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“Are you still trying to keep us transcended?”

A silent nod told her all she needed to know. Someone in the room was interfering with his gift, and because she remained connected to him, somehow her willpower was being nullifiedas well. She yanked their fingers apart and immediately she felt her feet unstick from the floor, but she remained in position. It was one thing for them to know she was once again mentally protected; she didn’t want to reveal her newfound physical freedom just yet.

Signa was staring at her with frustration, evidently unable to read her again. He took a threatening step towards her but Aven speared him with a glance and he retreated hastily. Alex wondered if he’d been following a blood-bonded mental order or if he’d reacted purely out of self-preservation.

“You don’t need to know her thoughts to understand her motives, Signa,” Aven told the other man. “Her face reads like an open book.” He reached out a hand and tenderly stroked her cheek. Feeling violated, Alex shuddered, but somehow managed to remain glued to the spot.

“What are you doing here, Aven?” she asked, trying for nonchalance. “You don’t seem like the partying type.”

“You’re one to talk,” spat Sir Oswald. “Who, exactly,are you, Alexandra Jennings?”

Alex sent him a look. “You just answered your own question, genius. I guess you’re still recovering from your, ahem, ‘power nap’, huh?” She managed a taunting smile just to annoy him further.

“Why, you little—”

“Enough, Oswald,” Aven said. “Go and see to the others.”

Sir Oswald clearly didn’t like being ordered around in his own home, but he stormed back to his seat at the table where the other people Claimed by Aven waited.

“You have them all wrapped around your little finger, don’t you?” Alex said to Aven. “What did it take to get them on your side? Did you just steal their will from them like you tried with me? Or did you offer them riches and glory in return for their services?”

Aven smiled at her. “What makes you think they didn’t come to me of their own volition?”

Alex shook her head in response, knowing he was a first-class deceiver and that there was nothing he could say that she would believe. “Whatever.”

“Aren’t you curious about your immobility?” he asked. “Perhaps you’ll be enlightened if I introduce you to some of my closer associates.”

Associates. That was a word Alex had heard Aven use before, and she shuddered at the possibility of it being the term he used for all those he Claimed.

“You already know Gerald Togen,” Aven said, gesturing to the tattooed menace crackling his knuckles and sneering at Alex.

“We still have unfinished business, girlie.”

Alex wasn’t sure whether to snort or cringe, so she kept her face blank and turned her attention back to the much more dangerous Aven.

The Meyarin next indicated to the tall, blond woman who Alex already sort of knew. “This is Calista Maine. You can thank her for your current physical stasis. She has a very useful, verypowerfulgift of telekinesis, which is keeping you fastened securely to the floor.”

“So nice to meet you, Calista,” Alex said, her voice sugar-coated with sarcasm. “How do you feel about letting us go now?”

The woman just stared at Alex with her scarily empty eyes.

“Oh, Alexandra, how amusing you are,” Aven said, without the slightest trace of humour. He turned to the final woman, who had bright ginger hair that fanned around her face like waves of fire. “This is Lena Morrow. Her gift allows her to neutralise the abilities of others, as I’m sure your friend Jordan can verify. Judging by Signa’s displeasure, it seems her gift doesn’t work against your own mental fortitude.”

“Such a shame,” Alex said. “I can’t begin to tell you how much I want to be stripped of my will again. We all had a great time that day, didn’t we?”

“Yes, I certainly remember the joy I felt when my dagger pierced your flesh,” Aven recounted, looking at her thoughtfully. “Speaking of which, I’d like my weapon returned to me.”

She was startled by his demand but she answered him anyway—sort of. “Finders, keepers.”

He narrowed his eyes. “That dagger was never meant for someone of mortal blood. It won’t yield to you.”

What a peculiar thing for him to say. “It’s a weapon, not a person,” Alex said.

“You’d do well to—”

“My prince!” Signa blurted out, with a shocked expression on his face. The mind reader quivered at the look the Meyarin sent him but he continued anyway. “I need a word in private. I believe it’s something you’ll want to hear.”

Aven glared at the man but led him away from the group to the other side of the room. Alex could see Signa whispering urgently, with Aven’s expression turning more and more livid by the second. He looked back in their direction with blazing eyes before nodding his head at Signa and striding back over. But instead of speaking with Alex, Aven turned to Jordan.