Page 60 of Reluctant Rebel

Mikhail lingered for a moment as if giving her one last chance to change her mind, then turned and walked out. The door closed softly behind him, and Jinx collapsed onto Mikhail’s bed, her body wracked with silent sobs.

25

“Ican’t believe Zagan has mind control,” Eric said, his voice tinged with fear. “We really are screwed.”

Sabre concurred, though she didn’t say so. Jinx being taken the previous night had scared them all. So much so that they hadn’t left Jinx alone all day. There was always someone with her—multiple someones. That was, until ten minutes ago, when Jinx had shifted into her tiger form and growled at them until they carefully backed out of the room.

Sabre, along with Brax, Draven, Eric, and Gage, were a few doors down in one of the sitting rooms of the royal quarters. Mikhail should have been there, but he was talking with a couple of his guards—coincidentally right outside the door where Jinx was curled up on Mikhail’s shredded lounge with the pregnant hellhound and Styx.

When she’d left Jinx and Mikhail alone together in his room the previous evening, a part of her had hoped they’d have some nice life-affirming sex. But given the sadness in both their eyes and the renewed tension between them this morning, that clearly hadn’t happened. “Operation Cupid has stalled,” she muttered to herself.

“What was that?” Eric asked.

“Nothing,” Sabre answered. “I suppose we should talk about Z and his new powers.”

“He gets mind control, and I get an electric tin can,” Brax said, sounding put out.

“At least you got something. Mikhail hasn’t noticed any changes at all,” Sabre pointed out.

Brax perked up at that, standing straighter. “True.” But he deflated quickly. “And that doesn’t make sense. If what Z said is right—and I’m sure it is as it makes too much sense—then Mikhail should have some new weird ability going on, too.”

“For all the good it would do. You’ve only managed the feat once and have no control over it at all,” Draven reminded Brax.

“Way to build me up, man,” Brax said dryly.

Draven was completely unfazed as he continued, “I’m simply saying that you’re going to need to figure it out—both youandMikhail—before Z succeeds in controlling more than one mind at a time.”

“He’s right,” Sabre said, ignoring the shocked look on Draven’s face. “It should be a priority moving forward.”

Brax was silent for a moment before he nodded. “Yes. I’ll see what I can do. It would be helpful to have more information about how the legacies work.” He turned to Eric. “There was nothing about any of this in the books you and Jinx looked through?”

Eric shook his head, his dirty blond hair flopping over his eyes. “Not even a hint.”

“Well, there was obviously a record of it somewhere at some point. Mother shared it with Z,” Brax stated evenly.

Knowing when her man was hurting, Sabre moved closer and placed a hand on his arm. “From what Jinx said, your mother was the mastermind behind all of this. She never mentioned it to you at all?”

“No. Never,” Brax replied, covering Sabre’s hand with his own. “And neither did Father.”

“History is long,” Gage pointed out calmly. “Things get lost or forgotten.”

Eric’s phone beeped, and he pulled it out quickly. “Oh shit!”

“Is it Jinx?” Sabre began moving toward the door.

“It is. But not in the way you think,” Eric called out quickly, stopping Sabre in her tracks. He held up his phone, showing the room the notification. “Speaking of things getting forgotten …”

Sabre looked at the words surrounded by balloons and hearts. “It’s Jinx’s birthday tomorrow! Fuck!”

“Her twentieth birthday,” Eric whispered.

“Why are you whispering?” Sabre said, automatically adjusting her volume to match his.

Eric’s eyes darted to the door. “Because I don’t want Jinx to hear us,” he replied.

“Jinx isn’t here,” Gage reminded Eric, also whispering.

“I know. But she’s a tiger. She’s sneaky. What if she’s outside the door listening?” Eric asked quietly.

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