Chapter 31 Kaian #3
Jimmy bristles immediately. “We had it handled.”
The man barely looks at him. His attention settles on Kaian instead. “There you are,” he says softly. A pressure blooms at the base of his skull, sharp and invasive, like fingers pushing against the inside of his mind.
The Plain flares instinctively, still not quite settled behind the walls he’s built to keep it almost entirely invisible. Magic sparks along his nerves, bright and furious, and Kaian pushes back without thinking. Hard. The pressure snaps outward.
The female magic user makes a small choking sound and drops to her knees like someone cut her strings. The room goes very still.
Gun-Guy swears under his breath, and Jimmy takes a step back.
The big man in front of them doesn’t move at all.
If anything, the intrigued look on his face deepens. There’s awe there, and a reverence that echoes in the face of the other man in the room.
“Niall! It’s him, right?” He’s grinning, crocodilian teeth glinting in the light of Jewel’s faux Tiffany lamp. “Finally.”
“Quiet, Gregor.” The bigger man holds up a hand. “We’ll take him from here.”
Kaian’s attention has already gone back to Quinn. The gun still presses under his jaw, the man behind him too eager. One twitch of the wrong muscle and the room will explode in blood and bone. Kaian can’t let that happen.
He doesn’t know much about fated mates or whatever unfamiliar magic has wrapped itself around their lives these past few days.
Maybe if he’d had more time, he would have understood it better.
He wants to tell Quinn that he’s figured it out.
That fated mates aren’t a burden, they’re not supposed to change you for the worse.
They’re supposed to lift you up, bring you happiness, and give you strength.
But he won’t say all of that, not with these people listening in.
“You will come with us,” Niall says. It isn’t a question.
Kaian nods once. “Let’s go.”
“No, Kai—” Quinn says, heedless of Gun-Guy’s trigger-happy finger on the hammer.
Jewel finally loses patience, or maybe the tension in the room has ramped up her tolerance for not being the center of attention. She shoves back from the desk so hard the chair wheels slam into the filing cabinet.
“Okay, wait a fucking minute,” she snaps. No one answers her, and that only makes it worse. “I did what you asked. I made the call when Lomax showed up.” Her gaze flicks to Quinn, then back to Kaian, calculating even now.
Jimmy shifts uneasily. It would appear he has the best survival instincts of all.
Jewel barrels ahead, heedless that she’s shouting in a room of predators. Her eyes drag slowly over Kaian. “That one wasn’t part of the deal. If he’s what you came for, I want double.”
Niall blinks once, like he’s just realized there’s an insect in the room he hadn’t noticed before. “I don’t know you. Denise?” he says.
Jewel laughs harshly. “Yeah, well, this is my place. Vincenzo promised—”
Kaian feels it a split second before it happens. Static fills the room, and the hair on his arms stands straight up.
From the floor, the woman sits up, exhaling softly, as if she’s almost bored.
Jewel’s next word never finishes. Something invisible closes around her.
Her body jerks upward like a puppet yanked by the strings.
The breath rips out of her throat in a wet choke.
Her heels kick once against the desk, knocking the chair sideways.
The mage’s fingers curl. There’s a sharp, ugly crack, and Jewel’s spine bends the wrong way. The room fills with the sound of bones breaking. Her body hits the floor hard enough to rattle the desk, limbs twisted at angles that make Jimmy swear under his breath and take a step back.
Denise lowers her hand. “So annoying,” she says. Her dead-eyed stare lands on Kaian. “And you. That is no way to say hello.”
Niall doesn’t even acknowledge her. His attention is already back on Kaian. “Let’s finish this. Time to go.”
Kaian has a split second to meet Quinn’s eyes. They’re wild with fury, the kind that promises violence and blood and consequences that will have him dead on the floor like Jewel. He wishes this weren’t the last memory he’d have of them, but he has no time for regret.
Kaian offers his mate a small smile as Niall’s hand grips tight around Kaian’s upper arm.
Niall’s timeline opens around him. Suddenly, Kaian isn’t in the office anymore.
He’s tangled in someone else’s lives—past, present, and future in every timeline in every place.
They flow out in every direction, sending memories and moments straight into Kaian’s brain.
He manages to slow the journey down to this timeline. A lonely boy in a cabin in front of a fire. Vicious military training filled with pain and determination. A skirmish somewhere with gunfire, smoke, and the overwhelming scent of fear that even Kaian’s human nose can smell.
A fight in a sun-filled parking lot where more hatred and rage make him stupid.
Understanding that he’d failed and that this would have consequences.
Niall on his knees while a pale man in an immaculate suit stands over him, an athame glinting in the light of hundreds of candles. “We do not tolerate failure, Niall.”
The scream cuts off when Kaian turns to face Niall’s future, and everything after drops into black. That can only mean one thing: Niall’s future is intertwined with Kaian’s.
Kaian loses the moment—and himself—entirely.