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Shane’s upper lip curled in disgust. “Then I discovered your connection to these four.” He snorted. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. I didn’t intend to return to Elyrdin, so you wouldn’t have known what I was. But then I realized you knew about infernals.”
Zeke squeezed my hand. “What are you saying?”
“Ah, the young Prince Alakai,” Shane sighed, slipping into his managerial tone with a weary air. “I’ll admit I let my anger at her rejection influence my behavior, but I knew I could move past it.”
No means no, asshole.
“We could have moved on. Until I saw you and Prince Cyriac in the food court with her. I even thought that wouldn’t be an issue, so I continued to pursue her. I knew I could convince her to give me a shot, despite how many unworthy humans she’d rejected while I worked there.”
Ash stepped near the coffee table while Zeke and Cyn flanked me. With Ezra at Shane’s back, I felt confident none of them would let Shane near me.
“I didn’t like you. You never got the hint.”
“Not all love stories begin with rainbows and sunshine, Raelynn,” Shane said in a tone one would use to chastise a small child. “I followed you home one day and saw Prince Kilnejar and Prince Brakeal through the window and realized it wasn’t a one-time thing.” He adjusted the strap of his sling. “With the princes around, I realized the council might surface, and I couldn’t have that. I didn’t want to go back to Elyrdin.”
Ash’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“I figured you would leave if I got rid of her, so I spoke with a lesser who stalked her to deliver a message.” He grinned. “Provoking a horde of lesser infernals to tear into the human plane and come after you was the simple part. Another soul to devour. The hard part was finding a lesser with reasoning skills, but I got lucky.”
Shane’s selfishness was the root of the incessant torment after the princes’ arrival. He wanted me dead instead of facing punishment for coming to Earth.
Still, I couldn’t forget how my encounters with other infernals intensified prior to the guys’ arrival. I suspected a deeper reason for the increased activity. If Shane didn’t want the princes here, he wouldn’t have wanted me to find the book.
His stupidity only added an extra layer of frustration to our problems.
Zeke squinted. “Why didn’t you leave instead?”
“Just like your leader here sniffed out my glamor spell, the council would follow my magical signature and find me wherever I went. If you four left, they wouldn’t show up. I wouldn’t have to give up what I’ve gained here.”
Ezra moved to Shane’s side, studying his face. “So you had nothing to do with our summoning?”
“Summoning? You didn’t come on your own?”
Cyn cursed, and his hand flexed around my wrist. “I can’t believe you tore a rift between planes just to kill a human and avoid punishment.”
“I wouldn’t last one day outside of Elyrdin’s walls,” Shane snapped. “If the council banished me to Moicae, I wouldn’t get beyond Feranzis.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have come to Earth,” Ash said, crossing his arms.
“What’s wrong with it? Who am I hurting?”
“Well, you were gonna have me killed because I wouldn’t date you,” I said, leveling Shane with a flat stare. “Most human men move on with their lives when rejected.”
“I know I could have convinced you,” he said. “If it weren’t for them. Besides, I didn’t try to get rid of you because you wouldn’t date me.”
Zeke frowned. “You just said—”
“You think I’m so delusional I’d tear a rift between worlds because a little human wouldn’t date me? No. I could have killed her myself, but I wanted no evidence of my connection to her death.” Shane waved a hand, dismissing Zeke before he could say more. For standing in the presence of royalty, Shane sure acted superior. “Though her rejection played a part, I admit.”
A growl rumbled in Cyn’s chest, his body trembling with barely contained fury I felt through his grip on my arm. “Get on with it.”
With a gentle release of my hand, Zeke moved around me. He rested a hand on Cyn’s back, easing the tension in his posture. “Don’t. We need him alive,” he whispered, low enough only Cyn and I could hear.
Ash’s expression hardened. “Why wouldn’t it matter if we found out? What changed?”
“Nothing to concern yourself with, Prince Cyriac.”
Ezra spoke, drawing Shane’s attention from Ash. “What other reason did you have to want to eliminate Raelynn? Why did you change your mind in response to our presence?”
