?“Wanna go explore now that the boys are gone?”
?The mage cocks her head and pointedly looks at me. “Not all the boys.”
?Mavyn’s head turns and she’s frowning in confusion before she sees me. Then she glares.
?“Oh by the way, that’s not Varian, that’s his twin brother, the Kolasi, Death Devil, who was the one I actually fought in the cages. Varian won’t talk about him because he’s being a giant ass and Thorne, Callahan, and Darian have their little pact with him so their lips have been sealed.”
?The mage’s face has frozen, eyes stuck on mine as Mavyn outed a secret not even Edmond, Aslan, and Jerusil know. Their sons keeping our secret through brutal berating and yet this girl just blurts it like this secret we’ve been keeping for a hundred years means nothing.
?“Kolasi!” she calls, as if I couldn’t hear her before. She’s lucky I already know we’re alone or else there would be blood staining these floors and a life would be lost. “Come here! Don’t be an asshole!”
?How someone likeherwas able to overpower me, I truly do not know.
?I push out of the lounge chair I had been sitting in and stalk over to them. The mage’s eyes track every movement and frost has begun dusting over the skin of her neck and cuffs of her uniform.
?“Mavyn. . .” she can barely breathe out.
?Mavyn grabs the mage’s hand, which looks like it’s covered in ice and freezing, and squeezes. Her body heat or blue flame melting the mage’s hand and the mage clutches back as if the vampyr is a lifeline.
?I pull out one of the chairs opposite to them and fold myself in. The mage’s eyes never leaving mine and I smirk at her because of it. She flinches.
?Then the scent of blue belladons perfumes in the air and when I look over to Mavyn her eyes are completely red and she’s gone still. It makes me swallow.
?“Are you going to be a problem?” she asks quietly, but the power within her voice transcends even Alexandros.
?I cluck my tongue and then relax into the chair. It makes the mage relax a bit but she doesn’t let go of Mavyn.
?“What’s your name?” I ask. She has yet to look away from me.
?“Yours first,” Mavyn snaps. Once again feeling like a damned vampire with her pink eyes. That type of suppression cannot be healthy.
?“Did my brother not tell you?” I mock. “Shame.”
?The corner of her lip curls up as she mirrors my position. “Did he tell you mine?”
?“Syphix announced it at the club, Death Devourer.”
?“Tisk, tisk, tisk,” her tongue clucks. “My true name, Percius.”
?My body tenses and I wait for. . . something. Anything.
?A fate to click or that presence from before to make itself known again. Maybe another death blow, though she could have easily done that in the cages if she still wanted me dead.
?“How do you know my name?” I ask quietly. Curiously. Cautiously.
?The tension drops as she sighs extremely dramatically and rolls her eyes. “Darian’s creepy shifter who’s been sparring with me. He had mentioned offhandedly about the chaos trio from back in the day before all this rebel business. Castiel, Varian, and Percius. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots.”
?I furrow my brows. “Do you mean Kyno, the apakiko shifter?”
?Her lips purse as she thinks. “Uhhh. . . yes? I don’t know what an apakiko shifter is though.”
?The mage finally speaks. “It’s like a skinwalker on Earth,” she mutters. She’s no longer looking at me but she no longer looks as scared.
?“Are you fucking serious?” Mavyn mutters and the mage widens her eyes as she bobs her head up and down.
?“Oh yeah. You should see him when he’s shifted, it’s like, terrifying. I’ve only seen him do it once but Hanna says no matter how many times she watches or sees him shifted she always gets the heebie jeebies.”
?Mavyn grunts. “No wonder he feels woodland but in an ‘I’m going to peel your skin off and wear it as a cloak’ kind of way.”
