Page 268 of Night's Fall
It had to suck to feel that way.
But for the gods’ sakes.
Aleksei carried on, “HeknewIwasn’t happy withAnna.HeknewI’dend it.Hedidn’t want me happy with anybody.Yearsago, someone came to him fromArnaud’scamp, but he didn’t know they were fromArnaud’scamp.Unfortunately, theRICdidn’t know it either.Asleeper, they say.Themale has been inNight’sFallfor nearly a decade with the mission to get close toRol.Heaccomplished this.Hehelped this shit to fester.Andthey came up with the idea to fuck with me by fucking with you.Killingyour beast.”
“DearHecate,”Iwhispered.
It was likeIdidn’t speak.
“Rightly, when they paid the witch to find you, and learned you were inNocturn, your best friend wasCatlaTruelock, andMammonandFreyaconsidered you a daughter, they knew there was a good possibility our paths would cross.Theywanted to mute our bond by killing your beast.Andwhen that didn’t work, they arranged for the benzobytines to be pumped into your water supply until they could take another shot at her.Forthat first attack, thePR60hadn’t been modified yet.But, according toRol, he had no idea how deep the plot went.Hethought he was getting his own back from me for being a favorite.Sohe was blindsided when they turned the weapon on me at the gallery, that it had been upgraded, how it had been upgraded, and he was fucking floored whenAnthemewas killed.”
I rememberedErrol’sface that terrible day in the entry of thePalace.
Shaken.
And nowIsaw, terrified.
But he was a shifter.
He had to know how devastating it would be to lose your beast, even lose contact with it.
He had to know.
And he did that to me.
“So there it is, myTrueBride,”Alekseisaid snidely. “Ican’t even protect you from my own fucking brother.”
“This isn’t on you,”Isaid carefully, but fervently.
“Your father was right about one thing.Youin danger is agony.Youdon’t get it.It’snot the same for females.Iknow you feel it, but for males, it’s pure fucking torment.”
“You told me,”Iremembered. “Afterthe first time.Howdeep this feeling went.”
“I didn’t scratch the surface then, becauseIthought that was anguish.ButseeingAntheme’sbody, her face morphed to look like yours, and it fucking broke me.”
Gods, now he was breakingme.
“Please, canIcome to you?”Ibegged.
“No,” he returned.
“Aleksei—”
“Dad’s tellingMomnow.ItoldAleecethis morning.She’srocked to her core.Wehad to dypeTim.Whenhe learned, he tore apart the blue salon, tried to get out a window to transform and fly toRol, and fuck knows what he’d have done if he made it to him.”
Okay.
All right.
Time to listen.
Time for him to let it out.
Time for me to take it.
I nodded.
“His memory is being scrubbed.”
