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5

EVANGELINE

T wenty minutes later I finally strode into the music/library/living room, and the only reason I’d found it was because the goddamned piano started playing. “This place is too big for one person. Why do you need twenty bedrooms anyway?”

The entire room was still destroyed from last light, debris littering the floor, and I picked my way through broken glass and plaster, not feeling the slightest bit of remorse.

“My, you do cheer this place up. And maybe I need twenty bedrooms,” Malachi countered, tilting his head from where he lounged in a chair like it was a throne.

“I could give you the grand tour and we could test each one out. We don’t have much time, so we’d have to be fast…” His eyebrows bounded up and down suggestively.

“Wow, your ego knows no limits. I’m really regretting not killing you last night.”

“You’re not even going to dance around your intentions?”

“Why should I? I want you dead, you want me dead, there’s really no mystery left in our relationship.”

His lips pinched together. “I don’t want you dead.”

“Really? Wasn’t that the natural outcome of a war between the royal houses and Riordan? You planned all of this from the beginning, probably all the way back to that ill-fated dinner. You probably even knew what Tyrell was planning for my sister.”

He blinked, and resolve slammed a spike of steel down my spine as I snorted in disgust. “I knew it. You set all of this in motion. You are an utter…”

“Someone else put these events in motion, not me. I was content to destroy Riordan for the sins of his father, and Blake for killing Tyberius, but you and your sister were never meant to be caught up in our war. In fact, I’ve done everything I could to keep the two of you out of this.”

“Oh, because you’re so protective ?” I air quoted that last part. “You condemned Angel to a life she never wanted and now she’s carrying that monster’s child.”

“Silas found you in Cleveland,” Malachi murmured, his hands tightening on the chair arms, and my heart started pounding.

“Once he knew your location, Tyrell sent Valaine to bring Angel back to Darkmore Castle. He was supposed to capture both of you at the same time, but…”

But I got stuck at work.

I remembered that night so clearly, had replayed every minute, over and over a thousand times. There’d been a grease fire in the kitchen. We were locked down for a few hours while the fire marshal questioned the staff, and I didn’t get home until late.

All I’d found in our apartment were signs of a struggle and blood.

Malachi rubbed his temples. “Did you hear what I said? Valaine was sent to find you. That sadistic bastard was…pissed you weren’t there and went into a complete rage. And you know the depravities he was capable of when he was in control.”

“Fucking Valaine put his hands on my sister?” Every piece of me tightened, my thoughts racing back through that night, the strange scents in our apartment, and something clicked, like my subconscious recognized this as truth. “Did he…”

God, I didn’t want to know if Angel had been hurt, but at the same time, I had to know. I couldn’t not know.

Malachi still looked worn down, favoring his arm, that gash on his face healing slower than normal and I smothered a wave of guilt. He deserved every bit of this pain. He deserved to have his fancy castle in ruins. He deserved worse, and these were only more lies, meant to knot me up.

“The bastard smelled her blood, lost control and nearly killed her before I intervened. I had her healed, then took her memories, so she would never remember what he’d done. And yes, I brought her to Tyrell, and I’ve fucking regretted it ever since. He would have kept looking for you two and Valaine…he never would have stopped…”

He swallowed hard, throat bobbing. “Until you were captured. Or dead.”

“You’re wrong. I would have fucking killed him, if I’d been there.”

“No, Vicious, you’re wrong,” Malachi murmured sadly. “As a human, you couldn’t have defeated him. Valaine would have killed you, because you never would have stopped fighting, and you would have died for your sister. Angel survived because I got there in time.”

Fine. Some of that might be true, but this fucker, playing the hero…if I’d wanted him dead before, I wanted him twice as dead now. Maybe I could half-kill him, wait for him to regenerate, then kill him again.

“You think…” I could barely speak through the slurry of anger, “you can convince me you saved Angel and me that night? That you somehow…were what? Our knight in shining armor?”

“No, I’m saying I made a bad situation less bad.” He burst to his feet, the tendons in his neck standing out, nose flaring, as if I’d just insulted him.

“I’m saying Angel survived because of me, and I’m not fucking proud of that, either. I’m no knight in shining armor, I never have claimed to be. Knights fucking die in battle, right after the foot soldiers and the grunts.” He stuck a finger in my face that sent me rearing back. “I know two things. Survival and power. Those are all that mattered a thousand years ago, they are all that matter now.”

“What are we trying to survive, exactly?”

“The fucking future,” Malachi muttered, shifting on his feet like he couldn’t stay still.

“Oh, so now you speak in riddles?” I rolled my eyes. “Is this what I have to look forward to as your captive? Hours and hours of word games? I cannot fucking wait.”

He didn’t answer, just stared down at me, a tic feathering his jaw. But something dark flickered in the depths of those amber brown eyes and a lump grew in my throat.

Yes, the stakes were high.

Yes, I was more afraid of Ravok than I let on, but somehow, giving in to this asshole galled me. He didn’t deserve my help. He deserved to have Ravok gut him like a pig, if I couldn’t do the honors first.

Malachi was the one who’d kept his Maker alive, and for what?

Another chance to kill my mate or Riordan?

I didn’t fucking think so.

“My Maker can see the future.” Malachi hung his head, his voice stripped of arrogance as his shoulders sagged, hands hanging limply at his sides. “This moment in time? Ravok has already seen this very conversation, which means he is always a step ahead of me. He will always be a step ahead unless we find a way to shift the advantage. Until then…”

A too-pale Malachi met my gaze and for the first time, I entertained the idea…he was telling the truth. Maybe…we were in real trouble here.

I sank into the nearest chair. “Until then… what ?”

“You don’t understand, Evangline.” He dragged both hands through his hair, leaving blond tufts sticking up. “Like I said, I didn’t set this in motion. All of this is Ravok’s plan. We’re just stumbling along behind him, scrambling to keep up. There’s a reason he freed himself, because he’d leave nothing to chance. Everything that’s happening right now has been planned down to the last detail.”

I shivered at the expression on Malachi’s face.

I’d seen him arrogant, and mocking, and cruel, but I’d never seen him defeated. And as much as I’d craved this male’s total ruination, as much as I wanted to see him crawl, this felt wrong.

“Except Ravok has been locked up. I saw him . He was barely alive when my father took him out of that box. This is all just…” Then I tallied up the chances this was all a coincidence and they were nil.

Ravok had been strong enough to take over Riordan’s mind.

To defeat Morvessa, to force a bargain so he could drink from me.

He’d been strong enough for all that. Suspicion became realization. Everything Ravok had done these past weeks had pushed us to the brink, and here we were, balanced on the edge a cliff, ready to plunge over. He’d woken up…for something.

Deep in my bones, I sensed the looming presence coming for us.

I met Malachi’s gaze, and he smiled faintly. “My glamour keeps us hidden, so long as he remains weak. Until he recovers, he won’t be able to track me through our bond, and…he doesn’t even know you exist. We’re safe, for now.”

His shoulders straightened, some of his old arrogance flooding back as he smoothed back his rumpled hair. “I’ll keep you safe, Vicious, and in the meantime, we’ll train your magic into a weapon that will destroy him.”

He stopped in front of me, and for one awful moment, I thought he might drop to his knees, but instead, his gaze locked on mine before dropping away. “But he always was a clever bastard, and I can tell you one thing for sure.”

“What’s that?”

“We’ve already underestimated him.”