Page 39 of Bellamy

Echo Bay.

I opened my eyes. He’d taken us to a secluded part of the marina. The sky was dark, but in the distance, it lightened as the sun prepared to rise. To the left, fishermen boarded their boats, getting an early start to the day.

And then, my mind was flooded as my brothers felt my presence. Our bond, the threads that connected us, returned full force as I felt them too.

“Bellamy?”Raiden asked using telepathy.

“B!”Daman. He must’ve come back from Russia in the days I’d been gone.

“We’re coming to you,”Alastair said, relief ringing in his tone.

Hearing their voices, even through telepathy, made my eyes sting. Belphegor had really screwed me up by forcing me to see their deaths. I needed to see them, needed to know they were okay.

I was sure they felt the same about me.

“This is where I leave you,” Phoenix said.

“Wait.” I grabbed his wrist. “What will you do now?”

He smirked, but it didn’t reach his eyes. They looked too empty. “Getting sentimental on me, Bellamy?”

“Answer the question.”

Phoenix rested a hand on the side of my neck. The sun finally broke across the horizon, lighting a section of his dark auburn hair. It reminded me of a flame. And like a flame, he would burn and burn until nothing was left behind but embers. All because he’d helped me. I shouldn’t have cared.

“The answer doesn’t matter,” he said.

“It does to me.” If I hated him so much, why was my heart breaking? Why was it hard to breathe?

My brothers were close. I sensed them flying toward us, uncaring that it was now early dawn and their cloaking abilities weren’t as effective. None of them cared. I felt their desperation.

Their love.

“You know, I’ve heard stories of men burning down entire cities… worlds… just for one last kiss.” Phoenix ghosted his lips over mine. “I think I get it now.”

When he kissed me, a small, pained whimper escaped me. Unstoppable, just like this ache in my chest.

And then he disappeared.

Chapter Seven

Phoenix

“It’s been done,” I said, dropping to one knee in front of Asa. After leaving Bellamy on the dock in Echo Bay, I had reported directly to him in his bedchamber.

“Good dog.” Asa combed a brush through his long hair before sliding his robe aside. It fell in a heap at his feet. Naked, he walked over to his wardrobe and chose an outfit. Sometimes he made me dress him, but he’d curled his nose at me the moment I’d appeared in his room. Bellamy’s scent was all over me. “Did you really have to fuck him first?”

“I had to make it believable.”

Guilt churned in my gut. Making Bellamy think I had betrayed my king to set him free was part of Asa’s scheme—one he’d informed me of mere moments after Bellamy had fallen asleep after the torture he endured from Belphegor. It was why I’d been in such a foul mood when he’d first woken. Too irritated to hold my human shape, I had reverted to my demon form.

However, having sex with Bellamy wasn’t part of the manipulation. That had been real.

But I couldn’t admit that to Asa.

“May I ask why you wanted me to set him free?” I rose from the floor. He hadn’t given me an explanation, only an order. Part of me had been thankful. Relieved. I’d been so close to setting Bellamy free on my own anyway, so close to throwing everything away for a male who hated my guts.

I was either extremely lucky or more fucked than I realized.