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“You didwhat?”

Jade took a long, shaking breath, and began explaining once more. “I had no choice,” she said, stammering and trying to breathe through her words. “I tried to control it, Mal, I swear I tried to keep it under control.”

Saints, did she really think I was mad at her for using her power? Did she not understand how absolutely sexy that was?

“Jade,” I said, stepping forward and grabbing her chin, forcing her to look me in the eye. “Take a deep breath.”

Jade had come straight to my room to tell me. Adonis had left to walk Tessa back to her room, leaving Jade to explain the entire thing.

Jade took a long, shaking breath under my touch. “Good. Now take another one.” She did. “I’m not angry,” I said. “And you did nothing wrong.”

She looked at me with glossy eyes. “I almost killed them, Mal. I could have killed them all!”

“But you didn’t.”

“But I could have!”

“Listen to me, Jade. If anyone so much as looks at you the wrong way, they should expect nothing less than death. Do you understand that?” Jade blinked, but didn’t say another word. “And if I would have seen that, I would have killed them all myself. Not a single one of them would have survived for what they were about to do to you.”

Jade shook her head, taking her chin out of my grip. “You don’t even know what they were going to do.”

“I don’t care,” I explained. “They wanted to see you weak. They disrespect you by challenging you, Jade, and in turn, they disrespect me. And I won’t tolerate either of those things in this castle.”

Jade walked over and sat on the edge of my bed. It had been so long since she had slept in this room with me, it stirred something deep inside me just seeing her sitting there.

“What if I never learn to control it?”

“You will.”

“How do you know that?”

I walked over and sat next to her, keeping a safe distance between us. “Because I’ve been exactly where you are, Jade. I know exactly what you’re feeling right now.”

“Yeah, right,” she scoffed. “You don’t go around losing control often.”

“Not anymore, but it took me decades to get here. I’ve lost sleep over the things I’ve done, Jade. I’ve killed hundreds of innocent people, and that wasn’t all on purpose.”

She finally looked at me with eyes wide. “Really?”

I nodded. “When I first discovered my power, I was a nightmare. My father practically locked me up so I would quit hurting people. It flared anytime I was angry, which, if you can imagine, was very often.”

She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You don’t seem to have that problem anymore,” she noted.

“No. I don’t.”

“How many people will I kill before I learn?” she asked.

Her doe eyes were still watery, and I had to fight the urge to reach out and comfort her. “I don’t know.” It was an honest answer.

“I don’t want to be a monster, Mal, but..”

“But?”

“But there was something about feeling that power that felt so…good. I felt powerful, Mal. They wanted to push me around and I…”

“And you stopped them.”

“Yes. I stopped them. But if I would have killed him…”