Chapter Thirty-Five
Asher
Kayden's pacing grates.
"Sit," I tell him.
"I don't see how sitting fixes anything," he snaps.
I rub a hand over my face. "Astrid's tracing the seller's number. We need facts before we move." I've said it many times. "Charging in and carving a path won't help."
"She's out there. Our wife. Cold. Dead! And you're still playing detective," he yells.
This isn't about me. It's pain looking for a target. I feel it too, but I don't let it run freely.
I lean back, laptop balanced, voice even. "I know. Don't think for a second I don't want to dismantle whoever did this—"
"It's him," Kayden cuts in, throwing back a drink. "The satyr. He couldn't have her, so he killed her. Case closed."
"It wasn't him," I say. "You know that. He'd never kill her."
Kayden glares, jaw working. The truth scrapes the wound raw.
Both of us go still at the same time as something shifts. Then the front door explodes inward.
Darius.
"Speaking of the devil," Kayden snarls.
I move, shoulder to shoulder with him before he does something we can't take back.
"You went too far this time, vampire," Darius says to my brother, then cuts his gaze to me. "And you, Colonel Darrow, I expected more from your supposed honor."
"What are you talking about?" My stance tightens.
He's alone. Face drawn. Furious.
Something's wrong.
"How did you get through the barrier?" I ask.
"Your barrier is broken," he says. Power pushes into the room. "You'll answer for the slaughter of my people. For Darlene. Choose which one of you pays."
Kayden laughs without humor. "Choose? Noble. And wrong. We didn't kill anyone. Not today, at least."
"You're lying," Darius growls, stepping forward. His presence floods the room, pressure thick enough to feel in the bones.
Kayden drops his glass and lunges.
I move to stop him, but Darius is already there. He catches Kayden mid-charge, lifts him clean off the floor, and slams him down hard enough to rattle the walls.
I flash forward, but he's faster.
He pivots into my movement and strikes, the impact sending me crashing into the opposite wall. My ribs protest as I hit the ground.
By the time I'm back on my feet, Darius has Kayden pinned by the throat. My brother's feet barely touch the floor, his face turning red.
Darius's eyes blaze green, his expression more beast than man. He doesn't need to use his powers, just raw strength. One squeeze and Kayden's neck will snap.
"Darius, Sage is dead," I tell him the one thing that could stop him. "We found her stabbed."
He frowns. "Lies won't save you. Or your brother." His voice rumbles, deep and resonant, vibrating through the air.
"You… killed… her," Kayden chokes out. Not helping.
"Darius, wait!" I bark. "When was Darlene killed?"
He glares at me, hand tight on Kayden's throat. "Less than an hour ago."
Kayden's face is dark red now. Another few seconds and he's done. It looks like Darius is going to rip his head off with that force.
"We were here the whole time," I say, forcing calm into my tone. "It wasn't us. Someone else did this."
Darius's grip falters. For the first time, uncertainty flickers behind his fury.
"It can't be," he breathes, and then throws Kayden aside like he's nothing. My brother hits the wall, coughing.
Darius turns to me, his mask of rage cracking, shock bleeding through.
"It's true," I tell him, voice tight but steady. "I wouldn't lie about this."
"It can't be so," he repeats, the words less certain this time, almost a whisper.
"Yeah, well, we've been telling ourselves that," Kayden rasps, hauling himself upright, voice raw. "Hard to deny when she dies in your arms." He reaches for his fallen glass, pours some scotch, hands shaking.
The fight drains out of Darius. He suddenly looks hollowed, shaking his head like the world's slipped its axis. Whatever his version of twisted, possessive love was, it was real.
I pour a fresh drink and set it in his hand. He takes it without looking.
"Darius, someone killed Sage and then Darlene, but it wasn't us," I say, steady.
"Oh, that's because it was me," a familiar voice says from the doorway.
Cold runs under my skin.
We all turn.
Sage.
Kayden breathes it like a prayer. "But you're—"
"Dead, yeah." Her mouth tilts. The sound of her voice is different—mocking, with a dark edge. "People keep reminding me. I walked it off. Happens. Anyway, it's unexpected finding all three of you here. Convenient, though." She looks around at the mess. "I see you're having quite a party."
Darius looks from us to her, lost. "What? You… killed Darlene?"
"Yup." She shrugs. "She killed me first. Eye for an eye. Balance and all that." Her gaze flicks to Kayden. "By the way, nymph blood? A treat. I get why your kind hunted them to the edge. Darlene was… mmm. Worth the fuss."
Darius goes still, eyes wide with something I've never seen on him before—fear.
"No," he whispers, almost to himself. "No."
My mind wants to deny the truth before my eyes as well. It's Sage and not. The shape is hers, but the feeling isn't.
I take a step toward her anyway. "Sage—"
"Uh-uh." She lifts a finger, cutting me off. "I'm talking. And there are lives at stake, so you'll want to listen."
I stop. Lives. Dread coils.
"Oldest lover first," she says, turning to Darius. She fishes in her back pocket and tosses something. He catches it on instinct.
An engagement ring. Large diamond, sparkling in the light.
"I told you I pawned it," she says, a mock-contrite shrug. "I lied."
"You… kept it?" Kayden asks, face twisting with disbelief and betrayal.
"Yeah. Should've pawned it. Would've made things easier on the road.
But your face right now? Worth the trouble.
" A dark laugh, jagged and wrong. "Bad news and good news, to keep the balance, okay?
Bad news: I had feelings for Darius. I didn't run because I didn't love him—I ran because I wasn't sure it was real.
Turns out it was. I loved him even while I was married to you.
" She tips her head. "Good news: I'm cured. Of him. And of you two."
She slides off our rings—Kayden's, then mine. She flicks them back. His hits the floor. I catch mine.
"I don't know what the hell this is, but it stops now," Kayden snarls, launching.
Sage moves faster than I've ever seen.
Gunshot. Then another.
Kayden drops, groaning, blood blooming in twin starbursts across his chest. "Not this," he pants, voice breaking. "Not again."
I shift, but her aim cuts to me. In her other hand, there's a familiar weapon, metal twined with wood—the satyr-killing blade.
Darius's expression shifts to despair, and then the beginning of resignation.
"I hope neither of you ex-lovers wants to test my new resolve," Sage says, voice oddly light.
"Why are you doing this?" I ask.
"Why?" She smiles, thin and bright. "Because I'm done with you. Love was a weight. Now I'm free." She points at Darius. "You. Darlene was right. I make you weak. You let your empire wobble chasing me like a wide-eyed puppy. Pathetic."
Darius turns away, jaw tight and silent.
She swings to Kayden. "And you…"
He groans. I kneel at his side, hands moving, finding the wounds. He breathes shallow.
"All that snarl and swagger? Little boy noise," she says with a mocking scoff. "Chasing big brother's shadow, yet coming up short. Newsflash, you're not worthy and you never were. I should've left you to die in that container."
Her words go in like hooks, I can see it in Kayden's expression beneath the pain wrecking him.
She grins. "But hey, a poetic turn of events—now you'll die slow, like you promised everyone else." Then she turns to me. "Colonel."
I brace.
"Stoic statue man," she murmurs. "Is that how you survive it?
All the bodies you 'protected' into the ground?
Wife—wives—Winston." She leans closer, conspirator-soft.
"Let me give you something useful, a hint for your little scavenger hunt.
Three people are bleeding out in Briar Hollow: a boutique lady, a bus driver, and some poor guy walking his dog.
The dog is fine. They're hidden, but you can save them if you hurry.
Or you can choose to chase me. Your call.
But if you come after me, I'll end you."
She flicks her fingers as if dismissing a waiter. "Do everyone a favor and don't."
And she's gone, leaving the room full of silence and that bright, terrible aftertaste of her voice.