Page 22

Enko

The filth of Lethe clogged my nostrils like the bad memories stuck in my brain. Nobody was following me, but I passed by the entrance again, not ready to face him.

Come now, Beast, he whispered. We’re waiting.

Fuck. He knew I was here.

The handleless door clicked open as I approached it. As I slipped inside, a guard shut it behind me, nodding me toward a familiar set of stairs.

I ascended into darkness until the dim bar lights came into sight. And I wasn’t alone.

“Seven, Kairos, what the hell are you two doing here?”

Chuckling, the Lord of Nightmares stepped into the light. “Same as you, Beast. Take a seat.”

He gestured to the bar where Seven and Kairos sat as he moved behind the counter and began to make drinks.

“But the real question is who’s watching Dove? She has a taste for trouble and a propensity for death.”

“Rhys is with her,”

Seven said, testing his resolve.

The Lord of Nightmares’ eyes flicked between us. “You left her alone with him? And somehow I’m the bad guy.”

“You are the bad guy,”

I growled.

“You kept her a secret from me. Put me through the suffering you’d never survive yourself. She is as much mine as she is yours—”

The Lord of Nightmares rarely lost his cool, and when that happened it was never a good sign.

“We’re going to let her know when she is ready,”

Seven said.

Damon growled in rage. “After you brainwash her against me? How kind of you, Cassian.”

“Don’t call me that,”

Seven snapped.

“I know exactly how all of you think. We used to be friends, remember?”

His eyes flicked upwards, his mind focusing on something else, probably in the dreamworld somewhere. But where?

“Yeah, until you went rogue and tried to take Enko with you,”

Kairos said, returning the Lord of Nightmares back to the conversation.

The Lord of Nightmares laughed gently, an eerie calm about him as his anger dissipated.

“Even the goddess went rogue, yet you judge me? When Dove first met me, she mentioned the Lord of Nightmares, but didn’t know she was Fated to me. I’ve grown stronger than any of you realize in the past years. I could probably sense Dove thousands of miles away. You three kept her so close, so hidden. I merely waited for my chance to strike. And then, there she was. In my city. Right outside my own doorstep. Alone. Driven into my arms by the foxfire.”

Damon paced slowly as he spoke, his arms behind his back as he glared at the three of us.

“Even the goddess disagrees with your methods. Dove needs all of her mates and eighty percent isn’t going to cut it.”

“Dove doesn’t need your evil—”

“My evil? You are all worse than me. Parading around as good while lying to Dove. Even your precious Archfox, manipulating all of you. I only didn’t tell her what liars you all are to protect her from that betrayal. I had hoped you would have been honest with our Fated mate by now.”

“We’re going to when she is ready,”

Seven repeated, growling this time.

Damon shook his head. “Now, I’ve had to take matters into my own hands.”

His words sparked the Fire, a growl exploded from my throat as I jumped to my feet, covering the distance in half a second. My hands wrung around his neck, slamming him against the red brick wall. “What did you do?”

Hands on my shoulders and arms hauled me away from the Lord of Nightmares, voices were speaking in tongues. My fury garbled the words.

The Lord of Nightmares cheek rose into an evil grin, his eyes moving past my shoulder.

“Enko,”

her voice rang out clearly in the distortion, through the blood thumping in my ears like furious waves. “Leave him alone.”

The sweet strawberry scent reached me before I saw her and I turned around upon her command. Her hair was bedraggled and she still wore her new pajamas from Kairos.

He had called her here from her dreams. That’s where he had been in the dreamworld.