Page 236 of Bitten By the Fae
And my mother, well, she rarely spoke these days.
“I’m looking forward to it, too,” Kols replied. “I just need to talk to Shadow about a few things before I go.”
“Does it involve that little power scuffle you two got into last month? Because he told the Council how he nearly beat you.”Malik grinned at me while he spoke, clearly enjoying the rivalry between me and his son.
“I believe I said I let him win,” I drawled. Because that had been a far more believable story than the one Kols had come up with.
“Let me win?” Kols repeated, his eyebrows popping upward. “Since when?”
Malik chuckled. “I’ll leave you two to work that out. See you in thirty minutes or so?”
“That’ll be enough time for me to remind Shadow who is closer to the source, yes.” Kols sounded so serious that I wondered if he intended to deliver on that threat.
A few others showcased their amusement at our trademark bickering, then left us alone in the Council Chambers. Kols cocked his head toward a painting of Constantine on the wall, then stepped toward it with his wand. A muttered spell caused the colors to shift, revealing an entrance to a room I didn’t know existed here.
Kols led the way, his shoulders rigid, and I followed him into a much darker chamber lacking in windows. He uttered a spell to silence the interior, canceling out any listening devices, then he leaned back against a table in the center of a black rug. There were only three chairs, the space about a tenth of the size of the other room.
“What is this place?” I asked him, glancing around.
“Oh, something I know that you don’t?” he countered. “Fascinating.”
I snorted. “Want to play a game of trading information, Elite Blood? Because I have a feeling I’ll outlast you by a mile.”
“What the fuck?” he demanded. “What. The. Fuck?”
“You’ll need to be more specific,” I drawled, then ducked as his fist came for my face. “Well, now there’s a positive way toseek answers.” I mockingly applauded him and jumped to the side as he tried to strike me again.
Then I shadowed to the other side of the table. “Feel better yet?” I asked him when he heaved a furious breath.
“Hardly,” he muttered, fixing his suit jacket and tie. “Start talking, Shadow, or so help me, I will kill you.”
I let the false threat go because time wasn’t on our side, and bickering got us nowhere. “Do you really think I bit Aflora because of some edict?” I asked him, arching a brow. “You know me better than that. I’ve never been one to play by the rules, and authority means shit to me.”
“So why did you do it?”
“Because fate demanded it,” I admitted. “Because I wanted to. Because she was always meant to be ours.” There were a thousand reasons I could list, none of which would truly satisfy his quest for knowledge. “I gave them that recording as proof of being on their side, just like I bit her because they asked me to, but I never do anything without a true purpose. They don’t know about her collar or her additional ties. They also have no idea who they’re truly fighting in this war.”
“And you do.” Not a question, but a statement.
“Yes.” I ran my fingers through my hair and considered what else I could tell him without risking fate. “Look, I know I’ve not been very forthcoming?—”
“Understatement.”
Ignoring his interjection, I continued, “But you can trust me to have Aflora’s best interests at heart. She’ll have a choice to make soon, and that choice will rely very heavily on our ability to get along.”
“A choice of what?”
“Which destiny to pursue,” I replied.
“Stop speaking in fucking riddles and give me something I can understand.”
“I don’t know how to do that without risk,” I admitted.
“Then you’re fucking worthless to all of us,” he retorted, causing me to flinch. “How the hell am I supposed to protect our mate if I keep being blindsided by bullshit? I mean, the school gets attacked, and apparently, I was supposed to let her be taken? Fuck that. Now I find out the Council and the Elders have known all along that Quandary Bloods are still alive, and that you’ve been working with them for months.”
He started to laugh, the sound a bit hysterical.
“They’ve also been killing anyone and everyone associated with Quandary Bloods for hundreds of years,” I added. “Don’t forget that part, or how they casually mentioned the reason they left Aflora alive.”
