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I left Zale and went in search of Daphne.

She must have been thinking the same, because we stepped into our dining room at the same time, locking eyes immediately.

And the second I saw her, that energy doubled in force, fueled by one word.

Oops.

Chapter 35

Daphne

I was never good at delivering bad news. And telling Avery, “I don’t think we can save your arm,” was certainly bad.

Somehow, my voice didn’t quiver as I told him that the lower half of his arm was damaged beyond repair, lost to the carnivorous, festering magic of that circle tattoo.

Avery swallowed the news with a stoic expression, one that made it clear he felt he deserved it. I tried to ease his worries, to tell him I didn’t blame him, but his mind was made up.

I had to remind myself that this was doneto me. I was so quick to forgive, an ingrained response when I’d been told my entire childhood that I was the one who had done something wrong. All I’d wanted was for someone to give me a bit of grace, so now I doled it out tenfold.

But there was an opportunity here that I couldn’t ignore. Avery was willing to help.

So, sitting in the med bay with Avery, trying to distract him as Eleni removed his arm with the same brutal precision necessary to dissect fish, I planned.

Corrina Aphrodite had blessed us with an opportunity. Her prosthetics looked like skin, only detectable under a microscopic inspection. She could build Avery one that kept him safe from discovery, in exchange for him acting like he was still spying on me.

Piper wouldn’t be any help, but Avery could be. When the time was right, we’d have him slowly integrate back into the conspiracy and share any information he learned.

It was the only way I could think to get around the magic in that tattoo.

Hours later, Avery was resting and sedated.

I was nowhere near calm.

There was a hum of electricity under my skin that wouldn’t go away. I was antsy and my skin felt hypersensitive, which only made me think of Lukas.

It was probably inappropriate to be thinking of him in that context given the events of the day, but I’d spent enough time thinking. I just wanted to feel.

I stepped through a portal into our dining room and felt him immediately. I should have expected it.

What I didn’t expect was the look of dark, hungry anger on his face. His hair was down, a little wild, and it looked like he was fighting for every breath.

My adrenaline spiked, and I took an instinctive step back. “Luke?”

He took two long strides toward me, the equivalent of four of mine. “Oops.” It was barely audible, just a low growl loosely formed into the shape of a word.

Shit. “I meant it was an accident, Luke,” I defended. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Lukas kept walking toward me and my back hit the wall a second later. His hand came up to my face, gripping me with the same desperation he had when he found me. “Scare me? Daph, baby, words can’t even begin to describe how terrified I was.”

His thumb traced my cheek, while his fingers tightened on the back of my neck. “My life was crumbling, and you just saidoopsand shrugged that perfect shoulder.” He bent down to place slow, open-mouthed kisses on my shoulder. He was moving in an odd pattern, jumping around to specific places on my skin. “Thesefuckingfreckles,” he cursed, before placing a kiss at the base of my throat.

My hands shot to his hair, grabbing on for dear life. “I didn’t know you liked them,” I breathed while my head fell back on the wall. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest, sending my blood pumping stronger. The heat it generated settled low in my stomach.

Lukas had me turned toward the wall, forcing me up on my toes before I could blink. He swiped my hair over my shoulder and placed his mouth on the side of my neck. “I like everything about you. But those freckles have been torturing me for years.”

A low sound escaped my throat. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around the fact that Lukas had been hiding what he felt for as long as I had. “Am I supposed to say sorry?”

“Never.” Lukas’s mouth traced down my throat while his hands moved over my body in slow strokes. I could feel him hard and ready at my back, but he was taking his sweet time trying to melt me into a puddle on the floor.