“You didn’t tell me you knew?” Echo whispered from behind him, eyes dark with shock.
Aethan faced her. “We are soul-joined,me’morae. I feel you. But how could I give you my pain when you endure so much? It was eating me alive, knowing your longer sleep wasn’t aiding you much, because replenishing your essence is the one thing you couldn’t do. So I tried to be your strength. But it wasn’t helping you, either.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her expression stricken. “I didn’t want you to worry. I thought I needed more time and sleep to get stronger again.”
“Never hide these things from me, Echo.” He brushed her overlong bangs from her bi-colored eyes.
Ely pressed her face against Nate’s biceps, her own eyes damp. While she merely killed evil, Echo did so much more that it cost her, her health, and none of them knew a thing.
“I’m glad you’re here for her,” she told Nate softly, then her gaze shot up to his. “Does healing Echo affect you in any way?” she asked, anxious for her mate now.
“I’m fine,laika.” He tucked her hair behind her ears. “I don’t know what the long-term repercussions will be, if there are any, but I’m okay.”
“You will tell me?”
His eyes softened, and he nodded. “Being who we are, nothing is straightforward, is it?”
“Keta—I mean, Nate,” Echo called out. “Do you know what happened to our parents?”
“A little, and what Ely told me she’d heard that night.” He exhaled deeply. “I don’t recall where we came from, but it was…a mugging, I think. There was a scuffle…gunshots went off. Our mother pushed me to run and hide when I tried to help her. Our father…he lay there unmoving. There was so much blood…” He massaged his temple with one hand, the other gripping Ely hard. His anguish—fresh for him as he recalled fragments of his past—swept through her. “She told me to run, and I did…I’m so sorry.”
Echo shook her head, eyes bright with tears. “You were a child, too.”
“But I was older, I should have protected you!”
Ely rubbed her chest, their torment puncturing her heart.
Nate moved away from Ely to the bookshelves at the back of the study. Head lowered, he scrubbed his face as if to get control of himself. Then he pivoted, but his features were pale beneath his bronze skin, eyes stark with grief. “What happened to you?”
Echo swiped her overlong bangs away from her wet eyes. “I don’t remember anything of our past, only that our parents died in a mugging. It’s what my foster family told me…” She frowned. “I’d awakened in a hospital, so I must have been hurt, too. There was no next of kin, and I ended up in the foster care system, but when that got too hard… The-the family I lived with weren’t nice people.” Her lips trembled. Aethan put a hand on her back, steadying her, and she leaned into him as she continued. “I escaped and lived on the street for a few years until I was found by a savior who adopted me.” Her voice hitched.
He nodded several times before speaking. “I’m…I’m sorry for what you endured. Life truly fucked us up.”
“Fate is a damn bitch,” Aethan muttered, a dark note to his tone.
Michael, who remained near the French doors, appeared as if he’d been carved in granite, listening to Nate and Echo uncover what they recalled of their past.
But Nate’s anger and pain settled over Ely like a dark cloud. She crossed to him and put her hand on his back, trying to comfort him. “At least you have your sister now, Nate,” she said softly.
He glanced at her, and the sorrow in his eyes lifted a little. “I have her because of you,laika.”
“If there is no further need for me,” Aba’s voice broke the dense atmosphere, “I must get back to the garage.”
All eyes turned to him.Vae, they were so involved with their own pain that they’d forgotten him.
“Aba—” Nate was already walking across. “I didn’t mean to ignore you—”
“It’s all right,cnati.” He waved it off. “It makes my heart happy to know you found your kin. However, I do have to get back to the garage.”
“Thank you for your time,” Michael said then, and Aba nodded.
Nate hugged his sire. “I’ll be by later this evening to work on those jobs waiting.”
Aba pulled back, blinking in surprise.
“My personal life changed, Aba,” he said dryly. “Not my relationship with you or my work at the garage,” he clarified. “Being Azgor’sSicariisn’t a label I want on me any longer.”
“Job?” Michael asked, expression thoughtful.
