Unspoken between them lay another truth: that Silas’s obsessions burned hot but fleeting. While he’d never been soinvested in another person before, he’d had passions in the past. None of them lasted.
After a moment of silence, Tal added,Rut’s coming. You know how stupid demons get this time of year.
“I’ve never been stupid,” he argued. “And rut has never been an issue for me.” A blessing of being only half demon. While he went through a seasonal rut, it had never completely robbed him of his personhood as it so often did with others, turning them into mindless animals desperate to fuck.
Normally he just hired someone to deal with his cock for a week or two. He never bothered learning names or trying to find someone to stick around, and he certainly never enjoyed the same partner twice.
Rut, like any biological function, was simply a fact of life that, once handled, he didn’t need to think too hard about. For a few weeks out of the year, he got a little temperamental and extremely horny. Then it was over. Never, not once in his life, had he felt the urge to actuallymatethat drove so many of his cousins out of their minds. And he’d never gotten so lost in the rut that he abandoned his logic.
Yes,Tal said, clearly at the end of his patience,but you’ve never been this stuck on a woman, either. Si, you’ve done nothing but stalk her for weeks. For the gods’ sakes, you bought thishousetwo days after seeing her for the first time.
“So? It’s a good house.” Sure, it was a little bigger than he needed, and definitely in an exposed position that made the wild, demon heart of him antsy, but…
It was close to her. A perfect position to track his target’s every move. There wasn’t more to it than that.
Tal couldn’t sigh without lungs, but the sentiment was clear when he said,Sometimes I really can’t tell if you’re lying or just willfully blind. Either way, I’m warning you that this is different.
Silas could see the reason in Tal’s concerns, but something more than his natural combativeness bucked at the well-meaning redirection.
That didn’t mean he thought she was his mate. Silas wasn’t sure even Petra, hypocrite that she was, would deserve that cosmic punishment. But he’d decided to play with her, and he so loathed giving up his toys.
Silas rested his knuckles on the cool lab table and fixed Tal with a dangerous look. “I’m doin’ this.”
Why?
“Because I want to,” he answered simply, “and because you’ll understand when you meet her.”
Shadows slid along the floor and across the walls like a liquid spider web. Silas sensed them, sensed Tal’s familiar energy in them, as he reformed by the table.I have a bad feeling about this plan.
“This is borin’ me.” Luckily a tiny vibration drew his attention to his wrist. Silas glanced at his watch — a sleek cuff he’d designed himself — and his heartbeat picked up speed. It’d alerted him that sundown was nearly over, which meant Petra would be wrapping up her second service of the day. Within an hour, she would be headed to the dining hall for dinner with the cathedral’s small fleet of staff and young initiates.
You’re going back there, aren’t you?Tal had gone from concern to outright reproach.
Silas rolled his eyes. “’Course I am. D’you want to come along?”
No, I don’t,Tal replied, sharp.I’m not going to help you make a mess of this. This— this issacred.Matehood shouldn’t be bought and sold. You deserve better than that. She does, too. It’s too painful, knowing you don’t care.
Silas blinked. “I care.”
Tal’s shape shivered like hot air.You don’t. You only care about what you want in the moment, but someday youaregoing to care about something other than yourself, Silas, and I pray you realize what that means before you break it beyond repair.
He opened his mouth to point out that there was nothing he couldn’t fix, but in an instant, Tal was gone, his form melted back into the natural darkness of the room.Off into the ether,he’d once said. Back to wherever it was that wraiths dwelled when the tangible world became too much.
He’d been doing that more often lately — descending into moods, arguing over Silas’s methods, and disappearing for long stretches into the ether. He assumed Tal’s snippiness came from impatience, which was why he’d decided to push their plan along in the first place. Finding a way into the Tower had led to Petra, and now Petra herself would lead to getting Tal what he craved most.
So why was he so damntesty?
Silas scowled, unsettled by the impassioned declaration, and turned to eye the metal on the table. Since his brother wasn’t there, he settled for flicking Tal’s helmet with the tip of his claw.
“Asshole,” he muttered.
Chapter Seven
Breakinginto Petra’s private suite wasn’t nearly as fun as breaking into her office, mostly because it didn’t involve setting anyone on fire.
In fact, it didn’t take any effort at all.
A bubble of anger burst in his chest as he seamlessly slid through the basic wards guarding her door. In another building, his witch and the rest of the cathedral staff were busy enjoying whatever it was they ate for dinner, leaving a perfect opportunity for him —anyone— to trespass.
