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“Why?”

“Do you need a reason?”

Reyna shrugged one of her delicate shoulders in answer.

“We told your mom we have dinner every night,” I said. “Might as well make it a reality.”

Reyna studied me closer for a moment, like she was looking for the truth.

The truth was that I was debating asking her to move in with me so that she was safe, asking her to never leave my sight so I could be one hundred percent positive. But after a moment she just nodded and said, “Okay. I can probably come around eight.”

I left her for a moment to summon Emre, asking him to bring her back so I didn’t break and make up an excuse to follow her around all day.

Or lay out her security guards for letting her get kidnapped on their watch. She wouldn’t even be able to tell me who was on her detail last night, and if I went poking around, it would risk spooking whoever hurt her.

I’d just have to figure out a way to get the information from Lilah Ares without raising suspicion.

I left Reyna with a parting kiss in private and a promise to see her later, keeping my cool just long enough for her to leave with Emre before the stress and fury and a whole host of unwantedemotioncame barreling back towards me, eclipsing the sun with a dark cloud.

?

By five, I’d descended into a state that I would begrudgingly identify as panic.

Enough that I’d made an incredibly stupid decision.

The second Reyna left, the shit weather had returned. My power was back with a fury, swimming under my skin with the force of a tempest, begging to be let out again.

And the insanity that had infected me over night only seemed to build with every passing moment.

I’d been distracted, focusing all my energy on Reyna’s body and pleasure. Enough that I’d forgotten, just for a moment, why we’d even gotten there. To the point where I was so desperate for control she’d offered me hers.

Someone. Had. Hurt. Reyna.

Thismidénconspiracy had escalated, attacking mygirlfriendjust to get to me. I needed to know what they wanted from her. They clearly didn’t want me to know they’d gotten to her.

I’d fired off over five memos to Emre, changing my mind three times on the best course of action to try to look into Reyna’s team without detection.

And I’d sent four Iris letters to Daphne asking for updates on the antidotes we'd discussed. Both the one for Reyna andthe other, the one that I prayed wouldwork and would this situation a somewhat smooth ending.

Enough that Lukas responded to the last one for her, writing back—Hey asshole, stop ordering my wife around.

It was that letter that seemed to be the final straw on my sanity. Because a stupid, horrible idea popped into my head and I’d asked—demanded—Dominic and Lukas meet me in my office for a meeting before Reyna got here.

In a clearly ill-advised attempt to regain some much needed composure, I was seeking advice. And I immediately regretted it.

Dominic and Lukas appeared in my office door at the same time. Seven on the dot.

I barely spared them a glance from where I was hunched over my desk, the only position that my body could hold without feeling like my chest was going to crack open or my power freak out.

“What do you want?” Dominic barked, which was on the nicer end of his normal tone.

Lukas asked Dominic, “What’s wrong with him?” before addressing me. “Why do you look like that?”

“Like what?” I grumbled, my face feeling tight.

“Like you’re in pain,” Lukas said, studying me closely. Then a thought sprouted into his big head. “But no…it can’t be. Are you inemotional pain?"

“I summoned you here to kill you, apparently.” If these two motherfuckers were going to spend this time teasing me, maybe I would let a lightning bolt fly.