I slammed the door shut behind me, leaning against it for a moment to catch my breath. I kicked off my boots and collapsed onto the bed, rubbing my temples in an attempt to calm the spinning thoughts.
“Fuck, that was close,” I muttered.
I exhaled slowly, forcing myself to let go of the tension in my body as I settled deeper into the mattress. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to focus on the quiet.
Minutes passed. My heartbeat finally began to slow, and the adrenaline started to fade. I let myself sink into the comfort of the bed, eyes drifting shut, my body ready for even a brief moment of peace. For the first time in hours, my mind was beginning to quiet.
And then I heard it—footsteps. Then my door flew open.
I sat up, my irritation flaring. “What now?” I asked as Caden appeared in the doorway, looking rather grim.
He didn’t answer right away, just stood there, his gaze dark and unreadable. Finally, he spoke, his posture rigid with whatever revelation he was about to drop on me. “I just had a very interesting conversation with Enya.”
Really? She ran to Caden about it? Fucking bitch.
I feigned innocence. “Oh really? What about?”
Caden's jaw tightened before he answered. “Apparently, you have a history of struggling with translation. You didn’t think I needed to know that?”
My nails dug into my palms as I held myself still, refusing to let him see me rattled. “Youdoknow. James and Julian informed you back in Switzerland. Julian put a damper on my magic by using the forced True Bond. Remember? You killed him for it?”
For a moment, Caden looked startled, but he quickly masked his surprise.
“Right. Well,” he said, regaining his composure, “then it shouldn’t be a problem anymore, should it?”
The question felt like a trap, and I had no choice but to respond.
“Right.”
Caden’s eyes narrowed. “So, if you don’t mind, I’d love to see that amazing haze of yours in action.”
Shit.
“I do mind,” I replied, trying not to bite his head off. “I don’t take kindly to being forced into anything.”
Caden’s patience was undeniably wearing thin, and I wasn’t sure how long I could keep this up.
“You can either translate of your own free will or I might need to resort to more…familiar methods,” Caden threatened, his tone growing colder. I swallowed hard, remembering his “methods” for luring out my energy all too well. I instinctively brushed my fingers over my scars.
“If you can’t translate, I have no use for you,” Caden said, his voice now ice-cold. “Your presence here is allowed, solely because I need your skills in the Human World. If you can’t deliver…”
“I can do it,” I snapped.
“Then fucking show me!” Caden demanded, his frustration unmistakable.
“No!” I shouted, my stubbornness flaring up.
Caden closed the distance between us in two strides, grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. “Emma, I need you to shoot out your haze,now. If you don’t, you can portal straight back to Cyclos.”
Fuck. Panic was rising in my chest.
Caden was going to use this as a pretext to send me back to Cyclos. It was a perfect excuse to get rid of me and throw me back into James’s world.
No.
I wasn’t ready to face James. Not yet. I needed more time; more space to figure things out. There had to be another way. The walls seemed to close in, and the reality hit me hard: I was trapped. Either I revealed my secret and trusted Caden with it, or I’d be forced to return to Cyclos. There was no easy way out of this.
I hesitated, the pressure of my secret bearing down on me. “I can’t do ithere,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper.
