me why we need you to find it.”
Donovan blinked. For a Lord, sometimes he was a dumbass. “I’m the one who has the in with her! She trusts me!”
I snorted. “You can’t be that stupid. She thinks we’re the ones responsible. Have you thought maybe she trusts you just as much as you trust her?”
Donovan stared at me for a long moment. In a flash of light, he shifted and took off running through the snow.
A heavy sigh came from deep within my chest.
I hated running in the cold.