I felt it settle over me like a brand as the grand circle exploded into view.
Lights blazed against the night, casinos alternating with night clubs, each louder and more garish than the last. Music thudded from every direction, with overlapping rhythms designed to keep hearts disoriented and wallets open.
This city fed on appetite. On weakness. On Magiks who thought they were strong enough to walk away.
But they should have known better. Once you crossed into Ignareth, you’d never be the same.
33
The Dark Priest
Sage
The look on Ronan’s face, the moment as my scent, unbidden, touched his nose, nearly killed me.
He knew then what he’d just done. Why it had been so hard for him to bring me back. What his body had already figured out, begging his mind to catch up on.
I was his mate, and he’d just delivered me to the one man who would never let me go again.
Tears fell down my cheeks as the werewolf dragged him out and the door snicked closed, and then again once Victor’s assistant, ignored in the background as he finished whatever paperwork was left to pay Ronan, left himself.
We were alone.
I felt lightheaded as Victor finally drew back, swallowing the blood he craved straight from the source off his lips. “Fuck,” hesighed, licking them clean. His eyes met mine, and narrowed in disgust and anger. He gripped the hair at the nape of my neck tightly, hissing in my face. “I nearly died, Sage!”
“And you’ve been killing me slowly for the past five years,mate,” I hissed back.
I was done being his good omega. If he locked me up in isolation forever, so be it. I’d go mad and welcome the reprieve from reality.
He dragged me into the bedroom, doing his best to be rough but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of vocalizing the sting on my scalp, even as I tripped over my own feet.
I still wasn’t used to wearing shoes.
With a hard shove, I fell on the bed, quickly turning around to face him as he began unbuckling his pants.
“Don’t you fucking touch me, Victor,” I said.
He paused for just a moment, radiating with rage. “I’m sorry, but I need you to repeat yourself.”
His voice was quiet, belying the storm brewing under his skin and waiting to be unleashed.
Victor wasn’t a man to be denied anything.
“I said don’t touch me. You killed Kaleb and Nellie, you forced my parents into hiding, you stole my eggs, for Hecara’s sake! You are absolutely, completely unhinged. If you want to lock me up and take my blood, so be it, but the rest of my body is mine and I will never give it to you again.”
He didn’t move a muscle as the words hit him, and he considered each one carefully, examining them in his mind. “That’s not going to work for me, Sage. You’re my mate—”
“I’m not!” I yelled. “I’ve never been your mate, don’t you see? How could I run away, hate you, cringe at the thought of you inside me if you were mine?”
Again he paused, looking away to gather and organize his response, but I continued, rising to my knees and clasping myhands together. “Please, Victor. You know whatever is between us isn’t right. And I figured out why.”
His gaze swung back towards me, and he quirked an eyebrow.
“My heart. It’s not mine. It belonged to your true mate, a witch omega named Liora. It’s her you’re sensing, who you’re smelling.”
He blinked, his face blank. A sinister grin tugged at the corners of his lips. “Oh, Sage,” he said, chuckling from the humor he apparently found in my discovery. “You think I didn’t figure that out years ago?”
I froze in disbelief.
