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“Is not your brother, no,” Donovan said, his black eyes shining with triumph. “Pity no one told you sooner. Could have saved yourself all this heartache and pain.”

Paxton was not even his brother. They weren’t brothers at all.

They were cousins.Half-cousins.

Everything Roman had sacrificed. All those years at the House of the Black?—

Roman forced himself to breathe. Calm down. Think rationally.

He got his emotions under control. Raised his chin. “I see what you’re doing,” he said in a level voice. It didn’t shake, that voice. It was sturdy, just like the rest of him.

No more. No more running, no more cowering.

No fucking more. It wasover.

“You’re trying to drive me away from him,” Roman continued. “You’re trying to push us apart.” He shook his head mechanically. “But it’s not going to work.”

The look on Don’s face was telling.

That was exactly what he was doing. Why he’d chosen to reveal this information right here, right now, after all these years. While his son and his nephew—nephew, not son—were on the run. This moment had been carefully designed to wreck Roman’s life, setting fire to everything he’d believed in for twenty-seven years, everything he’d stood for. At exactly the moment Donovan needed it most.

And right now, what he needed was for Roman to surrender Paxton.

Too bad for him. Roman loved Paxton. Brother or no, helovedhim, with his whole damn heart. With every shred of hisbeing. There was no force in this world or the next that could drive them apart.

Don drew a sharp breath. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Roman. The decision is yours. Either you can give me Paxton…or I come after you. It’s that simple. But, should you choose the hard way, know that I will hunt you down. Every day for the rest of your gods-forsaken life, I will hunt you…until I find you. And when I find you, I will kill you, slowly and painfully.”

The threat didn’t scare Roman—it fueled him. “I’ll never let you have him,” he snarled.

Don’s expression sank into something dangerous. “Is that your decision?” It was a warning. A threat.

But Roman wasn’t afraid—not anymore.

His eyes turned black. The thick shadows on either side of the road began to move—two big masses racing toward each other. They collided with abangand rose at his back, unfurling like a pair of great wings.

“This ends,” Roman snarled. He lowered his chin, tendrils of shadow weaving between his fingers. “Right.Now.”

With an outward thrust of his hands, those shadows blasted forward in a lethal black wave?—

They crashed into Donovan.

He disappeared. Right in front of Roman’s eyes.

And so did the illusion he was trapped in.

“Pia,”Shay whispered. “Put the gun down. Please.”

Trembling, Pia shook her head.

Shay shut her eyes, feigning defeat. When really, she was summoning her magic.

The illusion powers that blackened her eyes.

The moment her lids flew open, she moved.

Oblivious to her powers, Pia kept her gun trained on the spot where Shay had been standing a moment ago—the illusion that was still standing there now—while the real Shay lunged across the pavement, reaching for that gun.

But Shay was tired, and her illusion wore off sooner than she had planned.