I don’t have a choice. If I want their help, I have to trust them with Aurora’s identity.
A shadow curls around my wrist, second-guessing my decision, too.
“When Renato came to collect on my favor, he met Aurora, my mate. She thought she was human. Had no idea what crawled beneath her world. Not until some Disciple fuck asked her out and tried to kill her.”
I growl, fury burning through every word I don’t say.
“I had my suspicions after our first encounter but didn’t confirm her true identity until it was almost too late.”
The revenants vibrate, a slow tremor building in my bones, feeding on fury I don’t bother to hide.
“That motherfucker almost took her from me.”
Rage seethes under my skin, and my shadows feel it. They coil tighter, denser, pressing against my skin, silently screaming to be set loose.
The Cù Fèidh writhes, clawing at my insides, ravenous for release, too.
Every part of me wants to destroy, rage, devour.
Go scorched fucking earth.
“I get it, Ezra. You’re angry. But tell me. What does this man have to do with your mate? With us?”
Astrid stares like she already knows. Our eyes lock, and she gasps. Her hands fly to her mouth, and tears well in her eyes.
I sigh, dragging a hand over my face, gaze drifting to the ceiling, to the rusted meat hooks, to anywhere but them. Because once I say it, there’s no taking it back.
“Aurora is the Daughter of the Morning Star. What she is … It’s still unfolding. But even now, she’s more than most could handle. And this is before she’s even taken hold of her birthright. That changes the second I return.
“The brute she went on a date with was a high-ranking hunter in the Disciples. They knew who she was. They knew where to find her. And they tried to stop her before she became what she’s meant to be. They didn’t. That’s their mistake.”
“And you left her alone?” Astrid shrieks, her voice a razor-edged echo as she shoots to her feet. “Ezra, you have to go. She’s in danger!”
“All is well, Astrid. She has the protection of her hellhound, and I’m keeping her at my house for the foreseeable future.”
Tears stream down Astrid’s face. She opens her mouth, then shuts it, trapped in the space between past and present.
She looks desperately at Luca, who takes over for her, understanding her limitations.
Luca sighs, leaning back, arms crossed. His expression is grim, but certain.
“Ezra, it doesn’t matter where you hide her. They’ll come. Since Astrid is unlike any underborne they’ve ever seen, the Disciples initially thought she was a Daughter. Their leader told her that only a Daughter of the Morning Star can activatela Fauce Vermiglia.”
Luca wraps his arms around a distraught Astrid, then kisses the top of her head.
I watch for a moment, taking in the tenderness between them and wonder if that’s what Aurora and I look like. If anyone’s ever seen us together and thought—just for a second—that it could be love.
With a sigh, I pick up the red folder and leaf through the sparse notes. They mirror almost exactly what Luca just told me.
“Fuck, I have to get home to her.” I shove everything back into the folder and stand too fast.
The world lurches.
Black spots chew at the edges of my vision.
My legs buckle, and the shadows lunge.
One tightens around my ribs, another braces my spine, straining to keep me upright.
