Page 86 of Xerxes Ascendant
“Sweetheart,” a voice mocked. A voice that wasn’t Kyle’s. “Howadorable.”
Rage flooded Akira’s veins.
He lifted his head, glaring over Kyle’s crouched form to see Theta standing less than three metres away, one foot planted on the ragged, destroyed edge of Lower Xerxes and the other resting on their sliver of a bridge. If the men behind them had had so much difficulty in dislodging the strut then hopefully so would he...but there was only half a metre of it lodged on this side, and it didn’t look nearly as secure as the piece on Upper Xerxes.
Shit.
“Come to give us a hand?” Kyle asked the ex-Master cheerfully, extending up one of his own.
Theta stared at it with visible distaste. “You get yourselves into the most absurd situations,” he remarked with a contemptuous curl of his upper lip. “When my contacts alerted me to a pair of idiotic men climbing between the cities, I knew immediately who it must be. And yet the pair of you have not yet managed to dig yourselves out of thelastmess you caused, for I still don’t have my Mastery restored.” He dragged his pale gaze upwards. “Care to explain the delay, Epsilon?”
Akira seethed at Kyle’s back. He wanted to rip the fucker apart, but both distance and his boyfriend’s body separated them.
“I’ll make this easy for you,” drawled Theta. He lifted his foot and stamped it back down onto the strut, making it quiver unsettlingly beneath them. “Call the Coterie right now and admityou lied...and I’ll allow the two insignificant insects I see before me to crawl to safety.”
And if you don’t, I won’t.The words went unsaid, but not unheard.
Akira fixed him with a cold-eyed look.
“Master doesn’t have his runepad with him,” Kyle offered by way of placation, with not nearly enoughfucks oryous for Akira’s liking. “Neither do I.”
Theta scoffed. “Bullshit.”
Kyle settled back on his haunches, his shoulders lifting in the telltale sign he was grinning at the man before them. “Would I lie to you,Simon?”
“Your plaything is getting on my nerves again, Akira,” Theta said sourly, looking beyond Kyle to where Akira’s jaw was clenched so tightly he feared it might shatter. “Tell him to shut his mouth or I’ll do it for him.”
“Oooh, you want to play rough? I’m up for you giving it a try, honey.” Kyle’s tone was irreverent and mocking. Akiralovedit. “Want me to scoot on over so we can cuddle first?”
“Bah!”
“Guess not,” Kyle commented to Akira. He threw a stray, reassuring wink over his shoulder. “Maybe he’s worried he can no longer afford my hourly rate?”
Theta swung an irritated hand at Kyle. It missed by a substantial margin, for the pair of them were too far along the strut for his ex-Master to reach without clambering onto it himself, and Kyle just laughed.
But there was a rawness to the otherwise light-hearted sound, an almost imperceptible quaver that Akira recognised with his soul rather than his ears. Theta was dangerous, and even Kyle – sweet, trusting, adorably naïveKyle– knew it.
“I’ll do it,” lied Akira. “I’ll speak to the Coterie on your behalf.”
His ex-Master frowned and cocked his head, causing a lock of silver hair to fall forward over his shoulder. “That’s a little different to what you said to me the last time I asked.”
“Akira was angry at you last time,” Kyle explained helpfully.
“I was,” he said. It was all he could trust himself to say.
I was. I am. I always will be. By the stars I vow your death, you pathetic piece of shit.
Theta stared at them and then scoffed. “That’s it? Some half-hearted begging for two lives?”
“One life,” Akira said darkly. “You’ll allow Kyle past. Then I’ll say whatever you tell me to.”
Kyle hissed out a displeased breath, straining to look over his shoulder at him. “You better be fucking joking,” he warned. He searched Akira’s cold expression, seemed to find what he was looking for, and softened. “Hmm.”
Beyond him, Theta seemed to be struggling to reach a decision. Obtain Akira’s offered cooperation by letting Kyle go, or keep both of them helpless until he got what he wanted?
“Well I’m not moving,” Kyle announced loudly, folding his arms to punctuate the statement. “You’ll have to get used to sitting there, sweetheart, because I’m gonna make myself comfortable.” He wriggled his ass slightly on the strut, causing Akira’s heart to race with terror...and also admiration for how fearless his man could be. Perched above nothingness, Theta’s foot ready to dislodge them both, and Kyle Jacob Randall wasn’t submitting aninch.
Oh, how Akira loved him.
