Ezra’s gaze went distant, her hand cradling her chin. “Another silencing spell,” she murmured. “Old, complicated.”
Riot leaned back, her frown deepening as her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Takes a hell of a lot of magic and knowledge to pull that off. Some of those spells eat at your life force if you're not careful. Most mages won’t touch them.”
“Not unless you're paid enough,” huffed Calix.
“Or,” I said, pulling the blade from my jacket and laying it flat on the table, “they’re not using the usual kind of magic.”
The metal caught the light, the runes along its edge still pulsing faintly. Their eyes widened.
“This is the knife that I texted you all about.” I told them where I’d found it, about the man who used it, and about the wound it left on me. I mentioned Deslen and how he healed my leg.
Ezra’s brow furrowed. “How exactly did he heal it?”
I shrugged, playing it casual. “His saliva neutralized the curse. Fae jaguar thing.” Once Deslen and I figured out what was going on with all of us, I’d tell them it was a mate thing—or whatever the situation was.
Ezra nodded slowly. “Interesting. Good to know, but let's keep that quiet. There aren’t many of his kind left.”
We all nodded, though Aniyah was already smirking, her eyebrows dancing in the kind of way that made my ears burn.Why does she think she knows everything?! She knows nothing… I hope.
“Send the knife my way,” Calix said, getting that gleam in his eyes that said he was accepting a challenge. “I’ll see what it’s made of.”
“Will do.” If anyone could unravel what was going on with that knife, it was him.
“I’m still digging into this ‘doctor’ the leads have mentioned,” I said, leaning back. “Once I find something worth sharing, you’ll all know.”
Ezra’s gaze met mine, understanding and a clear warning in her eyes. I needed to find this man, and do it quickly.
The conversation drifted on for another ten minutes before wrapping up, all of us saying our goodbyes as their images blinked away.
Grabbing the handle of the knife, I could still feel the pulse of that blade like a heartbeat. I was going to need to double wrap this before I gave it to the courier.
Once everything was done, all emails and phone calls answered, my office turned into a tomb of silence. The last few days had been a blur of chaos and emotion. This was the first moment I’d had to actually breathe.
After what happened with Nick, I’d spent an hour running wild through the forest, trying to quiet my wolf before she tore something apart. She fought with other wolves, went hunting for game, and by the time I came home in the middle of the day, I was covered in dirt and blood. Zeth, Conrad, and Deslen had been waiting at the door, calm and steady, like they’d been there the whole time.
Deslen insisted on a bath, Zeth had movies queued up, and Conrad had Hellfire booze waiting for me in a glass. Even with my heart cracked wide open, they held me together piece by piece.
We’d curled up on the couch, one on each side, another stretched between my legs, watching movies until the sky turned dark. No one mentioned Nick. They just… stayed. Present. Warm.
Conrad left first, groaning about meetings he’d already postponed before brushing a kiss over my lips and heading out. Deslen followed, saying something about his manager blowingup his phone. Zeth lingered the longest, kissing me deeply enough to steal the air from my lungs before promising to handle the lieutenants and other Syndicate issues so I could rest.
Now, hours later, I sat alone in my chair, the hum of the computer in my office still echoing faintly. My gaze drifted over the wood grain of the desk, the patterns twisting like the thoughts I kept burying in that dark, quiet corner of my mind.
Is it because he doesn’t like me?
Nick hadn’t seemed to mind fucking me in the forest… but maybe that had been a mistake to him. Maybe he’d been at war with himself the whole time, hating the side that wanted me. Hating the side that saw me as his mate.
That thought gnawed at me as I sat there, staring blankly at the desk. Why would he fight something so natural? Something written into our bones. On our souls. People spent their lives dreaming of this connection, chasing a bond some would never feel, yet he’d spit in fate’s face the moment it reached for him.
The second that realization hit, I dropped my forehead onto the desk with a sharp thud.
“God, I’m an idiot.” I’d done the same damn thing. Birds of a feather and shit, I guessed.
Yes, Zeth had rejected me, but I’d also been betrayed by men before. Staring down at my fists, I remembered how it felt when I’d heard Liam in that locker room. How it felt to be deceived by someone you thought was truly interested in you.
It was that kind of hurt, the kind that dug bone-deep, the kind that made you want to take the whole damn concept of choice away. But why? Why had I done it?
To keep yourself from ever being hurt again. To hide your weakness.
