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“He has work to do.” Agnes was cagey and acted like Damian’s questions were equivalent to having teeth pulled without lidocaine. “We need him.”

“What work?” the Aether asked. Although his coaxing tone hadn’t changed, tension lined his shoulders, and Trevor felt the subtle shift in his energy.

It appeared Agnes and cohorts intended to use Trevor’s gifts for their own nefarious reasons, and Damian was doing his damnedest to reveal what those were. As the explanations fell from forked tongues, Trev grew angry on behalf of Soleil and himself.

In the last months of his relationship with Deni, they’d triggered him three separate times to destroy their enemies. Mindlessly killing and obliterating souls, who may have been innocents like Soliel, while retaining no memory of the act. Their machinations made him sick. The heat of embarrassment for his gullibility crept up his neck. Unable to meet questioning gazes directed at him, he stared over the head of the Authority, focusing his attention on the emblem embedded there. The day he stepped foot on these grounds was the day he’d been damned. Except for Soleil, nothing he touched was good, but he’d also tainted their relationship.

Touching Damian’s wrist, he said, “Enough.”

“We need to get to the bottom of their crimes.”

“You do. Buttheircrimes are mine, with what they forced me to do. I’m ready for sentencing.” He swallowed hard. Removing his ring, he cut off his link to the Sentinels, then purposefully blocked Soleil. “Convince the Authority to take my life, Dethridge. Please.” He didn’t care that his low-voiced plea came out ragged. He didn’t possess the constitution for reprogramming, nor could he live with what he’d done.

“What about Soleil?” Damian asked softly.

“You can ease the sting of my passing.Shehasn’t known me long enough for it to affectherlong-term. And I’m sure, after two attempted murders by me, she’s wary of a relationship anyway.”

“You have it all figured out, don’t you?”

Disappointment was present in the Aether’s tone, and Trevor shot him a sharp glance.

“What do you expect of me, Dethridge?”

“I expect you not to roll over and let them win.” Those disturbing obsidian eyes narrowed. “But perhaps it’s too much to ask ofyou.”

“It’s too much to ask of anyone. I’ve murdered people. Do you get that? Do you get that my soulis blackenedby their actions?”

“I do. Do you?”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Trev demanded.

“You said it yourself.Theiractions. Not yours.”

“But I was their tool. A mindless fucking tool.”

“Mindless, yes. Youwerehypnotized.” Damian shifted, presenting his back to the panel, uncaring that they were all waiting for him to continue with questioning. “What if it had been Soleil? What if she had your ability and hadbeen compelledto kill without knowledge or consent? Should she, in turn, be put to death for those crimes shehad no ability toprevent?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what makes you special, Blane? What makes you unforgivable?”

“I’m tired,” Trevor confessed. “So fucking tired. Of fighting them, of death, of the goddamned curse related to my touch. All of it.”

“Live over two hundred years under the taint of your mother’s killing spree, and come talk to me again,” Damian said coldly.“You’ve done your job, andonly to those who deserved it.The exception was the fault of Agnes Vector and her hoard of evildoers. Not you, Trevor.” His tone had softened, as had his forbidding expression. “Forgive yourself.”

“I need to know who their victims were. To make restitution, if I can.”

They sat in silence for an uncomfortable few minutes before Damian spoke again. “And Soleil? What is your intent?”

“To leave her in peace.”

“You’re a bloody fool,” Damian muttered.

“Maybe, but I’m not bringing my ugly into her world.”

As Soleil watchedthe whispered exchange between Trevor and Damian, she experienced a sinking sensation in her stomach. Once the confessions began from the opposing team, Trevor shut down, refusing to glance her way. His profile had hardened with each loathsome detail revealed.

He blamed himself.