Page 244

“I’m over five centuries old, asshole. Not exactly a kid anymore.”

Riven snorts in disbelief. “Could have fooled me.”

Caelan stands and starts pacing. Daxen stays where he is, like he’s afraid to draw Caelan’s attention again.

“I trusted you,” Caelan seethes. “I trusted you to protect the one thing that meant more to me than my own life. I trusted you to protect my Mate for me when I couldn’t.”

Tears stream down both their faces, and Caelan lifts a shaking hand and wipes them away. He turns to Dax, onyx eyes filled with betrayal.

“Instead of protecting her, what did you do?”

Dax doesn’t answer. His lips thin into a line, and he shakes his head. At first I think he’s refusing to acknowledge what happened, but when I see the pleading in his eyes, it hits me.

“Say it,” Caelan hisses, leaning down until their noses are nearly touching. “Fucking say it!”

“I—”

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Dax blinks, another rush of tears spilling over the sides of his cheeks and along his temples, soaking into the stone floor under his head.

“I hurt her,” Daxen finally admits, choking on the words like they physically pain him. Caelan’s lips peel back from his fangs, and he sneers down at our brother in disgust.

“You didn’t simply hurt her,” he corrects him. “You tortured her. An innocent Omega. Instead of protecting her, you led the charge against her.”

He turns around, as if he can’t bear to look at him another second.

“Pathetic,” he spits, and we all wince when the word lands like a physical blow.

I know it’s only a matter of time before Caelan turns his pain and rage on me, and suddenly I understand why Dax lay there and took it.

It’s the same reason I’ll do the same.

Because we deserve everything he wants to throw at us and more.

Sure enough, Caelan’s attention swings to me, face red and veins bulging.

“You—” he hisses, and his onyx eyes darken even further.

Fuck. Me.

“You knew what you were doing was wrong. You knew, and you did nothing. Nothing! You two put my Mate in an attic, with no bed. No Nest. You withheld food even though it was clear she was already starving. You made her work, scrubbing floors on her hands and knees, doing your laundry, and gods only knows what other soul-sucking bullshit you could come up with to make her feel small.”

Burning tears fill my eyes. I want to look away, but I know I can’t. I don’t deserve to.

“Caelan,” I take a step toward him, not really sure what I’m going to say but knowing I need to say something, for Fate’s sake.

At the sound of his name, he spins on his heel.

And his fist lands right in my gut.

The air whooshes out of me. My knees buckle. Some weird mashup of a croak, a gasp, and a whistle falls from my lips as I fall to the ground, fighting to breathe.

Dax sits up, wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand. He won’t look at either of us, eyes downcast and face as pale as I’m sure mine is.

His eyes fall, landing on the two dark patches that stand out starkly against the light grey stone. Something flashes in his gaze, there and gone so fast I almost wonder if I imagined it.

But the longer he stares at the place where his tears have soaked into the floor, the more certain I am of what I saw.