“There’s a prophecy Aspen’s mother had about me, and another about the guardian bond.” I told Ronen everything Aspen now knew. His face darkened when I explained my mother’s interpretation, his hands flexing and wreathed with shadows as if a threat lurked at my back. Even the shadows overtaking the corners of the dim cell seemed to quake with his ire. But when Aspen explained that he believed I’d already fulfilled the sacrifice part of the prophecy, Ronen’s eyes grew distant.
“Your father might know,” Ronen murmured, still staring unwaveringly down the dim stone hall.
“My father?” I looked at Aspen, who stared at Ronen with a frown.
“He told me once that you have a predestined fate,” he uttered, still in a distant place I couldn’t follow—but I could feel. His anxiety jolted through him like an open circuit of electricity. “I think he, too, has been hiding things.” His tone rang with an ominous note. It slithered through the stillness, crawled up my body, and seeped into my thoughts.
Predestined fate? What secrets was my father hiding?
“We can figure out your father’s involvement later,” Aspen said, studying the blood-drawn star. “Right now, our most pressing question is who had access to Sam’s lab and the keys to the dungeon?”
Ronen slowly turned his head back, his expression drawn. “Sam has a power-lock on his lab door and my samples.”
I glared at the vials of blood.
Dammit. It couldn’t be Sam.
“And the keys?” I demanded
Ronen released a heavy breath. “I’ll go account for those. You two—back to the arena.”
I really didn’t want to add to his stress, but… “About that…”
Aspen stiffened, and Ronen closed his eyes, pressing his tongue into his cheek.
“The answer’s no, Lucille.”
I shot a glare at Aspen, my Infernus hissing in my ear. He dragged a hand through his coffee-locks and down his neck. “You told him?”
Ronen stepped into my space, wrapping a large hand around myneck and jaw and slowly turning my glare from Aspen onto him. Tumultuous, coiling black greeted me. His eyes were devoid of light.
“Don’t look at him. You said you were going to deal with me, right?” he taunted.
I gritted my teeth, barely holding back the urge to snap at Aspen and Ronen’s immediate denial. My muscles tightened in preparation for a fight. My Infernus oscillated between music that sounded both adoring and angry. We loved his touch, maybe even found his control sexy, but we wanted to help. Yet so did he, and if the roles were reversed, I’d probably react the same way. The thing was… we were both forgetting an important detail about cordistella bonds.
They weren’t created for love. But war.
The fight eased out of me, and I let myself melt into him. His lips pursed at the sudden change, suspicion narrowing his eyes. But he pressed closer as if he couldn’t help himself.
“This is our home, Ronen. This is all we have.” I laid a hand on his chest. “You have the strategies, the knowledge of where the demons could be coming in from, the skills. I have the will and motivation. Use me. Lead them with me,” I pressed, filling myself with the truth of my words—the rightness of them. If Hell needed to change, then so did I. We needed to fight together as one.
I felt the shift before I saw it. His awe. His anxiety. Then a small dip of his chin. His acceptance.
“With that settled, I think I may have a way to uncover who gave Anya your blood… and how to draw them out.” Aspen’s tone hinted at something I wasn’t going to like.
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
Lucille
Unnaturally bright morning light streaked through the surrounding windows. Rays reflected off the sand particles drifting in the air. Squadrons exchanged reports with one another. Some prepared for training, while others prepared for patrols.
“You are their leader. That means every decision, every action, every injury or death lands on your shoulders. You tell them your orders and make them listen. But make sure they are orders best for the whole. And do not let your frustration or anger cloud your judgment,” Aspen instructed as we walked toward my squad with Hadrian and Rune at our sides.
“I know,” I snapped. My nails pulsed against my clammy palms. Everything Aspen said was a repeat of what we had strategized earlier with Ronen and Alexei. My head was full of everything I needed to remember. Ronen was trusting me to do this.
Aspen grabbed my arm like I was a petulant child, halting me. “Remember, if it’s your life versus exposing yourself?—”
