Page 92 of Broken Souls

She waves a hand. “The cane is there to whack you boys upside the head.” She arches a perfect eyebrow. “Do I need it now?”

My eyes narrow. “You tell me,” I say softly, my anger at her building again now that I know she isn’t about to die on us. “Did you purposely not heal Micha’s hands all the way?”

Her eyebrow drops. “Of course not. What’s wrong?”

“She can’t use her magic.”

She purses her lips. “I thought this might happen. When one suffers a great amount of trauma like she did, they can create a mental block.”

“Are you saying it’s all in her head?” I demand.

“I’m saying I fixed her hands.”

I stare at her, looking for secrets she’s hiding. “If you’re lying to me –”

“I have no reason to split you two apart,” she says. “You have caused a bigger divide than I ever could have.”

My entire body fucking stills, but I can’t refute the truth of her words. I start to turn, to head upstairs to let Micha know her magic isn’t gone, but then I stop and twist around to face her again. I push my senses out, my ears and nose twitching to make sure no one else is nearby. Still, I lower my voice. “The blood bond,” I say. “Is there a reason I would not be able to feel it?”

She stares at me for a moment, thinking it over. Then she says, “Only if she lied about –”

I take a step towards her. “Don’t you dare try to make me paranoid about her again.”

She lifts her chin. “I didn’t realize I raised a fool. You can’t blindly trust her now, not after what you –”

“We bonded before that,” I say. “But try to come between us again, no matter how minuscule, or speak a single bad word about her, and I will sell you to Aleric.”

Fire blazes at me behind her eyes, and the counter shifts with a cold crawl. But I don’t give a damn. “We need the alliance,” I say softly. “Anything to protect the family, right Mother?”

The fire in her eyes grows hotter, but she jerks her head. “How much blood have you exchanged?”

“Enough.” I don’t tell her I must’ve drunk enough to heal a lethal stab wound. If she knows Micha doesn’t justwantto kill me, but has tried, she will risk being married to Aleric to save me. There’s nothing she won’t do to protect us, and a part of me aches over the fact that I am about to cause her the most pain she has felt in decades when I kill Talon. Or rather, when Khalid kills him. As much as I want his death to be at my hands for setting up Micha, Khalid is the reaper, and he is absolutely playing that card on this for what he was forced to do to his girl.

“Are you sure?” she asks.

“She can feel me,” I say.

“Then you should be able to feel her. Curses don’t affect so–” She stops. Frowns.

“What?”

“I need to get breakfast started.”

“Mother,” I warn.

“I have a suspicion. If it turns out to be anything, then I’ll let you know. Now either help cook or get out.” She turns from me, and only the frailty of her walk has me stopping from demanding she tells me now.

My shoulders tense, I head upstairs to my office. I dig out the piece of Micha’s skin from my pocket as I enter. My chest tightens as I lay it gently on my desk. I lick my thumb, then use it to wipe away the blood covering my name.

Fucking hel.

She hates me so much, she skinned herself.

Tearing my eyes away from it, I grab one of the spare phones I have in my desk and key in Stefaan’s number. I pace as we talk about purchase prices for his daughter. He starts off with a much lower dowry offer for Lou than he did Micha on the basis that he will be losing out on cementing any ties with other Families.

“Our territory covers nearly a sixth of America,” I reply.

“And you’ve just gone to war,” he counters.