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Elysia perked up. “I am!”

Nick gaped at her. “You just had three plates of roasted chicken.”

Aaron rolled his shirt sleeves up, his voice not as enthusiastic as usual but still chirpy enough that he successfully drew everyone’s attention. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I still have room for dessert, and I’m gonna make some. Kids, follow me. I could use a couple of hands.”

Surprisingly, they did. Even Wren and Rumi followed Aaron to the kitchen. Celie threw a lingering glance in Evan’s direction, then joined the group.

As soon as she was gone, Tiago’s mask of gentleness slipped, and there it was, the predatory glint in his eyes as he turned to Evan, strolling closer.

“You look well, Evan,” he drawled as he stopped before him, standing close enough that the slightest whispers could fall on his ears. “What have you been up to lately?”

Evan looked up at him with a bored look. “You know, the same old shaman business.”

His voice dripped with contempt as he spat the words Tiago used—shaman business—back at him.

Tiago loomed over him like a bad omen, smirking. “Then you wouldn’t happen to know where my men disappeared to, would you?”

Evan didn’t react.

Bruce and his minions were killed by Xen when he broke out of the mirror at Greene Mansion, then burnt to a crisp when themansion was engulfed in fire. That was the last place they’d been to and surely sent by Tiago, so he knew exactly whom to ask when they went missing.

However, it had been weeks since that incident, so why was he only enquiring now?

When Evan’s lips remained firmly shut, neither admitting nor denying his backhanded accusation. Tiago regarded him, then nodded like something had just occurred to him. “Well, Bruce was too reckless for his own good. I was thinking of getting rid of him anyway, so I shouldn’t be too curious about who did my work for me.

Crude bastard.

Evan smirked, and Tiago liked that very much.

There it was. The reason he couldn’t let go of Evan even after so many years of tormenting him was that fire in the boy’s eyes.

Evan was cunning, enticing. Sharp like ice and twice as cold. Although the perfect curves of his round ass had influenced some of his desire, Tiago was more fixated on breaking Evan. His unbending resolve. See him writhing on his knees and finally shatter. But Evan wasn’t an easy target, and that made him all the more tempting.

With a low chuckle, Tiago invaded Evan’s personal space, reaching up to pat his head like he’d done to Celie. Although the hand was the same, the glint in his eyes was completely different. The playfulness was gone, replaced by a deep-seated hunger to possess Evan entirely.

Too bad, Evan was already bonded to someone else.

The room temperature dropped like a pin, an inaudible hum vibrating through the floor. Before Tiago’s fingers could land on Evan’s head, a hand flashed out from behind Evan, wrapping around Tiago’s wrist like a vise.

A low growl rose over the surge of energy in the room. “Hands off.”

Tiago stilled, eyes trailing to with a red-suited figure behind Evan. Where had this person come from? It seemed as though he’d appeared out of thin air, although he’d been there all along and only made his presence known now.

Invisible to Tiago's eyes, the Shadow materialized, wrapping around Evan protectively, a low warning rumbling in its throat.

When a faintcracksounded from Tiago’s wrist in Xen’s grip, Evan tried to intervene. But Xen’s free hand clasped his wrist, pinning it down to his side.

An unusual look of surprise flitted past Tiago’s face before his eyes narrowed, a smile tugging up the corners of his lips. “I see you’ve got yourself a new boy toy, Evan.”

Evan’s heart lurched, eyes darting towards the kitchen. “Can younot? Celie is here,” he gritted out.

After a moment, Tiago lowered his hand, a flash of red rising on his wrist before the cuffs covered the skin. Tiago studied Xen over Evan’s head, and Xen’s stoic eyes stared back. The two men like a pair of mountains crushing a little hill—Evan— between them.

“Might I ask your name, young man?” Tiago finally asked.

Evan almost barked out a laugh.

Young man? This young man was probably more ancient than Tiago’s great-god-knew-how-many-grandfathers.