39. Caden #2
The confession hung heavy between us, and after a long moment I reached behind her. With two quick, careful slices, I cut through the ropes.
Aeris rubbed her reddened wrists, watching me warily, as if she still expected me to change my mind and slit her throat.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t know it’d go that far.”
Something shifted in my chest, dark and possessive.
I rose, pulling her up with me. She swayed slightly as I caught her by the waist, steadying her against my body.
“No more games,” I said. “When Selene comes looking, you smile, you lie, and you feed her exactly what I tell you to. No more secrets. You tell me everything, because your life is now mine.”
I’d first said it to make her feel small, to remind her that her survival depended on me allowing it, but now I meant every single word.
Aeris stiffened. Then she shoved hard against my chest, breaking free of my hold. Her movements were frantic, agitated as she stumbled back a few steps.
“God, Caden. You don’t get to say that like it’s simple,” she snapped, voice rising with both fear and fury.
“You don’t get to snap your fingers and turn me into your obedient little spy.
If Selene even suspects I’ve turned, she’ll destroy my family.
She won’t just kill them, Caden. She’ll make them suffer first.”
Her chest heaved, expression bright with raw anger.
“Do you know what she did to me once when I tried to break free? She put tiny glass shards into my feet, so small they wouldn’t scar but sharp enough they made each step unbearable.
She made me walk. Made me kill. Made me fuck with glass still embedded in my skin.
And when the wounds finally healed … she did it again. ”
Aeris pressed a trembling hand to her chest as if trying to hold herself together.
“If I so much as step out of line, she hurts those I care about. She’ll cut out their tongues, torture and then kill them in front of me.
And the worst part?” she laughed, the sound frantic.
“The worst part is she never gets her hands dirty.”
Aeris slapped a palm over her chest. “It’s always a choice. She offered Mira her freedom, but in doing so she had to kill our father. Mira chose to be sold instead. And when it was my father’s turn, Selene made him choose which daughter to save—me or Mira—and he chose neither.”
“Aeris …”
“She offered me death, or to become her pet. Which one do you think I picked?”
“This isn’t about your freedom.”
“This has never been about my freedom!” she screamed, her chest heaving with each word.
“I don’t get the cute dates, the movie nights, or stolen kisses in the rain.
I don’t get the happy ever after, Caden.
So don’t you dare stand there and tell me I belong to you.
I’ve spent years trying to just survive, and I risked everything by stopping Vivienne for you. ”
I closed our distance, cupping her cheek. She went to fight me, but I held her in place.
“Do you really think you ever had a choice?” I warned softly. “That I’m the good guy in this story? That after everything, I’d just let you walk away?”
“Trust me,” she sneered, “I’m fully aware you’re not the good guy.”
She tilted her head back another fraction, exposing more of her throat, and my hand slid lower until my fingers wrapped around it completely.
“Selene thinks marrying you to Vivienne would solve her reputation problem within the Underworld. That’s why she’s been insistent.”
“And that bothers you?”
Her eyes flashed instantly. “No.”
“Liar.”
Her gaze dropped briefly before snapping back to mine, defiant even now. “I don’t care whether you marry Vivienne,” she said evenly. “I only care whether you take down Selene.”
A slow smirk tugged at my lips. We both knew she cared. Not in some sweet, romantic way, but enough that the thought of another woman got under her skin. Aeris hated losing control almost as much as I did.
“Sending you to me when she wants me to marry her daughter is an interesting tactic. You told me you weren’t allowed.”
“You really think Selene wouldn’t allow me if it got me closer to you and Sebastian?” Her eyes searched mine. “You were right, she did send me to seduce you. I was told to use everything at my disposal.”
I frowned. “You must have mixed your seduction up with being bratty.”
“I resisted because I didn’t want to be used like that, my body used as just another one of her weapons. But in the end it didn’t matter, because clearly I failed.”
I stayed silent, watching her carefully and feeling the way her heartbeat kicked harder under my touch.
“Selene doesn’t care who or what she uses,” she whispered. “Not as long as she gets what she wants in the end.”
“And she wants me to marry Vivienne,” I said, cocking my head. “Do you want me to marry Vivienne?”
Her expression shifted, that earlier jealousy flashing across her face so clearly I fucking revelled in it.
“Caden—”
My fingers squeezed slightly. “Answer the question.”
Her cheeks flushed, those full lips pressing into a stubborn line. “No.”
“Why?”
She let out a cute little growl. “What do you want me to say? That the idea that she gets to touch you drives me fucking crazy? That you’re mine?”
Yes.
“Yes.”
“You’re delusional.”
I chuckled darkly, using my grip on her throat to pull her closer, forcing her head back until my lips ghosted over hers. “You have no fucking idea.”
I didn’t give her a chance to argue, instead crushing my mouth to hers in a deep, possessive kiss, swallowing her soft moan as I claimed her completely.