Page 105 of Broken Souls

“She’s the daughter of Stefaan Black and the sister of my wife. She’s never going to live an ordinary life. If she’s here, we can protect her.”

“Oh? Like you protected us from Antonio?” I snap.

“We’ve changed the wards. If Talon wants to bring them down, he’ll have to use brute force.”

“And what if there’s another Talon? Lou’s utterly useless. She can’t use a weapon to save her life.”

“We’re adding more defenses to the house. Hence all the plants that are now everywhere. There are multiple wards around the safe room now.”

“I broke the old one easily.”

“Your magic is special.”

“Was,” I spit.

“Is.” He crosses the distance between us. “You still have it; you just need to relearn how to control it.”

“Fuck you.”

“No, you’re fucking yourself,” he says flatly. “You can be pissy about it, little monster. Or you can learn to remaster it.”

I open my mouth to tell him to go fuck himself again, but then I stop. Because damn him, he’s right. I’ve been seeing this as a disability rather than just a new challenge, a new way of life, and I’ve let it define me. But it isn’t who I am. It is not who I want to be. “Will you buy me a fucking wand then?” I ask, each word pulled through gritted teeth.

“There’s already one in my room. It arrived yesterday.”

My eyes widen. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you needed to reach this decision on your own. The healing process only works if you stop fighting it.”

I breathe out on a huff, but there’s nothing I can say to that either without sounding argumentative. And as much as he might think I’m just doing things to piss him off, just being silent to hurt him, all I’ve been doing is trying to heal myself. I’ve simply stopped putting his feelings before mine, stopped caring if what I need clashes with what he wants from me.

“Well, fucking thank you then,” I snap. “But I’m still not happy about Maddox. He’s the worst choice for her!”

“I thought you liked Maddox.” There’s a flatness to those words, a deadly jealousy that lingers beneath the surface. A pleasurable chill runs down my spine as my body recalls all the times he had to fuck me hard and feral to get that jealousy out of his system.

I take a step back and cross my arms as I glare at him. “Not for my sister!”

“Then who?”

My jaw clenches.No one.

“Pick,” he says, “and she’ll marry him.”

“I don’t want her to marry at all. She’ssixteen. Maddox is the youngest, and he’s six years older than her.”

“I won’t have her marry until she’s twenty-two.”

“And she’ll go to college?” I press.

“Yes.” He pauses. “And if you want, we can tell your father she’s infertile. She only needs to marry in name.”

“You’d do that?” I ask in shock. Lying to another Boss is grounds for war.

“I’d do anything for you, Micha. All you need to do is ask.”

I exhale through my nose, slightly irritated that he’s being too damn nice. “Fine. Rudy then.” He’s the sweetest.

“Done.”