“None of it was real,” I murmured.
Ryker took a step toward me, and I stepped back. “Yes, it was. Every fucking second!”
“Not for me!” I screamed as I slammed my palm against my chest. “Not when you were manipulating my emotions!”
Ryker raked a hand through his hair, tugging on the white-blond strands. “I gave you a taste of the life we could share, if only you would stop being so stubborn and accept our fucking bond.”
His words slammed into me, and I stumbled back, my legs colliding with the chair behind me.
“Accept our bond?” My voice cracked, and I swallowed. “You mean, submit to your will.”
“Cadence —”
“Don’t.” I held up my hand, the ring catching the light as though to mock me. “Don’t you dare try to convince me this was for my own good.”
Riordan finally found his voice. “Brother, what the hell were you thinking? You should have told her.”
“I wasthinking,” Ryker said, his shadows beginning to writhe at his feet, “that I would rather have her alive and furious than proud and dead.”
“I never would have needed the godsforsaken ring if you hadn’t caged my powers!”
“And have everyone discover you are Wraith Borne!”
It was only The Morrígan’s quick thinking that spared me, but Ryker didn’t know that.
I yanked at the band encircling my finger, twisting frantically. When it finally loosened, I hurled it at Ryker, hitting him in the soft tissue below his left eye.
“Take it! I don’t want its fucking power.”
“It doesn’t work like that, Temptress,” Ryker said. “It’s already done.”
Callum rose from his chair, his face pale. “Cadence, maybe we should —”
“Stay out of this.” The command came out sharper than intended, and I winced.
Ryker’s shadows grew taller, climbing up the walls as they responded to his agitation. “You think I wanted this? You think I wanted a mate who fucking hates me?”
The viciousness of his tone made me flinch. But underneath it all, I couldn’t deny the hurt his words inflicted upon me. “And whose fault is that?” I snapped back, not wanting him to know he had wounded me.
Ryker stalked toward me, his eyes alight with fire as he stared at me. “Mine. It’s my fault. Is that what you want to hear?”
Riordan cleared his throat. “Perhaps we should —”
“Stay,” Ryker barked without looking away from me. The authority in his tone was absolute, and Riordan and Callum shared an uneasy glance.
“No, go,” I said, but they stayed rooted to the spot, as if frozen.
“I’ve made countless mistakes with you, Cadence, but keeping you alive will never be one of them.”
The sincerity in his voice chipped away at my anger — until I felt it. That pull, that sense of connection I’d been too blind to recognize as unnatural.
His violation was unforgivable.
“You made me believe I could love you,” I confessed on a broken sob.
Ryker blinked at me, unsure what to make of my admission. But it was irrelevant because none of it was real.
“Get out.”
