I chuckled. Kian had always been innocent. He never had a girlfriend, and he was never interested in girls until Wren came along. He hadn’t had his first kiss yet, which made me feel even more like an asshole for interrupting them.
“I know what you mean, though,” he murmured, staring at the wall with a distant look in his eyes. “I’ve seen Wren naked, but not for me. It’s a different type of feeling, but I also know that her other mates are good souls, and they treat her right.”
“Yeah, they do.” I nodded.
“To be honest with you…” Kian’s voice broke. “I think we were about to bond.”
“Really?” My eyebrows raised, and I heard the sloshing of water as Wren climbed into the tub. I tried not to think about how hot she must’ve looked.
He nodded. “It could be me being crazy, but it felt like our magic brushed up against each other.”
I smiled. “When you bond with her, I will be really happy for you both.”
He smiled really big and bumped my shoulder with his. “Thanks. I’ll be really happy when your time comes too.”
I glanced down the hall, and my blood froze. The door at the end of the hall was Lilly’s. When we were about seven, we had painted an entire meadow on her door in funky colors. It was still there. Some paint had flaked off, but the black flowers, blue grass, and green skies still painted the door.
Our parents thought we were crazy, but they liked it.
“Can you give me a minute?” I asked, swallowing back the emotion in my throat. “Can you stay here with her?”
“Of course. I’ll always stay with her. Go and take some time in your sister’s room.”
Kian had truly become a brother to me through the years. When Lilly had been taken and I ended up meeting him, he became a lifeline for me. Without him, I would have been lost.
I climbed to my feet and made my way down the hall to her room before putting a shaky hand on the doorknob. I hadn’t been in her room in years, but I knew it was time to go in.
THIRTY-TWO
Kian
Myheartbatteredmyrib cage, and the roaring in my ears became white noise. The past five hours had been brutal.
I didn’t know how to process severing ties from a toxic coven. Doing so had never crossed my mind. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that the necromancer coven was toxic, dark, and disgusting. But I’d hoped my father wouldn’t fall prey to Claude’s influence. When Mom died, my father took it hard. He became a shell of who he was, just like Mom’s reanimated corpse—but he had never been outright evil.
When I went to Fate Hollow Academy, I guessed Claude dug his claws into him, and now he wasn’t the father I grew up with. The father I grew up with would have never sided with the dragons after figuring out what they did to their mates.
My stomach churned as I thought about the fact that my mate was mated to a firedrake. Rowan told Lachlan and me what they did to a drake’s mate, so we knew the gravity of Wren’s situation before we’d left this morning. It was absolutely disgusting.
“Nightshade?” My shoulders tensed as I glanced around for him. “Wren, have you seen Nightshade?”
A splash, followed by a squeak, sounded behind the door as Wren giggled. “He’s fine. He’s here with me.”
An image shoved into my mind of Wren in the bathtub, naked. Nightshade nuzzled her cheek as she held him up.
“Nightshade, what do you think you’re doing?” I shouted, turning and smacking a hand on the door.
“Kian, it’s okay!” Wren giggled, and I could see her smile in my mind.
“I’m so sorry, but Nightshade is sending me images of you right now… and you’re naked in the bath,” I sputtered. My whole body was on fire with embarrassment. Couldn’t Nightshade not wreak havoc for one bath?
“It’s okay! I promise. Calm down.” She let Nightshade sit on her shoulder as she scratched under his chin.
I tried really hard not to let my gaze dip, but as she slid down in the water and came back up, her breasts bounced.
“Stop it,” I gritted out, gripping the sides of my head and pushing the image away as I got to my feet and rested my forehead against the door.
Wren’s soapy hands glided across her skin as Nightshade perched himself on the side of the tub. My groin tightened painfully, and guilt gnawed at me.
