I took two steps back, closer to where Aiden lay behind me. Nothing would happen to him on my watch, but I didn’t know either of their affinities. If Avery was truly a Telekinetic like Landon had believed, then I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fight him.
“Avery, there you are,” Alexander sounded relieved. “There’s a situation–” He stopped as he saw me, then grinned. My stomach began to churn as I took another step back, my calves brushing against Aiden’sunconscious form. “I see you’ve found each other. So what do you think?”
“What do I think?” Avery said quietly. His tone was different now, something lethal laced beneath his words. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
This…was a very dangerous man.
The danger was palpable, the air growing thicker by the second as his mood shifted. I kept my breathing steady as I checked Aiden behind me. He was still fine. Still asleep.
My mind raced, trying to come up with ideas for how to get us out of here without being able to teleport. The best I could do was teleport us all over the room to evade the other two men. I didn’t want to kill them unless I had to.
“I’ve brought you the phantom,” Alexander said, tilting his head slightly. “That’s what we’ve been working toward, is it not?”
“The phantom–” Avery froze, turning to face me slowly, almost robotically.
I gulped.
His piercing gaze looked me over with new interest, finally resting on my eyes.
“How do you know?” he asked, without taking his eyes off of me.
“Holmes,” Alexander replied. “She found the signature after the attack and then confirmed it while they were off galavanting in Alaska.”
I turned a fierce glare on Rafe’s father.
“We were helping people,” I whispered. “Yourpeople.” I turned back to Avery, whose expression had gone carefully blank.
“I didn’t hurt them,” he said, his tone flat.
“No,” I said slowly. “But you know who did. You enable them. You don’t have control over your toys like you think.”
Avery’s eyes flashed, his armor cracking just enough that I could see some of the man underneath. He was concerned about me, and my opinion of him. He didn’t want me viewing him negatively, and he didn’t want to be the outlet for my ire. He was afraid of me, but not because of my affinities.
He turned to Alexander. “She’s right.”
Alexander looked shocked, then blinked a few times. He adjusted his tie a bit nervously before speaking. “About?”
“I don’t have control over my people. It’s obvious.” Avery clasped his hands behind his back and began to circle Alexander, andholy shit. He looked like a shark circling a turtle, and I needed to get us out of here, fast. Aiden was closer to consciousness now, and I cursed myself for not having practiced waking people. I’d only ever focused on knocking them out.
“How long have you known of her relation to me?” Avery asked quietly.
“Her…what?” Alexander, to his credit, didn’t know what the fuck was going on. I’d always thought Rafe was exaggerating just a bit when he called his father an idiot. “She’s the phantom. The one you’ve been searching for?”
I could see my hair beginning to float in my peripheral vision, and I took another shaky breath. My affinity was reacting to my fear, and there was no way for me to hide it.
Clenching my fist, I took hold of Aiden using my affinity, pulling him as gently and slowly as possible as I looked for a way out of here. I was pretty sure we were in the lower level of the East wing, but that would mean the dungeons were close, and with the fire…
“She’s mine,” Avery said, stopping me in my tracks, stopping my very breath. “When did you know?”
The implication was clear, but I was still missing some details. Sure, we’d joked Alexander had some type of crush on me, but this wasn’t funny at all. Rafe would’ve exploded.
Rafe.
Stay away. Not safe.
My heart pounded, my legs going shaky again.
“Does Richard know?” Avery asked, his voice still quiet.
