“The Council of Seven, made up of my brothers and me, the only ruling class of Arkhevari that's left after the First Collapse.” His gaze pinned me, unflinching. “They must see you. They must know you.”
My throat went dry, and a lump formed there that refused to move. More of those insufferable men? “Oh.” It was all I managed, though inside, my mind was screaming:Oh shit. Oh hell. That's a hard no.
I stared at him. “And why would I do that?”
His gaze didn’t waver, but mine narrowed, sharpened with all the reasons I wanted to fling back at him. This wasn’tmyfight—none of it.
So Zapharos had saved me, fine, and given me a decent—okay, okay—thebestorgasm of my life. That didn’t mean Iowedhim some intergalactic road trip to meet his council of spooky immortal brothers.
Well, Ella, it kinda does,my snarky inner voice chimed in.Guy saves your ass, rocks your world, keeps you from being monster chow. You could at least humor him.
“Oh, shut up,” I muttered under my breath, startling Zaph, who stared at me the entire time.
What else are you going to do?The voice pressed.You got a dig waiting for you? A meeting back at the university? A boyfriend pacing the floor, wondering where you are?
The sting of that one caught me off guard. No. There was nothing and no one waiting. Not anymore. I clenched the sheet around me, and hot anger sparked against the cold truth pressing in. My life—myreallife—was alreadygone. Even if I somehow got back to Earth, what then? As far as I knew, the Cryons were still tearing it apart. The thought hollowed me out. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, fighting the ache in my chest.
No, I wasn’t doing this because of Zaph. God, no. He was smug, impossible, infuriating. Unlikeable. Yet… something in me leaned toward him like a moth to a flame. Not safe. Not smart. But there, all the same. I closed my eyes, dragging in a shaky breath. When I opened them again, he was still watching me, steady and unyielding, like he could see every battle I’d just fought inside my head.
I looked at him, really looked at him, past the arrogance and the impossible beauty and the infuriating smugness. He’d as much as admitted he was afraid, the mighty, untouchable Zapharos, afraid of himself.
My heart clenched. What would that even feel like? To spend eons not only fighting monsters, but fighting yourself? To carry that weight, alone, without balance, without relief, without anyone to lean on?
God. No wonder he was half-cracked. No wonder he hovered between gold and black like the universe couldn’t decide what to do with him. And hadn’t he said it? If the black took over, it wouldn’t just destroy him. It would use him. Twist him. Turn him into the very thing he fought.
The thought made my stomach churn.
I did owe him. Not just for saving me. Not just for… well. The kiss. The orgasm. The way he’d torn through everything I thought I knew about myself in a heartbeat. But because I couldn’t stand by and watch anyone suffer needlessly. Not if it was in my power to stop it. And from the way he said it—from the way his eyes had sparked amber when he looked at me—it was in my power. I could bring that light back into him. Not so we could… no. God, no. This wasn’t about that. Although… maybe that could be part of it. Eventually.
I dragged in a breath and let it out slowly. “Alright,” I said, the word scraping out of me like it cost something. Maybe it did. “I’ll go. To your council. Whatever this is.”
His eyes flared, the faintest glow of amber licking through the dark. That alone told me I was doing the right thing.
By the starlight,I didn’t know why I’d asked her. Why I’d spoken the words aloud, binding us both to a course I wasn’t sure I wanted.
The truth? My mind had not changed. I still didn’t want to take her to the Council. To the others. Every time I thought of them seeing her—of their blackened eyes turning toward her, measuring her, judging her—I was filled with a fury I could barely keep chained. She was mine to guard, not theirs to dissect.
And yet… I wanted her—more than I had ever wanted anything in the long stretch of eons. But I could not have her. Not until I was certain—truly certain—that I would not destroy her in the moment I claimed her. The hunger burned like molten metal in my veins. Every time she looked at me with those too-honest eyes, every time her scent wrapped around me, the black inside me prowled closer to the surface, daring me to slip.
I forced the anger down, locking it beneath the iron walls I had lived within for ages. The Council might hold answers. They had borne this curse as long as I had. Perhaps they would know a way to tether the black, to keep it back long enough for me to…
I cut the thought off, my jaw clenched.
I needed them. I hated that I needed them, hated that I would have to lay her existence before them as proof of what stirred inside me. But if there were even a chance that they could show me how to master this—how to take her without fear of shattering her fragile body beneath the abyss—I would endure it.
The fury still smoldered under my skin when I sent the summons. I didn’t need words. The pulse of my aura, sharpened to a blade’s edge, carried the command. They would feel it. They always did.
A heartbeat later, the chamber folded around me, stone and void and starlight converging into the sanctum of the Council of Seven. Ella stood at my side, her eyes wide as she took in the stone table, the vaulted walls strung with galaxies like chains.
I muttered under my breath, “Why in all the stars did I call them?”
The answer came before I had time to regret it. Dravok materialized from the shadows first, his gaze sweeping the chamber like a knife. Then his eyes cut to me and narrowed.
“Zapharos.” His voice was silk hidingsteel. “Your aura. It’s… lighter.” His gaze flicked to Ella, sharp and calculating.
Before I could snarl, another voice cut through. High, jagged, fever-bright.
“Aelyth!” Nythor’s cry rang like madness and prophecy all at once. He clutched his own arms, eyes wild with the Dark Abyss’ visions. “The bond is here, the balance returns!”
