Page 15 of Heir of Broken Souls (HOBF #3)

Chapter 15

Knox

I n a shocked daze I throw out a pocket of air magic, stopping the blade within a fraction above the girl’s heart. She lies as still as a statue, shock marring her features.

Until her chest heaves, and she grimaces with disgust. “How lovely, I was given a murderer.”

Axel snarls, barring his canines. “You weren’t given anything.”

The malice in his words is what jolts me from my frozen stupor. Rushing for Axel, Lenox meets me there as we peel him off the poor, battered woman. Surprisingly, Axel fights against our hold, thrashing wildly like an animal.

“Let me go!” he barks.

Tightening my grasp, my gaze slides to Lenox, but he looks just as confused. Harlow stalks over, followed closely by Delilah.

“Axel,” I hiss in his ear, the reprimand doing nothing. I’m forced to shake his arm as he continues to buck. “What are you doing?”

“She’s faking it,” he spits.

Harlow cocks her head, studying the Fae as she slowly peels herself off the ground and rises. Her nightgown is splattered in blood, but something tells me it isn’t her own.

“Faking what?”

A cold dark fury passes over Axel’s face. “A mating bond.”

The confession snaps my gaze away from the woman and toward my friend. My heart lurches. “You just attacked your mate?”

“She’s not my mate,” he snarls through gritted teeth.

Harlow narrows her eyes. “You’re a fool.”

“No, we all are. Besides Knox and Delilah, the last mating bond was Ace’s, and we all know that wasn’t real,” Lenox says matter-of-factly, clicking the pieces together. Like that helps the situation. The withering glare I send his way says just that.

“Who’s Hazel?” the woman asks as she warily studies Axel.

“As if you don’t know,” he scoffs.

At the violence in his words, I drop my hold on him and grip the front of his leathers and shake him. “Enough! You of all people are not in your bloody right mind to be throwing around accusations!” I push Axel toward the house. “Go clean yourself up. I’ll deal with this.”

“No.”

The word rumbles through my mind. Shadows spread throughout my courtyard, my power rippling in the air around us so thickly thunder cracks above our heads and lightning strikes.

“No?” I ask darkly.

My eyes promise violence and at the sight of it, Axel finally sees sense. He swallows thickly and bows his head. “That was an order ,” I growl. “Lenox, escort Axel inside?—”

Axel stiffens. “I don’t need an escort.”

“Yes, you do.”

Axel stumbles backwards toward the house, his face crestfallen and ashen at the tone in my voice. I’ve never looked at him as anything other than a friend—a brother even. But in this moment, I am nothing but his king.

If only he could see I’m doing this for him.

“Go inside,” I repeat, Axel shrugging off Lenox’s touch. Once he storms inside by himself, the front doors slamming shut, I turn back to the woman my friend just tried to murder.

“I take it all will be explained soon?” she asks. “Or have I really been given a bastard for a mate?”

Harlow snorts. “A bit of both, if we’re being truthful.”

“Have we met before?” Delilah blurts as she comes to stand beside me.

The woman turns her soft blue eyes on Delilah. “Something like that,” she says.

I clear my throat, drawing her attention. “Where have you come from? The battle in the streets?”

“That’s not the real question you want to ask,” she deadpans.

I sigh, and my shadows flick out, probing gently, silently. But something knocks me back, and my eyes harden. At her, at what she possesses. “You know what has to happen,” I announce.

She regards me warily. “Yes, but I’d much rather you enter my mind while I’m in a comfortable setting.” She peers down at herself, a deep frown marring her expression. “I’d also love to wash my sister and mother’s blood from me if you don’t mind. I don’t particularly enjoy the feeling it brings me.”

“You’re not stepping foot inside,” Lenox suddenly declares.

She partly rolls her eyes as she sighs. “I know, Lenox.”

Harlow whips her head to her former best friend. “Do you know her? How does she know your name?”

A muscle ticks in Lenox’s jaw. “No, but it isn’t hard to know who we are, Harlow.”

She scoffs.

Ignoring their spat, I keep my gaze on our newcomer, my eyes never leaving hers as she openly assesses me.

“Leave,” I order.

Delilah stiffens beside me, presuming I’m speaking to the woman. Surprise ripples down our mating bond as I turn to Lenox and Harlow.

The latter openly gawks at me. “You have got to be kidding me!”

“Knox, with all due respect you don’t?—”

“I’m not asking. No one but me and Delilah need to be present for this.”

The pair, for the first time since Ace’s passing, find themselves on the same side. “You’re out of your mind!” Harlow snaps.

Lenox’s neck flushes crimson as he yells over Harlow. “I’m not leaving you alone! For gods’ sake, look at her, she’s covered in blood! This could be a ruse?—”

“Another one of Peter’s ploys!”

“Maybe her mind’s being controlled.”

“Or worse, she’s come willingly. Didn’t we just learn that there are people despicable like that?”

“Just let me handle it, Knox, you shouldn’t?—”

Silence descends, my invisible silencing shield snapping around them. They turn from yelling to banging their fists against it. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I turn my back on the yapping pair. “Forgive my court for their lack of manners. They clearly haven’t been broken in yet.”

The woman’s brow quirks. “You speak of them as if they're mutts.”

Delilah’s lips twitch, her smile turning saccharine. “Sometimes they are,” she says.

With a quick snap of my fingers, I wipe any trace of blood from her skin and clothing. I know the feeling of having blood on your hands. It’s a sensation I don’t wish upon anyone.

“Care to share your story?” I drawl, sliding one hand into my pocket and the other along Delilah’s lower back.

The woman tracks the movement with indifference. “I’d rather you see for yourself.”

“Very well.”

Before anyone can so much as move, I encase the three of us in shadows. As dark and thick as a bottle of ink, I sweep us all into the clutches of my power, and the ground beneath our feet drops out. The shadows are partly to obstruct the woman’s view of my home, to disorient her enough so she doesn’t know how far I’m taking her—or how little. And partly so I can hold Delilah under the cover of the darkness. I haven’t been able to since this all began and I just need…her. My lips twitch with a smile as I press my nose into her hair, the scent of her vanilla shampoo invading my nose. It’s immaculate. The best thing to ever grace my senses.

I teleport us with a thought. Smooth concrete greets my feet and my shadows leave us as quickly as they appeared. Teleporting can leave one quite discombobulated for their first time, but the strange woman stands poised, her chin held high. She quips, “No chair?”

Without so much as a muscle twitch, I make an old rickety chair appear behind her.

She has the gall to roll her eyes and mutter under her breath, “Clearly comfortability is too much to ask for.”

“I think under the circumstances I’ve shown you far more grace than others would have.”

At this, she hmphs . “Is that what we’re calling attempted murder these days?” Still, despite complaining, she takes a seat, one leg crossing over the other. “There’s no need for torture. I’ll tell you everything you wish to know and allow you in my mind for the confirmation you seek.”

“That’s not a small feat for a seer.”

Delilah sucks in a sharp hiss of air. That is what my power felt. It’s for that reason why she seems oddly…fine with all this. She knew what was to come.

“The information I possess is far greater than my unease,” she says. The girl moves and acts with an air of confidence, but it feels forced. It’s like she lacks care for her life.

Before I can respond, Delilah asks, “What’s your name?”

“Elysia.”

Something within Delilah’s features makes me appear on the bridge. The door to her mind is still shut but I can feel the sense of familiarity on her end.

What is it, Angel?

I remember…something. There’s a memory dancing at the edge of my mind, but it’s toying with me. I can’t see it all.

It’s strange, but we suddenly have bigger issues. Axel appears through the bars of the cellar door. A flash of pain crosses his face once he finds the protection I’ve erected around us—from him.

“You don’t need to be here for this,” I declare, taking a tentative step in front of Delilah and Elysia.

“Yes, I do,” he says gutturally. “You know I do.”

A tense moment fills the room. Unperturbed, Delilah putters about, lighting the sconces along the walls with her golden flames for warmth. Drop the shield. We might need another witness for this.

She doesn’t seem worried about the situation, or her magic, at all. Perhaps now that she’s allowed herself to transform, her power won’t fight her for control any longer.

That is until Elysia whispers, “So it’s true. You really are a golden one?”

The flames lower, dissipating without a tendril of smoke, as if they never existed.

“Fascinating,” Elysia breathes.

“This is not a meeting about my mate. I suggest you stay on topic,” I say coldly, leaving no room for argument.

But the promise of harm in my tone does nothing. Her eyes wander, past Delilah, toward where Axel stands in the doorway. Her eyes widen a fraction and her breath hitches, the sound small and yet mighty in a room full of Fae.

It doesn’t soften Axel’s hard stare. If anything, it makes his body turn to stone.

Elysia looks away, gutted, her eyes now lacking the warmth that was present with Axel. “I beg to differ, this has everything to do with your mate.”

My body stiffens before I can hide the vulnerability. My palm lands on the hilt of my sword strapped to my hip. I’m utterly exhausted from the battle and the sight of all we lost. The destruction of my city and the deaths of my people. But I will never tire of defending Delilah.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she mutters. “You’d be killing the only person in these lands who knows how to decode that little prophecy your mate received, the one with all the answers we seek.” She smirks. “And yes, it’s a prophecy. Not a vision, not a dream, not a memory.” She clicks her tongue. “Oh, and the archangels very much sent it themselves.”

My heart lurches and along the bond, I feel the wave of nausea that assaults Delilah.

“What do you know of the dream?” she asks, her voice hard.

“Did I not just say what it was? You and I both know it wasn’t a dream .”

With the shield now lowered, Axel’s footfalls reverberate through the ground until he stands right beside me. “They may not want to kill you, but I have no qualms about slitting a woman’s throat. Stop playing games,” he growls, dangerously low. “And spit out whatever the fuck you came here to say so you can leave.”

The grip on my sword tightens, but not because of Elysia.

Elysia’s brow quirks in surprise. “You would truly kill your mate? Isn’t it impossible to harm them?”

Before I can move Axel rushes for her, placing his hands on either side of her chair, making Elysia’s breath quicken. He lowers his head an inch from her lips and grits, “I’m not your mate.”

He pushes off before I can pull him away, making the chair wobble back and forth. Elysia’s cheeks flush a deep crimson color.

I find I’m, for once, out of my depth. My gaze slides to Delilah. Should I intervene?

I’m not touching that situation with a ten-foot pole.

I can’t help but snort. Such a way with words, my angel.

Speaking of words… “How do you know about the…prophecy?” Delilah ventures.

Elysia composes herself, pulling her gaze away from Axel. “Simple. You weren’t the only one to receive it.”

“Is that right?”

Elysia cocks her head. “You don’t believe me?”

“No,” Delilah says dully.

She rolls her eyes, waving her hands at me. “Just go into my mind and get it over with. I’m over the court politics.”

Take me with you , Delilah says.

Wouldn’t dream of doing anything else, Angel.

A look passes between Axel and me at the order I give him in his mind to guard us while we’re vulnerable. With a subtle dip of his chin, Axel straightens, his hands resting on the hilt of his sword, and I lace my fingers with Delilah’s along the bridge and pull her into my mind.