Chapter 33 #2
“Mm, except she’s, what, in her mid-twenties?” Rafe asked. “And you like Aiden just fine, according to him.”
“I hardly know him,” Levi said, leaning back on his pillows. “Seems like a good kid, even if he’s wasting time on my daughter.”
I blinked. “Wasting time?”
Levi glared at me. “Yeah. She doesn’t want a Chain. You’re all wasting your time.”
“Levi, without going into details that would upset you, I’d like to inform you that your daughter is getting over her fear of Chains.
Getting to know her, though, I’ve been wondering…
where exactly did that dislike come from?
” Rafe hummed as he turned back to Levi. Levi’s expression went eerily blank.
“I suspected turmoil among the parents,” Rafe said to me. “And after witnessing Levi interact with Skye…” He shook his head.
“What? What happened?” He hadn’t told me any of this. He’d only told me Levi was alive and that it wasn’t good, but I hadn’t asked for a mind play-by-play.
“Remember that life-threatening situation we experienced a few weeks ago? During that random storm?” Rafe asked.
I nodded. Levi stared at his sheets.
“Well, when Zephyr mentioned his sister to me, Levi found it appropriate to mention, and I quote, that ‘she’s always causing trouble’.”
A cold chill went down my spine.
“She sacrificed everything for you,” I breathed. “She gave up her childhood– she had to grow up overnight to keep you alive!”
“I didn’t ask for that,” Levi snarled suddenly. “I didn’t ask for any of this. They should’ve let me die.”
Rafe chewed his lip for a moment before looking to me. “What’s your diagnosis, Wy? He’s clearly depressed. I suppose it’s a good thing he can’t move, otherwise we’d have to worry about suicide.”
“You’re a little shit,” Levi said, then dropped his gaze again, staring hard at the sheets. I was beginning to wonder if it was a side-effect of his condition. He didn’t like holding our eye contact, but he also seemed unable or unwilling to look up for long periods of time.
The lighting in the basement was dim and homely, not harsh at all. His eyes shouldn’t have been struggling, so I had to assume he was being a dick.
“He’s depressed, but I don’t think it’s due to losing his Chain, which is odd.” I said lightly, following Rafe’s lead. “Actually, he’s not exhibiting any signs of losing his Key. What’s up with that? You didn’t give a shit about Iris?”
“Don’t say her name,” Levi whispered, though his tone was dark. “I cared very deeply for her.”
“So why do you treat her daughter like shit?” I asked.
Rafe cringed.
Levi very slowly dragged his gaze upward, pinning me with a look.
“Don’t you mean my daughter?” he asked.
“Well, she’s not your daughter, is she? She was Ben’s. Can I say his name?” I snarked.
Levi dropped his gaze, shaking his head, then stopping as if he hadn’t meant it.
“So you didn’t want a Chain,” Rafe said, switching gears. “Come on, Levi. We’re all men. I’ll be the first to say I’m a possessive bastard. I hate watching Aiden all over your daughter while she repels me.”
Levi tried to school his expression, but Rafe and I both caught the scowl that’d formed. And something told me it wasn’t because he was imagining Aiden and Skye together.
This man was not having any of the normal reactions I expected from a protective father.
“You’re angry with her,” I said slowly. “Why? What’d she do?”
Levi’s jaw worked.
“What would upset a man like Levi?” Rafe said, rubbing his chin like a dick. “A possessive man. One who didn’t like sharing his Key. He doesn’t dislike his son. His son who’s biologically his…”
Rafe began to pace, thinking out loud in a taunting way meant to piss everyone off.
It was working.
Levi was painfully expressive for a man who’d just spent years only looking at his children. He was still paralyzed waist-down since Zephyr had managed to heal the top half of his body.
That seemed odd to me. Why had it taken Zephyr so long to heal Levi if he was able to heal his own fingers without setting them as a child?
I knew Zephyr was never formally trained, but neither was I, and I fixed a broken rib on Rafe when we were only ten.
I’d been terrified the Princess would put my head on a spike for hurting him, sure, but it’d been easy.
How was Zephyr even able to heal a years-old injury, anyway? He was unconnected. He was only a Link, as far as I knew. He shouldn’t have been able to heal something that old. Even with the passionate research he and Skye focused on…
“He’s only angry Iris is dead.” I said.
Rafe made a sound of surprise.
“That’s it. He’s angry Skye didn’t protect her mother. Am I right?”
Levi’s glare could have burned a hole through the bed.
“You think she only protected herself. You were always hard on her, telling her to focus and practice harder with her affinities. Iris didn’t like that,” I said, remembering what Skye had told Rafe.
Rafe hummed. “Did you suspect something bad would happen someday, Levi?”
“Of course not,” he ground out.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him why his daughter had the same eyes as the Crusader and not her mother or supposed father, but then Zephyr’s angry voice cut through the room like a knife.
“What the fuck are y’all doing down here?”
I whirled around, ready to block the punch that was surely coming my way, but Zephyr only stood at the foot of the stairs looking even more muscled than normal.
“Hi,” Rafe said with a grin. “We’re just getting to know Levi.”
Zephyr was thrown off by Rafe’s demeanor, like most people, so he turned his anger on me.
“Him, I understand. But you?” He sneered. “You have no right to be down here.”
“He’s with me,” Rafe said. “I just had a few questions for Levi.”
“Dad?” Zephyr looked uneasy. He trusted Rafe whether he realized it or not. He looked to Levi for confirmation, but the unease was because he believed Rafe and didn’t want to.
Levi stayed silent.
“Y’all need to get the fuck out of here,” Zephyr said darkly. “If Skye finds out…”
That was enough for me.
I made for the stairs, and Rafe stared hard at Levi for several seconds before he followed me.
“She’s going to find out, Zephyr.” Rafe said. We both held our breath awaiting his reply. We weren’t sure if Zephyr was aware of or had suspicions that Skye wasn’t Ben’s daughter, which was why we hadn’t spoken to him before this pseudo-interrogation.
But Zephyr said nothing.
And we left in silence.