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I had once suggested they run on a timer, but Quinton hadn’t been interested because he was a crazy control freak like that. Still, he showed me how to turn everything on myself because he liked to give me a false sense of independence.

I’d turned the lights on a while ago, and I still could not take my eyes off the water.

The delicate, feminine sound of a throat clearing drew my attention, and I glanced over my shoulder to see the person who’d made that noise.

I expected to be faced with the Council cock-riding chick from the motel basement because she was the only other female I knew to be around. Color me surprised when I came face-to-face with Isobel.

She might have been a total pain in my ass, but boy was she a pretty one. Long black hair that went down all the way to her waist. It was thick, straight, and had a whole lot of volume that made me jealous. Her eyes were as dark as her hair except for a small ring of brown at the very edge. You had to look closely to even notice it, otherwise they just looked black. She was too thin, and no matter what she ate, she always seemed to stay that way.

She strutted right up to the chair beside me and plopped her ass into it without invitation. Her eyes slid across the backyard, and I watched with a heavy heart when they reached the pool and faltered.

Looking at her now made me feel like the world’s biggest piece of shit.

I’d spent one night in a Council made hole on Council lands. Isobel wasn’t exactly open to talking about how much time she spent down in hers, but I knew we were very different in that aspect.

Her entire family had been murdered before she’d been chained up in her hole. I also thought she’d been down there for a very long time before they decided to fill it full of water.

There’d also been no markings to bring her back to life. They had meant to kill her and be done with her. She hadn’t even been worthy of them keeping around to stick their cocks in.

But me?

They wanted to keep me alive. No matter what, that had been their endgame.

They’d been stupid enough to want me to live, and I had rebelled at every chance. I was also lucky enough to have a small army at my back. Isobel had been cornered and forced to be alone with no one to save or help her until she’d been forced to reach out to complete strangers in a last-ditch effort not to die.

She was fucking lucky I’d been receptive.

I still wondered what the Council saw in me that they hadn’t seen in her.

Why had I been found worthy when she had been found lacking? It still made no sense to me.

I now considered her family and an actual friend. I wasn’t quite comfortable asking her these questions. I didn’t want to offend her or hurt her feelings by asking, so I kept my mouth shut on the subjects. And she not once offered answers all on her own about these things.

Perhaps it really just had to do with our power levels, and it was as simple as that. My stupid mind thought that seemed far too easy, and I was waiting for the difficult version to hit.

“Rain called,” she practically purred. “As soon as he said the Council members were dead and it was safe to come home, we were on a flight back here.”

A lot of things about that pissed me off.

It hadn’t been Rain who’d sent them away. It’d been me, and as their point of contact, they should have waited for my okay before coming back. I should have known better with Isobel. The woman panted after my dad like she’d never met another man with a cock before. Of course she’d listen to him and not consult me first.

That was my first issue with this BS.

My second…

I still had no actual idea how many Council members there really were, because I’d never met all of them before.

There were other Council members in different parts of the world. There were also ones in the US who didn’t live near us and couldn’t be here for every event.

I figured I’d meet them all eventually, and I’d have to answer to them for not only my actions but everything my coven had done.

Personally, I didn’t think the rest of my coven had any idea, but we’d cross that bridge when we came to it. One problem at a time.

“Do you ever think about being back in that water?” I asked her, switching subjects so I didn’t end up yelling at her.

She sighed as she kicked her legs out in front of her and crossed her feet at the ankles. “Sometimes I dream about it. Sometimes it’ll be the middle of the day and sunny out, and all of a sudden a chill will come over me that takes hours to shake off. I probably should have gone to therapy afterwards, but it’s not like I can share what happened with me with a normal therapist. They’d think I was insane or making shit up.”

Huh.