Setting his glass on the table, David rested his weight on his knees. “Because of Anna’s…vision?”
Sean snorted. “If that’s what you want to call it.”
“What do you think it means?”
With a sigh, he settled into the chair across from David. “Whatever that thing was took control of her mind, claimed ownership of her, then threatened me and suggested she keep me close. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like another enemy is coming.”
“Not coming,” David said, gaze on his clasped hands. “Already here.”
“Right, and none of it had anything to do with Indigo. This is something…else. And it wants to use Anna for its plans.”
Silence descended, broken only when David murmured a quiet, “She would never betray you.”
Sean stared at his counterpart, distracted by the Luster that flickered in the fading light of the sun. When David lifted his opaque gaze, Sean saw right past the walls and into the pain behind them. “Why are you doing this?” he asked, not for the first time.
David stilled.
“She asks about you. She wants you there with her.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants,” David said, voice tense.
“Why are you hiding from me? You know I’m going to figure it out eventually.”
A muscle in David’s jaw ticked. “Maybe you won’t. You’re pretty dense sometimes.”
Refusing to back off, Sean stared him down. “I woke up this morning from a strange dream.”
With a roll of his eyes, David sat back in his chair, the very picture of nonchalant. “Good for you.”
“I was in a room with people wearing demi masks. A room full of cages.”
David’s fingers clenched into fists.
“There was a lot of laughter and champagne,” he continued, like this was nothing but casual conversation. “But then there was a lot of blood and violence, and it wasmyvoice that caused it.”
His soulmate stared, frozen, expressionless.
“And when it was done,yourfather presented me to an audience like a prize. They clapped.” Here, Sean paused, then added with emphasis, “Clapped. And do you know what your father said then?”
David smiled then, humorlessly. “Behold my son, the prince of death.”
He nodded. “You know it’s only a matter of time before your secrets become my secrets, right?”
David took a slow breath. “I’m doing what’s best for her,” he said. “I’m setting her free.”
A long silence followed in which Sean merely stared, trying desperately to understand. Eventually he sighed. “I’m not sure she was ever in a cage.”
“She was. She just didn’t know it.”
Sean pressed his lips together, and he was suddenly suspicious. “Your voice. Did you force her?—”
“Of course I didn’t.” David’s frozen gaze shifted into a glare.
“Then is it about your bloodline? You think you don’t deserve?—”
“No. That has nothing to do with this.”
But what else could it be? Hadn’t David always been obviousabout his lack of self-worth? Why else would he fall in love with someone, then immediately push her away?
