Page 25 of Claim Me

Oh, good, we’re back to that question again…

He asks this every time he visits.

And every time I answer the same.

“It’s a very fancy cage, my king. I’m content.” The saccharine quality of my voice isn’t lost on him, as evidenced by the way his jaw subtly ticks in response to my comment.

“I’m not keeping you here as punishment, Fallon.”

“No, you’re keeping me here for observation,” I counter. “Because you don’t trust me or my powers.”

His eyes flash with impatience. “Perhaps that’s because you won’t enlighten me on everything you can do.”

“I’m skilled in death magic.” I utter the words slowly, the sentence one I’ve voiced a thousand times in his presence. “I can manipulate souls and lure them to the grave.” That’s only a fraction of what I can actually do, but it’s the most dangerous aspect of my abilities.

Necromancerisn’t the right term, but it’s been tossed around a few times. I can technically animate a corpse and make him or her do my bidding. However, that’s not all that exciting. It’s akin to turning a dead body into a puppet. And I can’t control the walking dead—like vampires or phantoms.

Well, not outright, anyway.

I could cast a spell that would lull them into a deadly sleep where I could torment their souls for as long as I desired, but that’s not the same as manipulating someone else’s actions.

No matter how many times I explain this to Kaspian and the others, it’s not good enough. And I can’t exactly demonstrate my skills. It would require putting one of their lives in my deadly hands, and that’s not an acceptable risk in their eyes.

Because they don’t trust me.

Over a year in confinement and I’m no better off than my first week in Kaspian’s custody. It doesn’t matter that I assisted in finding Klas after he attacked Vesperus, or that I used one of Bane’s blades to eviscerate Klas countless times.

I’m still an outsider.

I have no doubt that if they ever discover my origin, I’ll be on the first plane back to New York.

Where the Outcast Coven will kill me for Klas’s failures. Or maybe because I helped take him down.

Regardless, New York is the last place I want to go. Unless it’s to save Issy.

Which I have no idea how to do.

We’ll figure this out, Issy,I whisper to her.Somehow.

She doesn’t reply, her mind still closed off to mine. I’m not sure what the patriarchs did to her, but it’s clearly taking a toll on her mental state.

I’ll find a way to make them pay,I add.Even if I have to do it from the grave.

“I’m not your enemy, Fallon,” Kaspian says quietly. “But I’ll become one if you make me one.”

I lift my gaze to his, not having realized my focus shifted while thinking of Issy, and shake my head. “I’m not trying to make you my enemy. I just don’t know what you want from me. I’m not a threat to you.”

Or I don’t want to be, anyway.

My powers are unique. They’re part of what made me valuable to the Outcast Coven. But the patriarchs didn’t trust me to handle my own abilities, which is why I was gifted to Klas. They wanted him to utilize my talents instead.

That worked out really well for you all, didn’t it?I think, bitter.

Not that I would ever have used my skills the way Klas did last year. He went on a rampage, his ego wounded by being overlooked time and again for promotions. Then King Vesperus announced that Ireland and the United Kingdom would become part of Death and Diamond territory, and Klas lost his mind.

“He clearly has no respect for anyone here,” Klas said while pacing around our home in Ireland. “Including me.” He huffed a laugh then, the sound so deranged that even now I can hear it echoing through my mind.

“I’m tired of being overlooked,” he added, his fist slamming into the brick walls of our living room. “This is taking too fucking long!”