He wasn’t a threat if I was gone.
13
Elias
Putting Kingsley in a cell feltwrong.But the door closed, trapping him within, closing us off from one of Ivy’s mates.
It felt like a betrayal. Not just to him—but to her, too. What would she think when she found out about this? What would she say?
The last thing Ivy ever would have wanted was to see one of her mates locked away—even the asshole half-Fae. But especially not Kingsley.
We moved in silence to the war room. Tension thickened the air between Archer, Grey, the demon, and me, making it almost difficult to breathe. Dante’s focus on me felt like a confirmation that at some point, he and I crossed paths. That somewhere in my past, I’d been in his control.
I couldn’t prove it until I had someone read my memories.
And the only person I trusted to do that walked stiffly beside me, emotionless and deadly.
“We are alone,” the demon said as we entered the war room, breaking the tension as he sat. “At least, as far as the shadows are concerned. No prying souls. No chance Dante could be listening through someone else’s ears.”
Archer slumped into his usual chair, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, hopefully he isn’t listening through any ofourears.” He lookedat me sharply, though I couldn’t read his eyes. “So, you think you were there?”
I stiffened, giving a terse nod. “I recognised one of Dante’s soldiers. He was with the huge bear. The one who took Nash and the Primal.”
“He recognised you, too,” Grey said, clasping her hands on the table.
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat, crossing my arms. “I don’t really remember anything. Don’t know how I got there, or how I escaped. Just know that before I was at the orphanage at Phoenix, I’d been somewhere withhim.”
I learned years ago to stop thinking aboutbefore. To stop wondering. Even when Ivy and I bonded and she learned about the scars, I’d been so focused on our future that the past hadn’t really crossed my mind.
But I thought I’d been taken to Phoenix because I was born an Alpha, rejected by the nearby packs because I posed a potential threat to their leadership.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case.
“You remember the trauma,” Grey said, taking me by surprise. “Your memories are blocked, likely because of that.”
I released a shaky breath, bowing my head. “Yeah. I think so. But I could have also had my memories blocked bythem.”
“How did you escape?” Rhadamanthus asked. “You would have been a child in their hold.”
“No idea,” I growled. “I just know I did.”
It had me questioning everything we knew about Dante. Was he holding more children? Had he forced the shifters into breeding? Was I a product of that? Or had he kidnapped me?
It made my stomach turn just thinking about it.
“I still find it hard to believe that Dante could eventhinkabout this,” Rowan muttered, staring at the table. He scratched the back of his head, confusion darkening his eyes.
“What?” I leaned forward, catching a shift in his scent.
Rowan shook his head. “His parties were huge. Hidden. Only those who answered his call could find them. But I remember…I remember that once, maybe twice, someone went missing. I mean, we didn’t think much of it, because there was always someone running off with their mate and doing whatever. No one made a big deal about it. But…” Rowan stopped, scrubbing a hand down his face as he sat back.
“You wonder if he somehow had something to do with it?” Grey asked, eyes narrowing. “That he was somehow building his army with these parties?”
The mage shrugged. “Why else would he throw so many of them? But if he needed females for…breeding, then he would have his pick at them.”
“We have links to this false king, links he likely never thought about,” Rhadamanthus said, his voice cutting through the tension. “We can use what he has done against him. If you are certain this Windermere witch is powerful, then she could break through whatever spell he used against the charm mage. And now, we might know how to breakinto his compound. If we unlockyourmemories.” He directed those last words at me.
I swallowed thickly and looked to Grey. “We don’t need a Windermere witch to pull my memories, right?”
