I didn’t doubt for a moment that this development between him and Evira had something to do with that. Whatever they’d just shared had most definitely soothed him. The fact he hadn’t already burst around me even in his current state and gone at Keuric said a lot where that was concerned.
“Sorry,” he murmured.
Wow.
I blinked, then took a step closer to Keuric.
An odd, perhaps perverse, sense of satisfaction rolled through me as he inched back.
“I know what you did to her. So, end this pursuit immediately or that will be made public knowledge.”
“You… what? No. You would have already revealed it if you knew. This is some psychological manipulation like Sylas and your other daddy, Cassius, are known for.”
Because of course it couldn’t simply be attributed to me.
“She asked me not to make it known to anyone else. And I made her that promise. But if you continue with this insanity, I’ll break my promise.”
I wouldn’t.
But Keuric didn’t respect other people’s wants and agency, especially not that of women, so it was believable from his warped worldview.
When he still didn’t back down, what I hadn’t wanted to have to do proved necessary—the reason I’d needed Zayn calmer in case I had to go there. So, I spelled it out plainly to Keuric. “You used your family’s favorable political relationship with House Vortimer to draw close to her. You played thenice guyrole to a T, preying on her inexperience and the inevitable vulnerability that went along with it. You decided to take advantage of your relationship with Evira and use her as a shortcut to power. A sprinkling of gaslighting here and casual emotional abuse there and you tried to tamper down her rebellious and free nature, to control her. It failed. She was stronger than that, stronger than you. You went further. You tried to use an illicit spell on her that you infused into her drink the night the two of you had planned to sleep together for the first time. The spell aimed to disintegrate the magical birth control she had in place and forcibly impregnate her with your child. It was imperceptible—except to Torvek. He stopped you that night.”
“Fucking shit,” Zayn seethed. “Sick piece of shit!”
I pushed past his reaction and focused on Keuric’s stunned one. “So, yes, Iknow.”
His eyes flashed. “You’re not dragon. You don’t understand the intricacies of our culture or—”
“It’s got fuck all to do with culture, you psychopath!” Zayn yelled from behind me.
It was actually him somewhat calm. Yelling but not physically reacting was a far cry from his usual approach when he was antagonized. He really was trying.
And I hadn’t seen this from him in a long time.
Keuric slammed a glowing hand to my chest with a snarl.
The physical impact jarred me, but the magical aspect did no damage.
He frowned. “No. That shouldn’t—how?”
“Complex physiology? What can I say?”
“Subvolo,”Zayn called to me.
I started.
It was from our made-up language. It essentially meant“the one below will fly”,basically a signal for a low-to-high attack.
The immediate threat Keuric was trying to keep my attention on was his live magic trying to tear into my chest, something me calling on my Wraith frost quietly was countering, but something I had to sustain with focus. I could of course with my death-aligned nature take hits of this sort without actively calling on that, but it was harder to do when it was this potent and with sustained effort on an opponent’s part.
I went to employ my shadows to wrap around his wrist and yank his fist out of range, so it didn’t connect.
But then a violent wind ripped through the air, frost and a sudden snow squall generating, and it had Keuric stilling.
Evira tore into the fray, sweeping one of her dragon wings at Keuric and ripping him from me.
He hit the ground, rolled, then came up in a primed crouch, snarling at her.
