Page 41 of Under a Wicked Moon
“Like me,” Dom continued.
“What exactly are you?” She craned away from him. Ky liked her distrust of him. “You seem far more than a simple elemental.”
Dom said, “Humans have labeled me many things: druid, wizard, sorcerer, mage. Take your pick. I’ve lived for longer thanyou can imagine and seen too much. The power gets stronger as we age. When you live thousands of years, the power becomes less fun and more responsibility. But I am the only one of my kind left. There are others who can harness the power in bits, like you, but never all of it.”
“What’s your purpose, with your never-ending existence and all-consuming superpowers?”
He clasped his hands together in front of his face and smiled. “Are you asking if I’m on the moral right or wrong side?”
“I suppose so.”
“Whose moral compass should I be following? Yours?” He inclined his head toward the brothers. “Theirs?”
She put her hand on his arm and closed her eyes. “You believe good exists, but you don’t see good in yourself. There’s also much darkness.”
He yanked his hand away, face blanched. “You didn’t say you could read people.”
“You didn’t specifically ask.” She smirked at tossing his words back at him.
Dang, the girl had balls.
Vivi said, “That much pain makes you lose sight of goodness. Your new light might help.”
“You think so?” His anger was a palpable force that whipped through the room. Ky tensed, ready to defend her if needed, not that he was sure he’d win against Dom.
Dom waved one dismissive hand. “That’s enough.”
“Tit for tat, asshole,” she said. “You tried to read me in places I didn’t want you. Just giving you a taste of your own medicine. Stick to the parameters of this read.”
“I’m not sure if I like you.”
“I really don’t care,” she said. “I definitely don’t like you.”
The two of them stared at each other for a few tense seconds until she smiled and said, “You want to see in there as muchas I want to figure out what happened. Just tell me if I…what happened.”
“I’m going to need to be in some of those places you may not want me.”
She squinted at him, then stared over his shoulder across the room. In a whisper to no one in particular, she said, “That painting is talking to me.”
Ky whipped around to stare at an oil rendering of a couple in a forest. Nothing moved or made noise. Definitely no talking. Was she losing her mind?
“What’d it say?” Dom tented his fingers in front of his mouth.
“Didn’t you hear it? It was shrill. Hurt my ears.” She remained fixated on the painting.
“The Painting of Destiny speaks to only one person at a time,” Dom said.
“I’ll tell what it said to you after you read the fragmented spots in my head.”
“Do you want all of it back or just for me to read it and tell you?” Dom’s eyebrows rose, but her answer didn’t surprise him.
Why the hell hadn’t Dom offered to give back all his memories? Now Ky had to corner him for more information at some point soon.
“Give it back to me,” she said.
Chapter Fourteen
A flush of heat rushed across the skin of Vivi’s face and neck as shock transformed into anger. Dom opened her mind to everything she couldn’t remember.
