Page 207 of Hell Fae King
Ajax followed next, but unlike Az, he had on a pair of black track pants. A gold key hung from his neck, the glittering metal reminding me that Typhos had given it to him.A symbol for the Warden.
Or maybe it was a way for Typhos to mark Ajax as his, too.
These men were all very possessive.
Eyeing Melek’s token, I said, “Okay, I’ll wear it. But it’d better not be a conduit. And it’d better not cover me in glittery jizz.”
Melek grinned. “My angel dust is just for sex, little angel. Promise.”
I snorted. Because like I believed that. He’d covered me in his disco glitter several times before—no sex required.
Typhos gathered my hair away from my nape to allow Melek to affix the chain against my neck.
The key touched my skin, hanging just above my breasts. I stroked the chilled metal and the gems decorating the pendant. “It’s very pretty, Melek. Thank you.”
He brushed his knuckles along my cheek. “You’ve always been the key to our hearts, Cami. I knew it that day in the library. And I’ve known it every day since.”
I leaned into his touch, hypnotized by his multicolored eyes. Az stroked his finger down my spine, and Typhos lowered his hands to my hips.
All while Ajax watched, his gaze thoughtful. “That’s the day you found her reading Vita.”
Melek glanced back at him. “Yes.”
“Because the figments gave it to her,” Ajax pressed.
Melek’s brow furrowed a little. “What are you thinking about, Warden?”
But I already heard the words unfurling in Ajax’s mind, his wondering if Vivaxia had somehow influenced the figments that day. However, he dismissed the idea in the next second, all too aware of their trickster ways.
They’d never allow someone to manipulate them,he thought.Although, Vivaxia wasn’t just anyone.He frowned.But let’s say she did coerce them somehow. How could she have known what Cami would do with Vita?
Now it was my turn to frown. Because he had a point. “She couldn’t have known,” I answered him out loud. “I didn’t even know what I was going to do until I did it.”
“Unless she compelled you somehow,” he replied, his gaze meeting mine. “She had an anchor in Lucifer’s mind, and we know she did something to you while you were in the Virtuous Fae Realm.”
“She strengthened the funnel inside of Camillia,” Typhos replied, obviously following our conversation, probably from both of our thoughts.Since he’s mated to Ajax now, too.
But definitely not in the same way he’d mated me, as evidenced by his sensual claim beneath the water.
“It had already existed,” he continued. “But she did something to deepen her hold.”
“She said sheownedme,” I replied, frowning as I recalled everything she’d said and done in the Strigoi throne room. “She’d been able to force me to stop breathing.”
Which meant it was entirely possible that she’d persuaded me to push all that power into Vita.
Hell, it was pretty clear that she’d been the reason the book had come to me in the first place. She’d planted it in the Hell Fae Realm, then activated me as her personal little siphon.
From what I’d gathered from Typhos’s thoughts, Nos’s contract with Vivaxia had been signed the day of my birth, thus making me the perfect age to qualify for the bride trials. And then she’d sent my father to make him the offer he couldn’t refuse. Perhaps because of Vivaxia’s ownpersuasionin Typhos’s mind.
Fae, it had all been planned with such terrifying precision. If Vivaxia weren’t such a bitch, I might have admired her for it.
“She couldn’t have known you were going to train Cami,” Melek pointed out. “Actually, I would bet she didn’t anticipate that at all.”
“True,” Typhos agreed. “But this is Vivaxia we’re discussing. Everything she does is in layers. Vita provided her with an entry point into our realm—via my mind and memories. Nos was her primary endgame. The portals were a distraction, one meant to capture my focus and keep me from sensing anything else. And Cami was a tool designed to steal my light.”
“So you think it’s a coincidence that Cami set off that trap in Vita,” Ajax summarized.
“No, it was purposeful,” I said, thinking through her whole strategy and everything I’d witnessed. “She couldn’t have known that Typhos would overload me with power, but everything she was doing to me involved trying to make me lose control.”
