31. Aeris
Aeris
I was tempted not to come at all.
To run instead. To make him chase me through the city, just because I could. Some twisted part of me loved watching this strong, powerful man narrow his eyes at my defiance, the same little rebellions that would get anyone else broken or buried.
Playing with Caden had become dangerously addictive.
But he was stripping me of my power faster than I could steal it back, peeling away every shield I’d spent years building until I stood vulnerable in front of the one man who both terrified and intoxicated me.
So here I was in his private lift, trapped in another bargain I had no hope of escaping, with a device in my pocket that Selene needed me to place.
Music reached me before the doors even opened, soft and deliberate, the notes spilling through the space like a quiet warning.
It washed over me in a way that should’ve been calming.
It wasn’t.
Caden sat at his grand piano, the lid open slightly to better echo the sound as he played with an expertise and elegance I’d never expected from him.
He didn’t turn as I approached, his frame relaxed as if he’d lost himself in the music.
“So,” he said above the melody, his fingers sweeping across the keys, “you can follow orders.”
“You had no right to turn up,” I said, that anger at first seeing him at my sister’s front door surging. “You agreed to protect them, not put them in danger.”
The music turned melancholy, beautiful as he continued to play.
“You should have turned up at Thorns when I asked.”
My breathing picked up, my hands fisting at my sides. “I was with Selene.”
The music stopped abruptly, leaving nothing but a stretched silence before he turned on the bench and stood. “And what exactly were you discussing with Selene?”
“Nothing that concerned you, or Sebastian.” Caden took a step towards me, but I stood my ground. “It’s an assignment.”
“What assignment?”
“Not everything I do is about you,” I snapped, even as his hand came up to claim my jaw, angling my head back. “I have to keep up appearances. Wouldn’t want her suspecting anything before you’ve found everything you need.”
His fingers flexed against my skin, thumb pressing just beneath my chin in silent warning. My heart slammed against my ribs, but I refused to look away.
“You’re staying here tonight.”
It took me a moment to hear his words. “No, I’m not.” I needed to get to Atlantis and figure out if my secret compartment had been compromised.
Caden’s head cocked to the side, part of his hair sweeping down to cover his eye. “Renley Elkins is waiting for you at home.”
My stomach twisted, so cold it was as if I’d swallowed ice. “How did he get in? I changed the locks and—”
“Did you change the back door?”
My breath caught somewhere in my chest. Shit. How long had he been using my back door to get inside? “How do you even know he—”
“Until I can get the lock replaced, you’ll stay here,” Caden continued, interrupting me entirely.
“If I don’t go home I’ll—”
“This isn’t up for discussion.”
“Fuck you!”
Caden stared at me, his expression blank, the lines in his neck corded with tension.
“I’m doing everything I can to survive,” I choked out, voice shaking with fury and fear, “but you’re going to get me killed before I ever see the end of this!”
Caden’s eyes flashed. “What do you want from me, Aeris? Want me to feel sorry for you?”
I shoved at him, hard. My first push managed to stagger him back a single step, but then he grabbed both of my wrists in one of his hands and pinned them to his chest.
“Want me to apologise to the cold, little killer who seems to be drowning?” he sneered, voice low and venomous, but his eyes burned with something far more dangerous than anger.
I twisted violently, trying to rip free, but his hold was merciless. “You have no fucking idea what I’ve had to do!”
“No? Then tell me,” he growled, yanking me closer until our faces were inches apart. “The great Aeris Merrin: seductress, siren, and fucking assassin. You kill for her without hesitation. So why the fuck haven’t you poisoned Selene yourself? End her and your family is safe. You are safe.”
“Because I can’t!” The scream tore out of me, raw and broken, as everything I’d buried for years came flooding up at once.
Sorrow. Guilt. So much fucking rage.
“I can’t, because she has stuff on me just as she has on you. I can’t because she holds my nephews lives in her hands if I make one wrong move.” My voice cracked, the words scraping out like shards of glass. “She owns me, Caden. Irrevocably.”
The silence that followed was deafening. His grip on my wrists tightened almost painfully, but his eyes … his eyes had shifted. The mocking fury was still there, but beneath it lurked something darker. Hungrier. Almost possessive.
“Why didn’t you come to us sooner?” he demanded, voice rough.
“So I could sell myself to you instead?” I pushed out a laugh, the sound hollow. “My life has always been in the control of someone else. First my father, who told me what to do, what to say, whether I was even allowed to speak at all!”
Caden’s eyes narrowed, his jaw clenching.
“Now it’s Selene,” I whispered bitterly. “She tells me what to wear. How to look. Who to fuck.”
He stilled, anger sweeping over his expression. “What does she have on you?”
“Why?” Tears burned hot down my cheeks, and I couldn’t even wipe them away. Not when he still held both my hands firmly against his chest, right over the heavy, relentless thud of his heart. “So you can swoop in and fix it? Play the big, bad saviour? I don’t need a hero. I need—”
“A monster,” he finished for me, voice low.
“I need a monster,” I agreed, the vulnerability of the moment leaving me fucking empty.
Finally pulling free of his arms, I turned towards the tall windows, staring out at the glittering city that had become my cage.
“She’ll never willingly let me go,” I whispered, feeling Caden’s presence behind me. “A few years after I was kidnapped, Mira was still missing and everyone had given up looking for her. I never stopped searching, getting myself into some dangerous situations.”
I swallowed, finding it frustratingly hard to recall the memory.
“I met someone, Luke. He was older, and he promised he’d help me find her.”
“Did he?” Caden asked, and for some reason I found his presence comforting. Like he could’ve protected that na?ve fifteen-year-old.
“He did,” I said, looking up at his reflection in the glass, our eyes locking in the dark window. “But then I killed him.”
I turned, straightening my spine to find Caden standing there as still as a Greek statue. He was still in the same T-shirt as he was in earlier, that turbulent sea tattoo striking up close.
Caden was beautiful, just as I was sure the devil himself was.
“Selene sold Mira to whoever wanted her,” I continued, having not spoken these words out loud in …
forever. “A doll, as they call them. Luke did what he promised and took me to my sister. She was already addicted to heroin and had no intention of leaving her life of fucking everything and anyone for her next fix.”
“Aeris …”
“Luke tossed her some money, told her to kill herself. Said it would be better for everyone.” I thought back to him laughing, and when I protested, he hit me.
It was the first time I’d seen him for what he was, but then it was too late.
“When Selene realised I’d killed her son, she threatened Mira.
So, I offered her my life. She wouldn’t hurt anyone I love as long as I remained hers. ”
“What happened to Mira?”
“I tried to help her, get her clean. Get her out. I even begged my father to take her to rehab, and do you know what he said?” I licked along my bottom lip, taking in a single, deep breath.
“He said, ‘She got herself into that mess, she can get herself out.’ I haven’t been able to find her since.
I’m literally the person everyone comes to track someone or something down, and despite my vast network I still can’t find her.
” It was like she’d disappeared off the face of the earth.
Or she was dead, and I just wasn’t ready to accept it.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? You didn’t get her addicted. You didn’t have a dad who could have just paid the ransom, and then none of this would have ever happened. Mira wouldn’t still be missing, and I might still have my soul.”
He closed our distance in one stride, large hands framing my face as he backed me against the cool glass. His thumbs brushed away the fresh tears on my cheeks with surprising gentleness, but his eyes burned with something darker.
“You still have a soul, Tempest,” he murmured, one of those slow smiles curving his lips. “It’s just mine now.”
Caden
I had never seen Aeris this vulnerable.
And it made me want to break her apart even more. To push her right to the edge until every last secret spilled from her lips. Until I owned every fractured, beautiful piece of her.
I had this dark, consuming urge to quench that anger. To pin her against the glass and fuck her until those glistening eyes rolled back and the only thing left on her tongue was my name.
Even now she was beautiful, with her cheeks flushed, lips parting as she dragged in deep, unsteady breaths to calm herself down. There was so much fire in such a small, dangerous package that I wanted to cage it. Taste it. Own it.
My gaze dropped to her bottom lip.
Fuck.
I didn’t even know if she was doing it on purpose anymore, a calculated attempt to seduce me and steal back some of the power I refused to surrender, or if every single thing about her was simply designed to drive me out of my mind.
I forced myself to step away before I did something I’d regret.
I left her standing there against the window, giving her space to pull herself back together, and moved into the kitchen. Cold water splashed over my face, but it did nothing to cool the heat still simmering under my skin.
She wasn’t someone I needed to fix.
She wasn’t someone I cared about.
She was a weapon, a beautiful, dangerous toy I would use until I grew bored … and then I’d make her pay for ever thinking she could put anyone I actually gave a shit about in danger.
“Caden!”
Her shout tore through me, but I was already moving, heart slamming as I rushed back into the room.
Langdon stood rigid in the middle of the floor, eyes locked on Aeris, but he wasn’t really seeing her. His gaze was vacant, glassy, miles away.
Shit.
“He just … turned up,” Aeris explained, voice tight with panic. Langdon’s knees buckled and he dropped hard, the acrid stench of charred flesh clinging to the air.
Aeris knelt beside him instantly, reaching for his face with delicate hands. But he didn’t react. Langdon sometimes lost himself to his past, getting caught in the memories where he struggled to break free into reality.
His chest rose and fell in sharp, frantic bursts. Too fast, too shallow.
Fuck.
Langdon’s episodes had grown rarer, but when they hit, they hit hard.
I moved fast, sliding an arm under his shoulder and hauling him to his feet. His frame was rigid, muscles locked tight.
“Lang,” I said firmly. “You’re alright. I’ve got you.”
“Is he okay?” Aeris asked, eyes wide with worry as she hovered close.
I ignored her, snapping my fingers sharply in front of Langdon’s face. No flinch. Nothing. When he didn’t react to a harder hit, I pulled him tighter against my chest, one arm banded across his back, grounding him with pressure the way I’d learned worked best.
Except I was too warm. Too hot. Just like the fire that gave him those scars.
“Caden …”
“Get out,” I snapped, voice final.
She hesitated, glancing at Langdon whose breathing had turned even harsher, ragged, gasping and choking on smoke that wasn’t there.
“Aeris,” I growled in warning.
For once, she didn’t argue. She shot one last worried look at Langdon then turned and left without another word.
“Come on, mate. You’re okay,” I gritted out, half-dragging Langdon’s rigid body down the hallway and into the closest bathroom. “Breathe with me. In … and out.”
I didn’t waste time stripping either of us, I just slammed the shower on full cold and shoved us both under the brutal spray.
The icy water hit like needles, burning across my skin and seizing my muscles. But I held him tighter, arms locked around his chest, grounding him with every ounce of pressure I could give as the cold shock tried to yank him back to the present.