Page 24

Kairos

We all stood there, dumbfounded. Looking at each other and then at the door Dove had just gone through. “What just happened?” I asked.

“She hates me,”

Enko snapped.

“How are we supposed to deal with this? How much does she know?”

Rhys asked.

“Everything,”

Seven responded. “The Lord of Nightmares has been speaking to her in the dreamworld.”

“She hates me now,”

Enko growled, fists clenching, his eyes turning on each of us like we didn’t all agree on this. Like he wanted to rip my throat out.

“Calm down, Enko. She just needs a minute to cool off. And you do too,”

I snapped, but my own brain was raking through every scenario. Because that definitely wasn’t how I had anticipated Dove to react. I thought we’d gained her trust by now.

“We should have told her,”

Seven growled. He’d wanted to tell her right away, before he had even known that she’d met Damon. But he’d never known the Lord of Nightmares at his full fury. He and Rhys weren’t there when I saw what he’d done to Enko.

“Let’s go talk to her. Before she gets herself in trouble in the dreamworld,”

I said finally.

“Shouldn’t we give her some time?”

Rhys asked.

When Rhys got closer, Enko slammed a fist at him. So unexpected that the Life fox didn’t have time to duck out of the way and it hit Rhys’ arm.

“Oh, fuck off, Enko. You agreed to this too. You don’t get to be mad at me just because I drew the short straw and had to make the final decision,”

Rhys snarled, ready to lunge at the Fire fox.

We arrived at her door quickly, all of us walking at a very non-human speed to get to Dove, standing outside as we all looked between us deciding who should open the door.

I could sense her inside. Enko pushed past me, turning the knob and I all but ran to keep up with him, wondering if he planned to blame this whole misunderstanding on the rest of us.

Dove sat in her bed with her back against the wall and a book in her hands when we all appeared in the doorway, sheepishly filtering in. Her eyes fixated on one spot on a page. She wasn’t reading.

“You okay, Dove?” I asked.

She snapped her gaze to me like she was throwing rocks. Her chest rose slowly—dangerously—as she spent a moment to glare at each of us. Spending the longest on Seven. I guess he had actually drawn the short stick, because most of her anger fixated on him.

“Want to go kill some demons with your new weapon, Fated? It turned out so nicely.”

Seven was being nice. This definitely wasn’t a great situation. Not even a trace of an insult there.

Dove’s eyes narrowed, a vibration growing in her throat as she spoke, “Get out of my room.”

I raised up my hands, half trying to calm her down, and the other half being prepared to block the book she was threatening to throw our way. “Hey, it’s over now, Dove. You know the truth now and you understand—”

“Leave me alone,”

she snarled.

We all looked at each other. We weren’t equipped to handle her when she was mad. It was worse than Enko. He was a fire that raged in all directions, but Dove was an unpredictable flame that might lash out at any of us like a whip.

“Try to calm down, Dove,”

Rhys said.

Bad idea.

Dove jumped up, throwing the book next to her on the bed—and thankfully not at us—and charged at Rhys. Jabbing a finger at his chest. “You knew this whole time. All of you have been lying to me.”

Her anger began to dissipate, tears welling up in her eyes.

Seven rushed forward, taking her in his arms. Thankfully, she accepted the hug without lashing out. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, Fated,”

Seven whispered. “I wanted to tell you. The others didn’t want to.”

“But we mated,”

she cried to Seven. “I trusted you.”

“She doesn’t even understand,”

Rhys said, crossing his arms and we all looked at him incredulously.

How the fuck could he say that? Was he trying to fuck up this for all of us? All our gazes turned on him, including Dove’s. Good, rather have the wrath aimed his way than mine. Considering I’d ordered and orchestrated the whole fucking plan.

“Understand what?”

Dove snarled.

“How dangerous he is,”

I said. “He ordered Enko to attack humans. Breaking our sacred vows.”

She faltered. “But that means…”

Enko bowed his head shamefully. “That I went rogue.”