I want the panthers to have the chance to be elves again.
I want to learn how to fight like Anarchy, so that the next time a supernatural like Ryuji or my father comes after me, I’ll have all the skills I need.
I want to keep my family safe.
But as for vengeance?
“What now?” I whisper. “Well, that depends on my brother.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lucian stiffens. “Me?” His golden eyes consider me warily. “How does it depend on me?”
“Will you come inside?” I ask, gesturing to the interior of the training hall where I sat with Ryuji only minutes ago. “I have questions and you have information I need?—”
“I told you, Dad never shared anything important with me.”
I squint at him. “I don’t think that’s entirely true.”
He withdraws a little but doesn’t look away. A guilty person would look away, but again, dark creatures rarely feel guilt.
But, no.There isn’t guilt in him.
There’s… pain.
I see it in the downturn of the corners of his lips, the tightening of his shoulders, his defensive body language. The same body language he exhibited when he told me that affection comes with strings attached or worse, it’s followed by a fist.
Anarchy steps quickly to his side, the lavender scent of her skin wafting across the air. She doesn’t slip her arms around him, but she leans in close. “Whatever it is, you can tell us.”
As I wait for Lucian to respond, I’m fully aware that the keeper could make my brother speak. The keeper could try to use his compulsion power—he’s used it on angels before—but it’sunlikely to work on an angel of Lucian’s power. It would only break any trust I’ve built with my brother.
I give the keeper a small shake of my head and the oily, black magic slithering around his fingertips disappears.
“You can tell us,” Anarchy whispers again, this time with a smile as she brushes her hand down his arm. “We’re dark creatures. We won’t judge.”
He reaches for her, his fingers feathering her jawline, the expression in his eyes changing. A pinch in his forehead. A hurried press of his lips.
He’s worried. But for the life of me, I won’t know why until he tells me what he knows. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.
“Okay,” he murmurs, his focus on Anarchy. “But will you sit with me?”
He suddenly looks far more vulnerable than I ever expected to see him, another hurried press of his lips, the pucker in his forehead deepening.
Her eyes widen, her lips parting, a mirror to his worry. “Of course. I won’t leave your side.”
He gives a nod. Swallows. Turns to me. “Lead the way, Veda.”
After moving back inside with the three male panthers milling around me, I gesture for Lucian to sit opposite me.
True to her word, Anarchy stays close to him, gliding into a sitting position, her knee touching his when she crosses her legs.
The keeper remains standing like a dark shadow at my back, somehow blocking out the sunlight on my left.
“Ask your questions,” Lucian says, his shoulders and torso tense, his hands curled into fists and resting on his thighs.
I start quietly. “My father told me I was too dangerous for this world. He told me I’m destined to start a war. I don’t want to believe him, but his conviction was intense. It was absolute. I need to know why. I’m hoping you can shed light on that.”
More than anything, I want to know why Lucian reacted with relief at the sight of my wings. Why he said that my wings had changed everything, but it’s theeverythingI need to know about first.
