“Your powers will not work in the house because of the runes Onyx has locked into the wood. The doors also are warded and locked by Onyx. If the king comes, he can’t get out even if he tried,” I explain. “We have thought of everything to make sure you’re safe.”
“Chain me to the bed too,” he asks, but I won’t do that. He isn’t our prisoner. “Never know, you might like that.” He winks, and it’s like having him back for a moment. “When are you leaving, Tulip?”
Tulip. This is Severi and I can trust him. I still reach for my Nexus. “You know when Severi is the king, right?” She doesn’t tell me yes, but I feel her agree in my mind. “Then warn me if the king comes.”
“In the morning. I have to go to Morriganis City. It’s complicated, but I think that’s the next step,” I explain. He has always followed me everywhere I’ve gone, and he never came tosee me when he wasn’t in control. I’m not lying to him anymore, not now I know he always puts me first.
“You wouldn’t have to go far. They’re looking for you, from whispers I heard,” he offers. “I want to come with you.”
“I don’t want them to take me in. They’re looking for some monster that they’re scared of, and I’ll just be thrown into a trial or killed. I have an aunt in the city. Maybe I’ll be able to find her, but I have a plan.” I slide my hand out of my pocket and reach for his hand. He turns his palm over, and I slide my hand against his, closing my eyes for a second to take in the fire I feel from his touch. “You have to heal. I can’t be looking over my shoulder to make sure you’re okay.”
“Now I’m sure you like me.” He links our fingers. “Fine, but I’m finding you when I can.”
“I’d expect nothing less from my prince stalker.” I grin.
His eyes take me in, something soft flashing in them. “I want you to smile at me like that when I can kiss the fuck out of you, darling.”
My cheeks heat and I go to reply when I sense it. The change in him, like a storm brushing over the sea, and within a second his hand tightens painfully in mine. “We meet again, Gwenieve.” I try to yank my hand from him, but he grips it tightly, painfully so. “Seems my son stole your heart despite everything. Won’t you come to me, Gwenieve? We have unfinished work to be done. Don’t you want to find your sister?”
I don’t falter as I lean closer. “You’ve been king for too long, and I’m your punishment. I know everything now, and I am coming for you. The stars sent me.” Fear flickers in his eyes as I let my Nexus show. Let him see her. It’s her voice that leaves my lips next. “May all the Gods die this time.”
The king leaves Severi as quickly as he came, and Severi passes out back on the bed, his hand slipping from mine. I tuck him in and leave him alone, sensing Onyx’s strange wards as I goout and shut the door behind me. Runes are drawn all over the wall, just like the one on my arm, but they are far more powerful than I thought Onyx could create.
I head back into my room, which I share with some of the guys, and dive into my bag, to the silver box my mother left me, and I stare at it and my tulip earrings, wrapped in a bundle with the diamond flower hair clip from Annie. Things from my real family. My chosen family. My father might not have been related to me, but he never let that show. He never once showed me anything that would make me doubt I was his. Gods, why didn’t they just tell me this? Why did I have to find out like that?
Annie. I touch her hair clip, guilt flooding me. I haven’t found her, no one has any knowledge of where she has gone, and knowing what Georgina is now…she could be in the Vian city. Only, I think if the king had her, he would have tried to blackmail me to come to him for her by now, so it doesn’t make sense. Clutching the box, I leave the room and quickly head through the house, hoping to avoid people. I just want to be alone. Hollis, Franklin and Nibbles are sitting on the sofa. Franklin is cuddling Nibbles, who wags her tail when I go past. “You okay, Gwen?” Hollis asks.
“Going for a walk,” I tell him. “Severi woke up, and he is resting now.”
Hollis climbs up. “Alone?” I walk to the door when his next question comes, nervous this time. “Can I come with you?”
Being alone with Hollis? Fuck no. I’m not ready for that. I begin to tell him no when Onyx walks out of the kitchen, a thick jumper covering his chest, old jeans hanging low on his hips and his hair still a little damp from a shower. I’ve not seen him so casual before. I think I like him this way more than the suits. “I’m going for a walk to gather firewood. I’ll come with you.”
I make sure he can see how thankful I am as I clear my throat and look at Hollis. “Another time, Hollis.”
Onyx joins me as we leave the cabin and breathe in the cold air, letting it relax me. The sky looks cloudy, but it doesn’t look like rain today. After we have walked for a good ten minutes, with Onyx picking logs and branches up as he goes, I reach out my senses to find his Nexus. Nothing. His Nexus is so very silent, almost like it isn’t there anymore. He doesn’t so much as flinch, and he doesn’t react in a way I would expect. Damn.
I slide the box into my pocket, knowing I can be alone with it another time. My Nexus knows we will need it.
“What happened to you?” I say after a while, giving up trying to sense his Nexus for now. My own Nexus is curious too. “Where were you when I…when Starlight City fell?”
Onyx nods at the cliff edge coming up. “Let’s sit first.” We head to it and sit down, piling the wood next to us. Even the wind seems silent as he tells me. “I was with my mother.”
“Oh, where is she?” I pause when I realise, when I hear the sadness in his voice. Oh Gods. I killed his mother. My stomach turns, and I push down the urge to cry.
I whisper, barely managing to speak. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t say sorry for something you didn’t choose to do,” he corrects me, but it doesn’t help. The guilt is smothering me once again. It was easier to process it all when I couldn’t imagine the pain it caused so many, when it wasn’t someone close to me. Now it’s overwhelming me. “She wouldn’t leave, and she kept trying to pack. But I realised even if I’d got her in the car, it wouldn’t have made any difference because I couldn’t have gotten far enough away.” He reaches for my hand, and I pull it away.
“I killed your mother, and I—” He moves closer, pulling me to his side and gripping my chin.
“No. Gwen, no. Listen to me, and this is the last time we are going to speak about this. You are not guilty. There isn’t any stain on your soul, you’re not a monster, and you do not needto suffer for what you were forced to do. The king and Georgina used you. Did you willingly want to hurt anyone? Did you go up there with Georgina and wish for all that death?”
“No.” I shake my head, feeling tears pouring down my cheeks onto his hand.
“My mother was a casualty of an attack, and you were used as a weapon—an unwilling one. The Vian king and Georgina are the ones that must pay.” He lets go of my chin only to cup my cheek. “After my mother died, I think I passed out. I’m sure I heard a voice…but I can’t remember. I can’t hear my Nexus anymore, and my powers are…strange. Reacting in a way I’ve never seen. I think there was a consequence for surviving the Starlight City attack and walking free…but I can’t remember what it was. I woke up weeks later, with no memory, and my father was dying in front of me.”
For a moment, I’m pulled straight into his mind, into a vision. A room covered in blood, his father bleeding out, and his hands are drenched in blood too. There are dead Nexus in here…the guards the alpha had. All of them are dead. Onyx’s father reaches up with a shaky hand. “Please let me say goodbye…to them both.”
