“She’s right. I thought he just wanted to hurt us, but now I think he wanted leverage. To lure Hazel out.” Harvey’s jaw is clenched so tight it looks painful.
“He wants to hurt the Horsemen for hiding me from him.”
I glance at Dean, and he has officially moved on from frustrated to seething.
“Let him try,” he growls, dragging my chair closer to him until our thighs are pressed together. “She’s my mate. I have the markings to prove it.”
Of all the times to say that…
I didn’t think it was possible to feel all the blood rush to my face at once, but judging by the heat crawling up my skin, I’ve definitely turned red.
“What markings?” Nevaeh asks, because, of course, she does.
What if I slide under the table right now? That wouldn’t be weird, right?
“Oh, I finally figured out what the blue marking on my back means. It’s in Hazel’s language and clearly says I’m hers.”
Fates, that’s so sweet.
Someone kill me now.
Dean is smiling so wide that I don’t have the heart to tell him that he just shared far too much about our private life that I’m comfortable with.
“Really?” Neveah is shocked, but Grace keeps sipping her tea, hiding a smile behind her cup.
Of course, the little bookkeeper knew all along. I don’t even want to think about everything she keeps tucked away.
Dean launches into an explanation, practically glowing as he tells them about the mark, about how we were meant to be.
“So Dean was blessed by fates, too, and none of us knew?” Harvey asks, stunned.
“Maybe that’s why they never punished me for stealing that Divine.” Dean leans back with a smirk. “I flipped heaven off on my way into hell, and not a single warning. The angels complained, sure, but fates? Even God? They didn’t care when the Grim Reaper stole something capable of changing the power balance in the universe.”
It’s true. It never made sense to me how Dean stole raw Divine to create Nevaeh and faced no consequences. Elijah wasn’t going to punish him since he was involved, but the fates? No one gets away after tricking them.
Silence settles over the room as everyone processes it.
In that moment, everything else fades. My fears, my doubts. Sitting here with my family, seeing how they reacted to my past with nothing but support… it makes my heart feel lighter.
Dean finds my hand under the table and squeezes twice. He’s always here. I’m starting to believe he always will be.
“So no one’s going to talk about how Hazel has seen Dean naked?” Jackson grabs the back of Seiji’s neck and shoves his head into his chest, hiding him behind his broad biceps.
It does nothing to hide his laugh, and it fuels everyone to start teasing us.
I grab the lamp in front of me, but Dean snatches it before I can throw it.“Let’s stay on topic, yeah?”
Nevaeh sobers under my glare and clears her throat. “Alright, so here’s my theory. Tiberius couldn’t get into Hazel’s dreamsbecause of the pixie potion, and it tipped him over the edge. His ego was hurt, and he couldn’t let it slide. So he got creative.”
She’s spot on. I knew he wouldn’t like that I cut him out, but I didn’t expect him to retaliate this fast.
The crease between Grace’s brows deepens. “But that potion blocks her ability to link with anyone. I don’t like that she wouldn’t be able to call for help if something happened. It’s too risky.”
“I might have found a solution.” Anxo rubs his hands together, a sly smile tugging at his lips.
“Oh no. What did you do?”
He laughs. “Stop glaring. I just talked to the vampire king.” He cuts me off before I can react. “Hewantedto help. And he had some great insight on how to build mental walls. Vampires use it to erase themselves from their prey’s memory. It can hold for years.”
