Chapter 23 #2
“That’s a good plan.” I nodded. “Ezra and I will take Farris. When we find her, we will bring her to Ezra’s home since it’s the easiest to shield off with magic.”
“Is this really the best plan we can come up with?” Thea asked. "You can't go around kidnapping women."
"Is it kidnapping if it is my own mate?" Ezra smirked.
They all looked at one another before sighing. Ezra and I looked at each other and nodded.
“Yeah, we both like this plan.” Ezra smiled showing his fangs.
"They have a point," Haden said. "Farris has to know something."
I smiled at Haden when he smirked at me. He knew what it felt like to be desperate for answers.
“Alright.” Thea sat back down, and no one else said a word.
“We’re going to go now since we're feeling a little antsy.” I smiled.
When Ezra and I arrived in Falgon, the city hit me all at once. Stone streets crowded with bodies, voices rising in a constant low roar, magic humming beneath it all like a living thing. I barely had time to take a breath before I saw her. Loma.
Fuck.
Her gaze snapped to mine as if the heavens themselves had pointed me out. Recognition flashed across her face, sharp and immediate, and she didn’t hesitate. She started straight for me, cutting through the crowd with purpose.
“Shit.” Ezra was moving away. “Remember, you need to pretend you’re here for her so she isn’t suspicious.”
“No…” But it was too late.
“Abram.” Loma smiled and tried to hug me, but I turned so it was barely a touch. “You came for me.”
My insides recoiled in disgust when I saw her. My gaze dropped to the bond between us, and for the first time, I truly looked at it. The edges were black, corrupted, wrong. Unhealthy.
Anger flared at the heavens for binding me to this over a single mistake, but beneath it, I understood. Vyrak were dangerous. And this was probably the worst fuckup I could have made. Her smile widened.
Soft. Sweet. Familiar. Calculated. She wouldn’t question me about the reaction to her because she probably wanted to latch onto me like the leech she was.
My wards whispered warnings, my magic humming like a caged thing beneath my skin. It wouldn't let her latch on again. Not this time. I had made sure of it. No matter how sweet her smile, how nice she tried to make her tone, I would not let her drink me dry again.
Still, I made myself smile—surprised, even pleased to see her. Because Ezra might’ve been right. I needed to play this game. She would lead me to Elowyn. I could get close then maybe I could finally kill her family. Maybe I could get my wife back.
“I thought maybe you’d come find me after that issue with your wife,” she said, voice like honeyed venom.
My jaw clenched. “Why would you assume that?” I scoffed, but the reaction was too sharp, too revealing. I masked it with a drag of my hand through my hair.
She tilted her head, amused. “You said I was your mate.”
I stilled. The word mate made me want to throw up.
“I didn’t realize that you heard that.”
Her smile faltered into something smaller. “Did you not want me to know?”
I studied her. She was good at pretending like she wasn’t a snake.
“No,” I said carefully. “It was just... terrible timing for you to show up when you did.”
She nodded like she understood what she’d fucked up—though I doubted she actually grasped the weight of it. The damage. The betrayal. The timelines she had unraveled. Actually, she probably did. Which made me wonder how she knew where I was.
“How was your day?” she asked lightly, trying to sound casual.
My day has been hell. Visions. Fading threads. A sense that time was circling a drain I couldn’t plug. Picturing Elowyn every second wondering what she was doing. “Fine,” I lied. “Just checking in on the other realms. Making sure they are safe.”
“And?”
“They’re safe, for now.” I jabbed at her.
She twirled a piece of her hair around her finger like a child.
“I did some shopping. I hung out with my friends…” Her voice trailed off, and then her eyes met mine again, calculating.
“I was wondering, since we are mates... if you wanted to come to a party tonight. Meet my family. You know. Take things slow.”
The bile rose in my throat before I could stop it.
I hated that word coming from her mouth. Mate.
Still, I nodded once, because I needed to see her family. I needed to look Philip in the eye and measure what kind of monster was fated to my wife. I needed to see what I was up against.
“Sure,” I said, tone flat. “But I’m not promising anything more than this.”
She smiled again, like she knew something I didn’t. Like she thought time was still on her side.
“That’s perfectly fine.”
I glanced around, trying to figure out where the fuck Ezra went. “Is what I’m wearing fine?”
Her eyes moved over me in a way that made my skin crawl. “You look great.”
I loathed the compliment. It felt like a chain being looped around my neck.
“Should we go now?”
She nodded, excitement flickering in her eyes.
I forced a smile and followed her down the street and into the dying light of the evening.
But deep in my chest, my magic was already racing at what would happen. Would Elowyn be at the party? And if she was, could I kidnap her safely?
Loma had taken her time introducing me to everyone in this mansion. I knew her family was wealthy, but so were every single one of her friends. The women stared far longer than I liked, and the men didn’t care to talk to me because of it.
I was standing in the corner by myself, drinking because I needed something to take this edge off.
It was clear that I did not belong here.
Loma stood beside me, clinging to my arm like a prized possession.
I let her. For now. Her laugh rang out as she greeted someone across the room, and I offered the polite nod expected of a mate.
I hated this. I felt like I needed to go home and scrub my skin clean and burn these robes that Loma had touched.
This wasn’t a party. It was a performance. One where I had to smile and pretend I didn’t want to kill half the room.
“Everyone’s dying to meet you,” Loma whispered, her lips brushing too close to my ear. “My brother is especially curious.”
Perfect.
“Is he here?” I asked, scanning the crowd.
A pause. “He’s around somewhere. He likes to… observe before he introduces himself.”
Of course he does.
I took a drink from a floating tray and sipped slowly.
The liquid tingled on my tongue, charmed with something mild.
Not enough to cloud my mind, but enough to irritate me that they’d even tried.
Around us, illusion magic softened every harsh edge, light bending to flatter faces and hide flaws, while enchantments hummed beneath the music, threading through the crowd like a second heartbeat.
I reinforced the barrier of my magic. Subtle. Untouchable.
Loma leaned in again. “Try to have fun.”
“I’ll do my best,” I said flatly.
She wandered off to speak to someone draped in gold and illusion, leaving me standing near the arched entrance to the ballroom alone.
I felt him before I saw him.
A presence that sung with evil.
I turned just slightly, enough to meet the eyes of the man watching me from across the room.
Philip.
The resemblance to Loma was faint—sharper around the mouth, colder in the eyes. His posture was all charm, all confidence. But there was something else under it. Something feral.
He didn’t smile, didn’t wave.
He just stared.
I raised my glass in a mock toast. He tilted his head. Interesting. I suspected he knew exactly what I wanted, too.
Loma returned, looping her arm through mine once more.
“Did you see him?” she asked casually.
“I did.”
“And?”
“He seems like the type who watches more than he speaks.”
Her smile was tight. “He is.”
“Then we’ll get along just fine.”
I could feel Philip’s eyes still on me as Loma tugged me deeper into the party. Into the nest. Into the trap they were certain I hadn’t seen coming.
But I wasn’t the one in danger.
They were.
And tonight, I’d start figuring out how to unravel every last one of them. She dropped my arm again and moved toward the crowd. I didn’t follow. I was thankful to have her away from me. My gaze scanned around, hoping to see Elowyn.
I turned at the sound of Loma's sudden loud laughter to see that she and her two friends were standing with a group of men.
She seemed to enjoy the attention, no matter who it was from.
She looked over at me and waved, her cheeks flushed from drinking and dancing.
Once she looked away, I snuck out onto the balcony which gave me a beautiful view of the city of Falgon.
The breeze was refreshing as I finished the rest of my drink, praying to the heavens to let me go home already.
I straightened up as I sensed someone approaching, immediately identifying him through the pure malice that he was directing toward me. “You must be Philip,” I said as her brother snuck up behind me.
“Lord Philip.” His arrogance pissed me off. “You must be Abram.”
“God of Fates, Abram.” I smiled.
His eyes narrowed on me as he stepped toward the balcony railing and sipped on his drink. He looked over the city, but I didn’t take my eyes off of him. What did he want?
“You don’t remember me,” he said with a smile.
My brows pinched together as I looked over him. We had met? He shifted his appearance slightly and the subtle features mirrored my own. Did he make himself look like me to appeal to Elowyn? Disgust coiled in my stomach.
“You brought your lovely wife to Falgon not long ago and saw me admiring her.”
The memory came back like an arrow. He had been the man on the street. I nodded and chuckled. I knew I felt something evil lurking from him that night.
“I didn’t appreciate you looking at my wife like she’d be interested.” I didn’t look away from him.
He smiled—cold and calculated.
“Ex-wife, I hear, and she is interested.”
“Wife, and I assure you, she doesn’t want you.”
“Interesting, that isn’t what she said when she was flirting with me yesterday.”
I instantly stilled at this news. Philip’s eye were emotionless pits of evil as he watched me.
“Fate gave me such a pretty plaything for a mate.” He smiled.
Rage boiled in my veins at his disrespect for her.
“She isn’t yours.”
“Oh, yes, she is and she was practically eating out of my hand yesterday. You really fucked her up, so much that she’ll probably crawl under me to forget all about you.”
He wanted a reaction out of me, but I didn’t give him one.
“Aren’t you married?”
“Ah, yes, I’m collecting women desired by the gods like it’s a godsdamn hobby. Farris will be happy that my attention is on someone else. She won’t mind sharing with Elowyn.”
Unable to stop myself, I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him toward me.
“You better fucking watch yourself, Lord Philip. Fate can change.”
His eyes gleamed.
“Shouldn’t you be concerned with your own mate?” he smiled. “My sister.”
“Let me guess, Loma brought me here so you guys could see what you were up against?” I smiled. “Elowyn will always pick me, and I will always choose her. You and your sister can go fuck yourselves.”
My eyes gleamed as my grip tightened on Philip’s collar, my voice low and edged with warning.
“You don’t know what you’re playing with.”
His smirk never faltered, but I caught a flicker in his eyes—respect? Maybe a warning. I released him slowly, stepping back. The tension between us buzzed like a storm ready to break.
From across the room, Loma’s laughter drifted over—light and sharp, a cruel reminder of how out of place I was here.
“I was hoping you’d say that,” Philip said smoothly, voice like silk with an iron core. “Because this game is far from over.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then let’s see who breaks first.”
He raised his glass in a casual toast before slipping back into the crowd.
I watched him go, the weight of the night settling deep in my chest. Elowyn was out there somewhere, caught in their web. And if it meant burning it all down to get her back, I’d do it without hesitation.
Loma came out, her eyes narrowing on me.
“Come on.” She tried to grab my arm.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed.
She turned to me, her eyes locked in on me.
“If she wasn’t mated to Philip, I would have already killed her.”
I grabbed Loma by the throat and slammed her against the wall.
“If you think I won’t hurt you because you’re my mate, think again.” I glared. “If you weren’t my mate, I would've killed you already.”
Her fake friendliness faded, and I saw the monster of the vyrak under her skin. Disgust filled me. The fates were fucking monsters for doing this to me—to Elowyn.
“I like your hands on me.” She smiled.
I let go of her.
“Watch yourself,” I warned before turning to leave.
“No, you watch yourself. I’m not convinced that I shouldn’t just slit her throat anyways. Philip doesn’t need her when he has Farris. He’d forgive me if I accidentally killed Elowyn.”
My eyes flashed red as my magic pulsed around her. It gripped her by the throat and slammed her violently back into the wall. She cried out as I smiled cruelly.
“You started a war that you never should’ve. I look forward to watching you die soon.”
Then I left knowing I had blown my plan of using Loma.