A grin tugged on Luc’s lips despite his best efforts to scowl. Onyx’s attitude could be exhausting, but his candor was amusing. “I’m not copying you.”
Onyx didn’t dignify that with a response, unless you counted pointedly ruffling hisfeathers.
Luc’s amusement didn’t last. “Dex hates me, and I don’t blame him. There’s nothing I can do. I won’t stalk him if he doesn’t want to see me.”
“You won’t?”
“Don’t look surprised. How would that help?”
Onyx shrugged. “It probably wouldn’t. So, how do we get him to talk to you?”
“We don’t. I’m not forcing anything on him.”
A growl ripped from Onyx’s throat. “Did I say you should? Dammit, Luc, you wanted your mate so badly that you dragged us all to Earth. You aren’t giving up on him. We need to figure this out.”
Dragged them all to Earth? As if he’d been the only one willing to forsake their home. He’d dragged Onyx, not everyone.
“I’m not giving up. I’m respecting Dex’s boundaries. I’m capable of doing the right thing on occasion.”
“Yeah, when it allows you to feel hard done by,” Onyx muttered.
Luc’s wings twitched, his fire smoldering. He forced it down and let the comment go. “Is Dex doing any better than yesterday?”
Onyx paused, considering. “He seemed okay. We didn’t really discuss you. Though he did mention he feels like he’s betrayed Ollie.”
Shame burned hotter than Luc’s internal fire. “Does Ollie agree? What does he think of you keeping me around?” Perhaps Ollie didn’t know Onyx was giving Luc a second chance. If he found out, then Luc would lose Onyx, too.
Onyx paced to a nearby window and gazed out. “Ollie isn’t holding my decision to see you against me. He understands that your attack is one piece of a long history, and trusts me as a friend to do what’s right in this fucked up situation.”
Luc swallowed his surprise, the taste bitter. “So what? The boy is a saint?”
Onyx whirled around. “No, but he’s certainly less petty than either of us. Did you know he asked Dante not to kill you? No one would have blamed him for wanting vengeance, but he had compassion instead.”
Onyx’s words hit Luc in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.
Onyx wasn’t done. “If Ollie knew you and Dex were mates, he’d understand eventually. I bet he’d even believe that you weren’t trying to hurt Dex yesterday. Maybe you need to work things out with Ollie before you try with Dex.”
“Work things out with Ollie? Oh, is that all? Simply ask the man I nearly killed to forgive me?” Luc would have laughed if he didn’t feel dead inside. “That’ll never happen. Dante will stop my heart the second I approach his mate.”
“Then don’t sneak up on him, genius. Tell Dante you want to explain being Dex’s mate to Ollie. If Dex doesn’t feel like he’s betraying his friend, I think he’ll talk to you.”
“So I need Ollie’s forgiveness and a favor? To see if he’ll put in a good word with Dex for me?” That was even worse.
Onyx clenched his jaw so hard, Luc heard his teeth grinding. “Is there a way to figure this out without involving Ollie? If so, I’m all ears.”
No. There wasn’t. If Luc ever wanted to see Dex again, he had to mend fences with the others and their mates. But that was impossible. They wouldn’t forgive him, no matter what Onyx thought Ollie was capable of.
“None of it matters.” Luc turned away, staring blankly at the nearly empty loft. “I’m never mating Dex. Even before I realized he knew Ollie and that I’d fucked this up, I was never bonding with him.”
“What the hell?” Onyx grabbed Luc and pulled himaround, glaring, nose in the air, and eyes flaming. “You have no intention of mating with the man that you destroyed everything for?”
Luc’s own fire raged back to life. “I didn’t destroy everything.”
“Yeah, yeah. You didn’t father the first witch. Big whoop. I told Ash and Dante that, by the way, and they believe your story. They’re softening. Seeing things in a new light matters even if it doesn’t excuse everything you’ve done. We need to understand what the fuck is happening in your head, Luc. If you’d shared from the start, maybe things wouldn’t have turned out this way.”
Was that so? Luc doubted it, but he had nothing to lose now. “What’s happening in my head is this: Dex lost his parents and struggles with grief. He needs to pass into the Eternal Realm to reunite with them at the end of his life. I refuse to take that away from him. So we aren’t mating no matter who forgives who.”
“Oh…” Onyx’s aggravated expression smoothed out, leaving him almost blank.
