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He thinks for a moment before nodding and settling lower, placing his head on my stomach. “Something like that.” Snuggling into me, one of his hands squeezes between my body and the bed, resting on the small of my back, and the other circles one of my breasts.
My eyes roll as I let out a sigh. Out of habit, my fingers thread through his thick, dark waves, letting them swirl around my knuckles.
“I’m not sure what I did to make you and Finn not trust me. Since when do we keep secrets? Between Luri, Finn pulling you aside, and then this…”
“I’m not the only one keeping secrets, though, am I?” My spine stiffens.Is that what Finn wanted to talk to him about?“How many conclaves have you fought in?”
Fuck…
“He told you.” My fingers continue twirling in his hair. “Did he tell you why?”
“Yeah. Sort of. He gave me some bullshit about you needing the release.” Spacing my gaze out on the bathroom door, my hands stop, and Kai lifts. “So, it’s true. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What was I supposed to say? My magic is going haywire and some days it threatens to tear me apart from the inside out. It would’ve distracted you,” I meet his concerned stare, “You were gone. We made do.” He flinches as if I physically struck him.
“It wasn’t like I wanted to be out of sight, out of mind, Alice. If I could’ve been here, I would’ve.”
“I know that, but the bottom line is you weren’t and it was the best option we could come up with… At the time.”
“Then why didn’t you say something when I first got back? Why hide it?” He pushes up, sliding off the bed to pace.
“Because we knew you’d overreact.” Part of me wonders if I should mention Lucifer helping me train, too. It’s never been a secret, but I don’t think he knows. Maybe another time…
“With valid reason. The conclaves are for the most ruthless creatures in Hell. They’re there because their jars will never glow green. They’ll never be rehabilitated. If they knew who you were, they wouldn’t stop at ‘earning their freedom.’Some of them would rather be damned for all eternity than miss the opportunity to get back at the Devil.”
“Then before you tell me to stop, please come watch. See for yourself. It’s not fair to have me fight you when the last thing I want is to hurt you. I’ll never win. I can’t just switch it off like you can.” I slide forward onto my knees like I’m praying. “Please.”
It doesn’t get more pathetic than this.
“No. I’m sorry. I don’t want you there anymore.”
My face falls, every muscle going lax at once. Thank God for the bloodstone. I knew the conclaves weren’t a permanent solution. I’m glad my paranoid ass found a plan B.
“That’s not the only thing, Alice.”
“What else could you possibly have to say?” I roll my head around to look at him.
“The meeting wasn’t about district lines. It was about your cat. She messed up… bad.”
My eyes widen as I scramble closer like the nearness will help me hear better. “What happened?”
“She killed a village because they were scared and attacked her. That’s what the meeting was about and my father didn’t invite me to it. I just decided to attend, anyway.”
I fill my lungs so full it hurts. What was she thinking? She knows to stay away from the villages, so what was she doing near one, anyway? Fuck! Scrubbing my hands over my face, I groan before sitting up and blinking away the friction. Standing from the bed, I snap myself into my training clothes and snatch my sword off the nightstand.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he seethes. I spin around to find him inches from me, eyes narrowed into slits.
“To go get her. I can only imagine what those people are going to do. They’ll bring a mob of lizard men and pitchforks,” I run out of air, spewing the words from my mouth. “I need to take her back before they rob me of the chance.”
“It’s too late for that, Alice.”
My head slowly turns as my eyes lock on him. “What does that mean? Please tell me they didn’t hurt her.”
“No. But you’re not leaving this castle.”
“Why?! I can fix this.”
He leans back, eyes shooting wide. “Oh really, you can bring back three dozen lives? Some of them don’t even have bodies, Alice. They were eaten. So, instead of returning their souls, their loved ones get to bury them. They get to mourn as they cross over into what comes next.”
