Page 152 of Broken Souls

We’ll just need to work on us one day at a time.

I squeeze his hand.

But wewillget there. I know it.

Because he is irrevocablymine.

And I can finally believe that I amhis.

Property of Varius Shadow

Fifty-Two

HIM

My claim is back on her body.

I want to trace my fingers over it as I crawl onto the bed and pull her into my arms, but I don’t want to irritate her skin. My blood chills at the memory of finding her in a pool of blood, her pussy cut up, and a knife held to her wrist. I remember all the pain that hit me when I found out what she had doneandwhy.

I swallow hard.

Her little hands come up to grip my forearm. She doesn’t say anything, and I wish I could feel what she’s feeling, but the blood bond still hasn’t snapped into place for me. Now that she knows I didn’t fuck Khalid’s girl, she still owes her payment for us to complete it.

Where we are in our relationship though, I don’t think we’d survive it. So I won’t push for it yet. I’ll just need to trust her at her word that she won’t hurt me like that again. It is a terrifying feeling to give that much of myself to

anyone, that risky hope; she could use it to destroy me with a single action.

But losing her would be worse.

I kiss the back of her head. When she doesn’t react, I lift my head up a bit to look at her, only to realize she’s fallen asleep. Sighing, I lay back down.

But I don’t dare sleep too. I know the reaper will come tonight. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he knows I’m a hybrid.

He was watching me while we fought Zara’s soldiers, clocking how fast I moved and what I could sense when I wasn’t looking. His shadows swirled around my feet too many times, like he was debating about whether or not he should suck me under. Being in that plane won’t be a death sentence for me though. I might be a hybrid, but I’m also a Shadow. My blood will still protect me from the monsters that roam there.

The reaper doesn’t knock when he enters. He slips under the door in his shadow form. I sit up, grab the gun hidden behind the headboard, and wake Micha as I do.

“What’s –” She stops, no doubt sensing the predator at the foot of our bed. She turns to him quickly. “Khalid.”

He’s rematerialized in his normal form.

“You’re not wearing your mask,” I say. The reaper always kills with a four-horned skull covering his face.

“Do I need it?”

“You’re in my room in the middle of the night.”

“Because you didn’t come downstairs for dinner, and we need to talk.” He pulls a chair out of his shadows and sits down. “I know you’re a hybrid,” he says, leaning forward and cutting straight to the point. “I would’ve talked to you sooner, but Mother made me believe you didn’t know. It wasn’t until I noticed you wouldn’t show me your back or get near my shadows when we fought Zara’s men that I knew.”

My hand tightens on the gun I’m holding beneath the covers. He isn’t like me; one shot to the heart will kill him.

“Relax,” he says, his eyes dropping to my lap to tell me he knows about the weapon pointed straight at him. “I’m not here to kill you.”

“Why not?”

Confusion flashes across his eyes as he looks back at me. “You’re my brother.”

Surprise flashes in mine. “So was Talon.”