Page 26 of Branded By Shadow
She was right. Accusations against House Zeus required proof, especially when they were as serious as forced heat. The Olympian Council would demand evidence before taking action.
“I can confirm one other thing. You’re not pregnant, Cora.”
Relief and disappointment twisted together in my chest. A part of me craved that permanent connection between us, but now wasn’t the best time. Not with House Zeus lurking about, waiting to exploit any vulnerability. Not with our connection still in its incipience.
Cora clenched her jaw, her shoulders slumping. She was shaking, visibly unsettled, but trying to stay in control. “So I just... wait?”
“You continue resting,” Cassandra instructed. “No strenuous activity. Let your body finish recovering from the heat stress before we add more complications.”
She gathered her crystal and placed it carefully back in her medical bag. The examination was complete, but tension still hung heavy in the air. Even Cassandra’s best efforts couldn’t soothe it.
“I’ll come back in a few days with results.” Cassandra stood, brushing moss from her knees. “If anything changes, if you notice fever, pain, other symptoms, contact me immediately.”
“Thank you, Healer Reed,” Cora murmured. A vine wrapped around her leg, as if trying to comfort her. “I really appreciate this.”
“I’m the one who should be grateful. I can’t even begin to express how much I appreciate your trust. Believe me, Cora, I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Cora nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t really listening anymore. So could Cassandra. Without another word, we left Cora in her nest. Together, we headed toward the conservatory exit. “How bad is it?” I asked.
“Damon, I wish I could give you a proper answer, but I don’t have one.” Cassandra stopped in the doorway, her eyes serious. “I can’t say with certainty if Alexander triggered the heat until I’ve analyzed the data thoroughly.”
“If he did—”
“Then we’ll deal with it.” She touched my arm briefly, a gesture of friendship and understanding. “But right now, she’s stable and recovering. That’s what matters.”
I nodded, but a part of me couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t enough. Rage had settled in my chest, as cold and vicious as the Shadow Realm. Nothing would satisfy me until I saw that perfect face crumbling under my boot.
Soon, I’d make sure he paid the price for touching what was mine. No matter what it cost me.
11
Worth Protecting
Damon
“I need to go to the laboratory.”
Cora stood in the center of the conservatory, her fists clenched so tightly the knuckles were white. She’d abandoned the nest and its comfort to stalk among the plants like a caged animal. The air itself felt charged, thick with the scent of her distress.
“No.” The word was a wall, an instinct. I stopped several feet away, reading the fury radiating from her in waves. My instincts screamed to contain this, to soothe her, to keep her locked away where the world couldn’t touch her. Wherehecouldn’t touch her.
“I wasn’t asking for permission.” She spun to face me, her amber eyes blazing with a fire that could have burned down forests. “If Alexander did something to trigger my heat, the evidence will be in my research. In my compounds. I need to see them.”
“It’s too dangerous.” My shadows bled from my feet, spreading across the moss-covered ground. “He could be waiting for exactly that. For you to expose yourself.”
“Then come with me.” She took a step forward, a tremor running through her arms. “Bring your entire security force. Surround the building. I don’t care. But I am not sitting in this beautiful cage while he has access to everything I’ve built.”
The plants responded to the wordcage. Vines snapped taut against the walls, the sound like sinew tearing. The bark of the central tree groaned under a sudden, invisible pressure. She didn’t seem to notice, too focused on me to recognize what her own emotions were doing to the living world around her.
“Cora—”
“He violated me, Damon.” The four words held more desperation than she’d shown throughout all our time together. “He reached into my body and twisted my biology for his own ends. He made me something I wasn’t, forced a process that shouldn’t have happened. And you’re telling me I can’t even look at my own life’s work to understand how?”
Something in my chest twisted, a cold, sharp knot of fury directed not at her, but at Stormwright. At myself, for notprotecting her from this in the first place. She was breaking, I could see it. The careful, fragile control she’d maintained since the heat broke was fracturing under the weight of what Cassandra had revealed.
“I’ve had security watching the laboratory since the moment I took you,” I told her, my tone low and steady, trying to project a calm I didn’t feel. “Watching Theo. There has been no unusual activity.”
“Then it’s safe,” she shot back immediately, seizing on the information. “We can go. I can see him.”
