“I’m serious,” he huffed through an exhale. “King Hawthorne forbade anyone from crossing the borders of Caelestis.”
“Except for in the line of duty,” Kohen pointed out. “Or—you know. On special occasions…But never to Draemor.”
“Exactly,” Delani attested. “You're all soldiers. So?”
Sebastian has killed over five hundred people? I find that hard to believe.
How is that even possible?
In the background, I heard everyone respondnoto Delani's question. Only when my name was added to the mix of voices rattling my eardrums did I snap out of my own head.
“Hm?” At last I moved from where I stood like a statue in the doorway.
“Haveyoubeen to Draemor?” Pia asked me, a reddish-blonde brow curled upwards.
“Uh. I…no,” I stuttered blandly while slumping onto the sofa.
“I have,” Sebastian mumbled, dropping to the floor next to Sawyer. He had been waiting in the common room for us after we finished our meal, sitting in his usual pose with a book—a romance novel, based on the title. “I’ve been to Draemor.”
My attention snapped to him as I fully shifted back into reality. “Really? When?”
While his pecs flexed mid sit-up and created bumps on every inch of my skin, he simply breathed out, “When I was nine.”
My mind flashed back to the night he returned from Craterra, after everything had gone to shit. He told me all about the things his father had made him do while growing up, and I wondered if his trip to Draemor held the memory of one of those horrific times.
I wondered if that was when he killed one of his five hundred people.
I never thought something as simple as a number could make me sick, but that one did. That one made me want to gag. Not because it scared me—like he had been so afraid that the real him would—but simply because it made me worry for him.
“Shit, really? I didn’t know that,” Sawyer heaved, working through a repetition of twenty. “Alright, scratch that, Willawood two. One of us has been to Draemor.”
Pia slipped into a seat mid-conversation. “Do you remember it well?”
“Not really. I’m sure I’ll recognize some of it when I get there.” Sebastian hurried through the rest of his set then laid flat on his back to catch his breath.
My eyes drifted to the outline of his ab muscles concealed beneath the fabric of his shirt. I had to practically grab and rotate my own skull to force my attention elsewhere.
“What were you doing there?” Kohen asked him.
“Doesn't matter,” Sebastian deadpanned with a blank stare directed at the ceiling.
“Well, I for one have no intention of going with you guys,” Pia confessed, crossing her ankles. “I’ve had enough life or death situations for the month.”
“I’ll go.” Sawyer jumped to his feet, wiping the sweaty sheen off his forehead by the hem of his shirt. “But I’ll be honest, if I see that bastard, Beaumont, I don’t know that I’ll be able to hold back.”
“Then you will stay here.”
Our heads swiveled to the entryway where Kade stood, a shoulder relaxed against the doorframe.
How long has he been there?
Kade sauntered into the room, his haughty presence suffocating the space.
Sebastian ripped his shirt off as he stood, using it as a rag to wipe his own sweat-slicked features.
Did his abs like…doublein size since I’d last seen them? Or had I just taken the delicious mounds of muscle for granted before?
Holy fuck.
