Page 17 of Celestial Alphas (Nexus #2)
SEVERI
Even though my shoes cost me at least five hundred pounds, they are still letting water from the puddles on the stone floor sink into my socks. Shitty design and they are as uncomfortable as the suit that I’m wearing. The Court of Knights have made their decision on the war and my father’s next move. I don’t like it, but fuck, can I do anything about what my father wants? No. Not yet.
My socks are soaked within ten minutes of the long walk in the catacombs under the forest and my mansion of nightmares. The mansion is gone, burnt down like the forest, and I’m fucking glad it is. That place is where she was trapped, and it’s where her parents died. It’s a fucking tomb of Nexus. I hate being down here. The disgusting prison makes my skin crawl. At the end of the corridor, I open the door, which is never locked. She could open the door and run anytime she wanted, but she doesn’t.
The room is damp, not as bad as I imagined it might be after so many years. I’ve not been allowed to come and see her until my father recently permitted it. The magic in this place is intense, breathing down my neck. A bed, two posters of flowers, and a desk fill the small room, along with one window high up, where moonlight shines in. A woman sits on the desk. Her hair is the brightest white, tied at the back of her neck in a braid. When she looks at me, all I see is Gwenieve. Her face is the image of Gwen, except for the fact her eyes are different.
“Severi? Or am I in an audience with the King?”
She is smart and can see what Gwenieve never has. “You know as well as I do that he can’t possess me when I’m near you, Georgina.” Georgina is Gwenieve’s twin, given to my father by their mother on the day she was born. He never told me why their mother gave Georgina up and not Gwenieve, but she did. There are too many secrets I want answers to when it comes to my mate, but I know she doesn’t know about Georgina. Gwenieve’s Nexus causes death, but Georgina’s? She is life. She heals and fixes anyone near her, and my father can’t stand to be near her. It doesn’t mean he hasn’t fucked with her mind almost as much as he has fucked up my own. There is nothing like having your father possess you to torture your mate whenever he wants. “My father has deemed it time for you to go to Starlight City and meet your sister. I will take you to the border and check in weekly.”
It feels wrong to be letting her out. Georgina jumps off the desk. “I know.”
“The first thing you need to do is make sure that her mates feel the bond is between you and them, and not her. Push her out. Be good.” I smile. Her other mates don’t deserve Gwenieve, and I’m the only one who can truly protect her. I plan to protect her somehow. “She needs to feel alone and willing to listen to our side of the war. It won’t be long now before they come to Starlight City, and finish the war. She needs to be with me when that happens.”
“Then I will be ready.” She walks past me, to the door. She hesitates for all of a second and then slips out of the room she has lived in her entire life, with one mission in mind: destroy her sister’s life.