“Fuck, baby.”He closes his eyes, thudding his head back against the glass. Once, twice, grimacing at the ceiling.
Julien’s frown deepens as he watches. “What have you done to him?”His low murmur amused.
“Played me at my own game.” Sai keeps his eyes shut. Shaking his head, he lets out a ragged laugh. “Now I’m so hard I can’t fucking move.”
The fact Sai says that, aloud, is… astounding.
The brothers immediately stop their conversation, Ezekial’s hand mid-hover over his screen as they both turn to Sai.
After a long, heated silence in which Sai slams his head back two more times, Kane restarts time. “Julien, what have you heard?”
“They’re concerned about the impromptu meeting,” he replies, catching Kane’s meaning easily.
Only then do I realise he’s been listening to the four Lead Commanders next door this whole time.
“How are they feeling?” Ezekial directs at me.
I stand and walk towards his desk. “Exactly how we want them to.”
Nervous, apprehensive, with a soft undercurrent of frustration. The exact emotions we want rushing through their brains. We need them on edge, second guessing everything.
His lips quirk, but his silver gaze was too busy tracking the sway of my hips, darting down to my skirt—theskirt—the one he warned me about wearing, before finally meeting my eyes.
“Good.” His voice holds a slight rasp. “Let’s keep them waiting a little longer.”
“Amon has confirmed his support,” Julien adds, his gaze sweeping the group before landing on me, catching my frown. “He comes from royalty. His family were among the first to support the creation of the enforcers and, by extension, the Council. His name carries weight, and fear.”
“He’s a royal?” I gasp, thrown by the casual reveal.
“A prince,” Kane interjects, stepping to Julien’s side. “Well liked, with a large and powerful army.”
“Why is he helping?”
“The Order, Green Cloaks, have been our common enemy for centuries. They’ve enslaved countless beings, including dragons.” I swallow as Julien explains, but then his eyes soften. “He also believes he owes us for keeping his bond safe. More specifically, he asked me to make sure you know he’s indebted to you.”
“Me?”My gaze darts to each of them. “But I haven’t done anything.”
“You underestimate yourself, Jasmine.” Julien’s voice is warm, sincere. “Without your encouragement, Amon believes he would have died in his dragon form. And if he had died…” He pauses, which means he’s carefully selecting his words, and the room seems to shrink. “Kacey would have followed… or worse. When a bond dies, madness takes what’s left. Rampage is all that remains.”
“And Kacey is so powerful…” I murmur, imagining the devastation her ghostly beasts could unleash.
Julien’s gaze takes in each man before landing on me. “It’s best not to dwell on what could have been,” he says quietly.
But the shadows creep in, thickened by the dread seeping from them all. The air hums with their thoughts, and I don’t need to hear them to know what they’re all thinking.
What happens when it’s me who’s gone?
Kane said I’m not immortal, not yet, but how does he know it’ll happen? Beings of light live longer, not forever… and whatever I am, even with the dark, immortality isn’t promised.
I need to change the topic, scrape these emotions and sickening thoughts away.
“So you’re going to tell the Leads we’ve got dragons on our side?” I add a half-smile, and some of the darkness fades.
“It’ll get a reaction, maybe make someone slip,” Ezekial says, then his gaze darkens. “We know what fear does. How it distorts, exposes, breaks.”
A bitter sickness crawls under my skin, curdles my stomach. I know exactly what fear has done to each of them. I’ve seen it, heard the stories they rarely tell.
And now I carry every one of them.
