Page 93 of Broken Souls

“You think we’ll lose?”

“I think it’s too early to say.”

A humorless smile curls a corner of my lips. “Fine, then I accept your offer as a down payment, butwhenwe win this war, I will see the rest of it.”

He laughs. “Agreed.”

“Now about Dayne…”

“I’ll throw him in for free if you promise me the first kid of Lou’s that comes out as a shapeshifter.”

I don’t say anything for a moment. It is my right to sell any member of this Family, but I am banking on Maddox’s help with Micha. Then again, he doesn’t need to know until all is said and done, and once Lou and Dayne get here, I will not need his help any longer. He might be my brother, but I chose blood over Micha once already and I will do so again later today when I help Khalid complete his blood bond, but that will be the last time.

She needs to learn she can trust me, that I won’t ever put her back in that chair. So I will prove it over and over again. For the rest of my life if that is what it takes. No one else will ever come above her again.

“You have a deal then. I expect them both to be here tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow won’t work. Dayne is on a job in Europe, and Lou is my baby girl. Give me at least a week with her.”

“You’ve had sixteen years.”

“I’ve had two weeks since I got my head out of my ass thanks to your fiancee. I’m trying to make up for those sixteen years.”

“Then you shouldn’t have sold her.”

“A week,” he cuts in just as I’m about to hang up. “Or she doesn’t go at all.”

Annoyance flares through me. “Then give Dayne’s job to another and send him here as soon as he’s back.” I click end call, then pull up a contact called Quinton. He’s the same guy I’ve had on Dayne since the beginning, protecting him from the shadows. The same guy who got caught out and tortured by his charge too, but during that time, he learned things about the two of them that he would not have otherwise; people aren’t as careful with what they say when they think they’re talking to a dead person.

So I know they have a network in place if they ever need to go on the run. A network that I will tear apart piece by piece if she tries to fucking use it. Texting Quinton, I ask:You still on Dayne?

Quinton:Yes. We’re in France. Need me to drag him back?

Varius:No, but escort him straight here as soon as he lands. If you lose him, you die. If he dies, you die.

Quinton:Understood.

Tossing my phone onto my desk, I bite back a curse. But with the smell of omelets wafting up from the kitchen, I know I can’t put this off for any longer. Khalid wants to do the ritual right after breakfast.

So I leave my office and head into my room. Micha is sitting against the wall where I found her this morning, and my heart trips in my chest at the thought that she managed it this time. But there’s no blood around her, and her chest still moves.

Swallowing hard, I walk over to her and squat down in front of her. “I talked to Mother,” I say.

She doesn’t respond.

“She says it’s a mental block that’s stopping your magic.”

Her eyes stay distant, like she cannot see me at all. My stomach twists, hating this side of her.

“Micha. Did you hear me?” Of course she fucking heard me. I’m only a few inches away from her ear. “I didn’t take your magic.”

Her eyes don’t move, but there is a flicker of heat inside them. Anger, absolutely. I am wording things as an utter bastard just to get a rise out of her, to break through this terrifying wall she’s erecting. “The issue’s all in your head.” I reach out and touch her arm. “If you’d just –”

Her head snaps forward, nearly cracking with my nose, then her right hook follows it immediately. I dodge out of the way, not wanting her to hurt her hands.

“Don’t you fucking touch me,” she snaps. “You purchased me for a womb, not a wife. I will suffer this life with you, I will bear your heirs and marry you if this baby survives to term, and I will be the perfect wife you want in public, but behind closed doors, you will stay thefuckaway from me.”

“Micha –”