Chapter 44
Aurelia
Iwake up with a start, a feeling of dread winding its way through my chest. I rub at my sternum and find myself sweaty. Morning light glows around the border black curtain as I blink at my surroundings. My pack is here: Savage, Lyle, Scythe and Xander all lie in a tangle on the bed. They are returned to me, alive and with all their limbs.
Savage growls and licks my knee, nuzzling me as if he senses my sudden discomfort. I can’t help but see and feel that my heart isalmostcomplete. That my pack is missing its final member. Its worst member?
But his hands had been gentle on mine that one night. His voice soft. His shadows softer. I grimace, struggling to understand this feeling—a feeling that cannot be right or true. Ghoul is my father’s most prized possession. His most effective weapon. The highest of the seven generals. He would be sworn to him as all his servants are sworn to Mace Naga. To obeyeveryorder to the death. And yet he can’t help but seek me out. Like I can’t help but…regret not going with him last night.
Lyle rolls into my lap, his long, golden hair draping across my legs. I run my fingers through the light threads, and it soothesme as much as it does him. My lion’s purr rumbles across my thighs.
“You’re thinking hard about something, I can tell,” Xander’s drawl is heavy with sleep. “Don’t tell me the basilisk bastard got to you.”
I cast him a side-eye from where he rests behind Scythe. “How did you even know?”
He smirks. “When you think you’re not being watched, your face is an open book. When you first got to the academy, I thought it was just a side effect of you being isolated for so long. But now…well, when you’re as powerful as you are, why bother hiding anything?”
I scowl. “There are people after me—the bastard basilisk being one of them.” And I definitely guard my face when I’m around him.
“He’s going to betray you,” Xander says flatly. “You know that, right? Whatever regina feelings you end up having for him won’t matter in the end because he’s sworn to your father.”
“I bet these were the types of things you said to Scythe and Savage when I first got here,” I grumble. In a deep voice, I mimic him. “Don’t trust her, she’s crazy. She’ll betray you. She’s nuts and evil.” Xander is silent for so long that I turn to stare at him. “Itwas, wasn’t it?”
He closes his eyes. “You’re right. But we didn’t know you then. WeknowGhoul. And heisnuts and evil.”
I rub my face. “I’m so confused.”
“Aurelia.” The note of alarm in Xander’s voice makes me raise my brows. It’s not often that Xander panics about…well, anything. The dragon sits up and reaches over Scythe to grab my wrist. “At Drakos Estate, my dragon…well, he punished me for rejecting you and showed me things from other lives we had as pack. Other times.”
I sit up straight. “What? What the fuck did you see? Why haven’t I heard of this before? Tell me everything.”
Xander scratches his chin awkwardly. “It was only fragments, and at the most inconvenient times. We all looked different in each one, but I just knew who was who. It was a feeling. A lot of it wasn’t good. The other times and places were violent. It seems our pack trends on the trauma side of things.”
“Well, fuck.”
“And in each one,” Xander presses, “Ghoul’s soulalwaysbetrayed you. Mine seemed to swing back and forth, buthis…” Xander shakes his head in disgust. “Even his soul has real problems.” This information only troubles me further. “This appeals to your regina instincts, doesn’t it?” Xander groans, covering his eyes. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, you did the right thing,” I say, carefully climbing out of bed and heading into the shower, alone.
We spend the rest of the day locked up in the dorm in each other’s arms. Minnie and Stacey ask to visit when they hear that I’m back, but I tell them I need to stay with my mates. They need me. None of them say it with their words, but their eyes, their stroking hands and desperate, straying lips tell me all I need to know. They ache from their time with The Collector and some wounds can’t be bandaged directly. I move from one lap to the next, and more often than not, there’s two or three sets of hands grazing my skin where I sit on the couch or dining table. We watch TV, Scythe, Xander and Lyle talk on the phone to various people, and Xander gets out his laptop.
At one point, I watch him frowning over his screen and I can’t help but leave Savage’s sleepy embrace and stalk over. He glances at me, and without a word, I nudge myself into his lap, straddling him so we’re chest to chest. After a moment of surprise, he holds me, breathing in deep before looking over my shoulder at his laptop and getting back to his work. “Are theshare prices down or something?” I murmur, examining his lone dangling cross earring with gentle fingers.
Xander huffs with discontent. “I’m only concerned with the price of gold—and that’s always good.”
“Then what are you frowning about?”
“Selene has been sending me emails. Updates about Mother and the hatchlings every other day.”
I recline backwards to look at him. “She didn’t want you to miss anything.”
His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he nods. “They’re alright, so that’s the important thing.”
“And Lady Drakos?”
The corner of his lip quirks. “She’s re-taken her maiden name. She’s Lady Darkcleaver now. One of dragonkind’s most ancient names.”
“That’s an incredible name.”
