Page 104 of Forged Bonds

“You’ll control the one who controls the mafia once you kill Kylan. I know you’ve got someone in mind to take over.”

“Possibly,” Nolan said cryptically.

When we’d first met I’d been too focused on the opportunity to kill the one who was trying to kill me to wonder what Nolan’s plans were after he was dead. I should ask him about it now, but I trusted him regardless to do what he thought was right. I wasn’t so naïve as to assume he would shut down the mafia. Something else would pop up within weeks and be controlled by someone as bad as Kylan or worse.

“Oh, I have one more question before I head off. Freya is the sister of the Duke’s wife, yes? The one you asked me about before?”

Oswald and Nolan froze as one, and I blinked a few times.

“Sorry, the Duke’s wife?” I asked, getting the question out before Nolan or Oswald recovered.

Julian grinned when he realized his mistake. Or, possibly, not a mistake at all but a pointed effort to fuck with Nolan. “Yes. Maisie Cunning. I gave Nolan all the details I had on her a few weeks ago. I assumed you were aware.”

My mind was turning over the new information slowly, deciding that I was seething mad quite quickly.

“I absolutely fucking should have been.”

THIRTY-ONE

Freya

Julian didn’t waste time getting the fuck out of dodge, aware my anger could turn from my mates onto him at any moment. His witch whisked him away in a portal, somehow not needing to be physically with him to do it, and Emmett made himself scarce.

Well, he kept to the far side of the room and threw some headphones on. Considering we were staying in a lounge with one room and an attached bathroom, he didn’t have anywhere else to go.

“Who’s going to tell me why I didn’t know about this?” I asked Ozzy and Nolan, standing from the couch to place my hands on my hips.

“I didn’t deem it necessary information for you to have when there was nothing you could do about it,” Nolan said.

He realized the mistake he’d made with the wording as soon as it left his lips. I glared at him. “She’s my sister. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead. I’d say that’s necessary fucking information, regardless of whether I could do something about it.”

Whirling on Ozzy, I stomped over and poked a finger into his wide chest. “And you! You clearly knew about it. You’re bound to be loyal to me,” I said vehemently. “How dare you withhold information from me?”

Ozzy exchanged a look with Nolan over my shoulder, both knowing they would have to weather the wrath. They appeared regretful but not apologetic.

“I’m bound to protect you, and I did. When you were weak and had nothing to lose, you weren’t the most reasonable. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have tried to find a way to go after Maisie immediately? While Kylan was still on your ass?” Oswald demanded.

Could I say that?

I thought back three weeks, to when I’d first been brought into Nolan’s grasp. Before Kylan’s attack. Before Oswald was a human again. Before my bond with Emmett.

How had I felt back then?

Fucking angry, and still alone despite Shan and Cas going to great lengths to find me. They hadn’t been something I’d worried about losing. I hadn’t been worried about much of anything.

Gods, I hated when someone else was right.

“I’m well aware of my own mortality now, so you better tell me every fucking detail about what you know about Maisie,” I said after a tense beat of silence.

Both men showed their surprise, having expected a blow up of epic proportions. I was mad, yes. I just also had to admit they were right about what my reaction would have been.

“You’re not off the hook,” I stated when neither coughed up the info I wanted. “I’m furious. You’re lucky you were right about my rashness.”

Nolan finally launched into the explanation, then. He told me how Maisie was living in Zemterra with two children, a seven-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl. He explained the rumours about their treatment, and I threw a couple of pillows across the room in a moment of rage. I was both glad and disappointed there wasn’t anymore more substantial to throw. Then he told me what he knew about Charles, and how he wasn’t super connected on Earth, not like some of the other Dukes. How he would be a relatively easy one to kill, once we weren’t at risk of being killed at every turn ourselves.

The thought of murdering my sister’s husband in cold blood thrilled me immensely.

“The second Kylan is dead, I’m marching over to Charles’ land palace and stabbing him multiple times,” I grumbled, stopping dead in the middle of the room where I’d been pacing. “Nolan, come here.”

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