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Until he spontaneously stopped trying to kill her, she was safer away from him.

“That,yes.” Damian replied to Trevor’s unspoken thought. “But more importantly, the goal was to keep her safe from Agnes Vector and her black widow of a daughter.”

“Black widow?” Deni hadn't revealed she’d been married. But then again, she wasn’t the poster child for honesty. Their entire relationship was an epic lie.

Damian’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Count yourself lucky to have escaped her marriage noose. Four others weren’t as fortunate.”

Acid seared Trev’s insides as he met Deni’s calculating dark eyes across the chamber.

“How many of those did I unknowingly kill on her behalf?” he asked hoarsely.

“Only one.”

“Christ!”

“He doesn’t weigh into what the magical community does, and with good reason. Some of those with power are godless.” Damian rose as the Council filed in. He handed Trevor a tanzanite signet ring, following it with a pair of earpieces. “Put these in.”

“What are they?” He hurried to comply.

“The best your father and I could figure, they implanted a sleeper term, and when spoken directly to you, it wakes up your inner killer.”

Trevor stared at him, incredulous. “I’m their Manchurian Candidate?”

“I believe so, yes.”

He swayed on his feet as the far-reaching implications occurred to him. “You need to put me down, Dethridge.”

“Nonsense. The earpieces act as filters. Nothingshesays will be able to penetrate the device. Her mother or Melvin either.”

“What if there are other agents able to activate me?”

“I have a good idea what wording they crafted as their call to action. Today, I hope they prove me correct.”

Trevor swallowed hard. Damian was playing fast and loose with people’s lives, and he didn’t know why. As the Aether, he could’ve and should’ve easily stopped Trev from harming Soleil, and yet he didn’t. Why, when he continually swore he wouldn’t let anything happen to her?

The Aether plucked the fears from Trevor’s mind. “I’m not, you know. Playing fast and loose with people’s lives, that is. I trust in the ability of those around us to stop you should the need arise. Without your power, they can easily subdue you.”

“They didn’t the last time. Neither did you, for that matter.”

Damian opened his mouth and closed it, as if he wanted to speak but feared revealing what he shouldn’t. Finally, he said, “All will be well, Blane. Trust the process, and remember what I said about knowing too many details about the future. Things happen for a reason.”“I wish I had your confidence, Dethridge.”

Brooke Ellis stepped forward and held up her hand for silence. “The trial of Trevor Blane will now reconvene!”

CHAPTER30

Soleil was going stir-crazy.

She’d been cut off from Trevor for two solid days and had no idea how his trial was progressing. No one saw fit to inform her of the details. She figured she had two choices: continue to sit and stew like a turnip or defy the Aether and attend the hearing.

The first made her itchy, and the second made her nerves raw. Who in their right mind would defy Damian? But she wasn’t in her right mind.

“Sure, and why don’t ya just go, then?”

From her spot by the floor-to-ceiling windows, she glanced over to see Ronan O’Connor watching her from the entryway with those disturbing silver eyes of his.His armswere crossedoverhis brawny chest, and he acted as if his suggestion wouldn’t land them both in trouble. Her for going, and him for allowing it after he’d promised to keep her safe.

“I was just asking myself the same thing,” she said with a rueful smile.

His grin made his already arrestingly handsome face heart-stopping in its beauty, and she sucked in a breath.