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Evan’s lashes lowered, not wanting to look at that familiar face with such an alien expression.

Aaron chuckled softly, mistaking his avoidance for submission. “Well, one thing surely hasn’t changed. You’re a meek little thing without that puny demon on your side.”

Evan’s eyes flashed up. There was a hint of annoyance rising in his face at the mention of Xen. No, at the mention of the word “puny.” As ifhewas offended.

Did the thing controlling Aaron know Xen? Did it know he was talking about an Eternal? If it did, how could it possibly describe him as that? Exactly which part of that massive beast was “puny”?

Before annoyance could get the better of him, Evan took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Aaron, snap out of it. Do it yourself, because ifIhave to, it’s gonna piss you off.”

Aaron’s grin widened, enjoying the reactions he was eliciting from Evan. “So obvious, little boy. No wonder Xen is still clinging to you. Tell me, did you form a blood bond with him already? Or did he force it like he did in the past?”

In the past?

Evan’s irritation blazed. “What nonsense are you spewing—”

“Has he already started stripping you of your humanity little by little, leaving you vulnerable and bare?” Aaron paused, then shook his head, amused. “I guess that’s not necessary. You were vulnerable enough if you willingly colluded with the kinds who were responsible for your mother’s death.”

One moment, Evan was sitting slumped against a tree, and the next, he was forcefully tugged underwater. Cold, icy water gushed into his lungs, tormenting breath after breath out of his body until he succumbed to the claws of suffocation.

A blue spark fluttered between his fingertips despite Thousand Knots binding him. “What the fuck did you say?”

“The truth. Remember what happened that night, Evan,” Aaron crouched before him, staring at him with those strange,glowing eyes. “What did happen seventeen years ago? The night Mercy Blackwood died.”

Evan couldn’t recall. He had tried so many times throughout the years. But his brain had simply erased that traumatizing night from his memory to spare him from suffering the horrors of that night over and over again. Only a few hazy bits remained scarred across his conscience, none in order. One of which was his mother combusting into flames.

Had…his mother been killed by a demon? Had Xen—

No!

Evan flinched. The sudden cry that echoed from within him startled him back to the present. He shook his head, slapping away the thought before it rose.

Xen had been locked away for a long time in the containment mirror. Even if Evan wasn’t sure whether it was for three hundred years or just a few decades, he remembered how worn that mirror looked. There was no way Xen was around that time to hurt his mother.

And even if a demon had been responsible for his mother’s death, how could he blame Xen for that? Xen had come to Evan's rescue more times than he could remember, without expecting anything in return.

Evan thanked that small voice at the back of his head for clearing his thoughts. He inhaled deeply, then raised his eyes to Aaron again. “Dude, what kind of logic is that? If a mad, rabid dog bit my cat, do you expect me to slaughter all dogs in my neighborhood?”

Aaron’s brow arched. “You talk.”

“Untie me, and I’ll show you what else I can do.”

After regarding him for a moment, Aaron chuckled, “The same face, the same voice, yet your soul…is broken in half,” he mused. “You aren’t what you used to be, are you? You don’t remember.”

“No wonder you chose Aaron as your host. You have a habit of rambling too.”

Delos chuckled in a corner. Only then did Aaron notice his presence. Even though Delos was a remarkably “bright” figure in the ghostly setting, Aaron had only sought out Evan.

Aaron’s narrowed purple eyes widened ever so slightly as they met Delos’s. He shot up to his feet and barked to the limping subordinate, “Why is he here?”

The subordinate jumped, then bowed his head deeply. “I d-don’t know, M-My Lord. He was brought in earlier by the p-patrolling guards.”

A muscle fluttered in Aaron’s jaws as he glared down at Delos, and the silver-haired lad grinned in response. “Hi.”

That seemed to irritate Aaron even more. “I see you’re as annoying as I remember.”

Delos tilted his head. “And you’re as persistent as a cockroach.”

Evan choked on a laugh, muffling it with a cough.