Page 16

AJAX

“ S alayla and Tor of the Death Fae have knowingly aided and abetted abominations throughout the Midnight Fae Realm,” Constantine Nacht announced, his voice carrying through the village square.

I could hear him.

Understand him.

See him.

Yet I… I couldn’t feel his power. His energy. His sense of existence.

Because he’s not real , I told myself. He’s not here.

But his words… his words were very real.

“Salayla and Tor of the Death Fae have also declared their allegiance to the Quandary Bloods,” he went on, causing the crowd to shout in fury.

Not at Constantine, but at Salayla and Tor.

My parents .

I blinked, trying to look away from them. But my focus was on the stage, on Constantine, on this farce of a trial.

Yet inside I wanted to scream . To burn. To annihilate every fucking traitor in this square.

This is wrong , I thought. So fucking wrong.

Why can’t I move?

Constantine’s spell…

Whispers of it hummed in my ear, his magic paralyzing and forcing me to watch my parents’ executions. And Emelyn’s…

How do I know that? I wondered.

Because I’ve lived this day before, I realized in the next beat. None of this is real.

Oh, it’d happened long, long ago.

That wand glittering with red magic. The words that came next that solidified my parents’ fate. The spell that marbleized my parents’ skin as they knelt and pleaded with the crowd to save them.

I shivered inside, the vivid execution playing out in my mind.

Yet Constantine was still talking before me. Still listing offenses from that damn scroll clutched in his hands.

“Based on the testimonies provided by their son, Ajax?—”

I stopped listening, my eyes narrowing.

I hadn’t provided any testimonies. It was all bullshit. A mental mindfuck meant to break me. To shatter my parents. To hurt .

And it had.

Oh, fuck, had it hurt .

Followed by Emelyn’s…

I swallowed, my gaze sliding to her back. She stood still as stone several paces before me, trapped under the same spell.

They would unfreeze her soon, just like my parents, and then…

I closed my eyes, refusing to relive this scene.

It’s not real.

It’s an illusion.

Manufactured by… by Lucifer.

My brow furrowed, that last thought kick-starting my heart.

Lucifer .

We were in his dungeon. He was showing me Dakota’s cell. Her personal prison. Her hellscape. Her nightmare .

He was forcing her to relive her sins, but it went deeper than that. I could… I could feel it through Cami.

Her face appeared in my mind, her beautiful, angelic features taking my breath away. My Cami .

I’m here , she told me. I’m right here, Ajax.

I opened my eyes, wanting to see her, and found myself staring into Emelyn’s eyes instead. Dark orbs. Dark hair. A face painted in perpetual fear and torment.

My last memory of her , I realized, my chest aching. That’s not what I want to remember .

I wanted to think about her secret smile. Her laugh that no one else ever heard. Her happiness that no one else ever saw.

My first love.

Except… that no longer felt right.

I’d cared about Emelyn. Valued her friendship. Enjoyed her company. Loved that I could provide her with joy in a dark time.

But as I observed her in this cruel montage, reliving her death all over again, my chest ached a little less. Because my heart belonged to another now.

Does that make me selfish? I wondered, staring at Emelyn. Am I selfish to love another? To love someone… more?

I couldn’t ask her because she wasn’t really here. Yet I suddenly knew what she would say. You deserve to be loved, Ajax. You deserve so much more than this…

They were words from long ago.

Words she’d said to me once during a walk through the woods.

She’d never proclaimed to be the one who would love me the way I deserved, and now… now I understood why.

Because our love was nothing like the feelings I possessed for Cami. It didn’t touch how I felt about Az, either.

They were my mates. My reasons for life. My heart . I breathed for them. My soul was theirs in every way.

And Emelyn had started me down the path toward that fate.

Her loss meant more than I could ever have realized. Because without it, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have become Lucifer’s Warden. I wouldn’t have met Az. I wouldn’t have met Cami .

I wasn’t someone who indulged in thoughts of guardian angels or predestined paths; that was Shade’s chessboard, not mine.

However, I understood it now. Saw the big picture. Realized that everything I’d been through had shaped me into the fae I needed to be for Cami and Az. To be their mate.

Emelyn blinked before me, her eyes falling closed as though for the last time.

Only that wasn’t how it had happened that fated day—she’d looked right at me while she’d died. Held my gaze with her last breath.

But this simulation had her closing her eyes… in peace .

What was it that Lucifer had said? These cells were magicked for their inhabitants. Crafted to create nightmarish hellscapes to torture his prisoners.

So why is the visage changing? I wondered.

Because you’re not a dark soul, Az whispered into my mind. Typhos devised this room to punish Dakota… for you.

I frowned, my limbs finally thawing as I turned to look at Lucifer. “Why?”

“Because I couldn’t give you Constantine,” he said quietly, somehow following my question. Maybe because of Azazel. Maybe because he anticipated my query. I didn’t know. Nor did I care.

Typhos stepped closer to me, his sapphire eyes swirling with power as he held my gaze, making it impossible to look away.

“You were so riddled with pain and anger when we first met. I had to do something to avenge you. Something to make it right. When Zakkai and Shade brought her to me, I knew what I had to do. And now it’s time for you to decide what’s next.

Do you want to end her suffering? Strengthen it?

Leave her in this state for another decade? ”

I stared up at him, at a loss for words.

When he’d told me to meet him in this dungeon, I’d assumed it would be some meager lesson about how to pick a creature for Cami to practice her magic on.

While I’d somewhat begun to understand that dark souls were masked as Nightmare Fae, meaning none of the beings housed here were true Nightmare Fae, I had no idea how deep the magic went or how intricate everything was.

“You should have explained this place to me long ago,” I told him now, both irritated and awed at the same time. “You basically made me a babysitter for your pet project.”

“I did,” he conceded. “And now I want to make you a true Warden, to give you my masterpiece and let you manage it however you want.”

“Why?” I wondered out loud. “Why would you give this to me?”

“Because I’ve extended my powers too far. I need help.” He looked away from me and toward someone just behind me.

Cami, I realized, sensing her heat and scenting her flowery perfume. She’d said she was here. I’d known that. And yet, I’d been so consumed by Lucifer that I’d nearly forgotten.

“Melek told you I created the trials to find a mate. Or a queen, I believe.” Typhos glanced at Melek and then back at Cami.

“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t. The point is moot.

You’re part of this circle now, regardless of your feelings for me.

” His focus shifted to me. “As are you. Which means it’s up to all of us to find balance, to ensure this realm survives.

Making you a true Warden is the obvious next step. ”

I studied him for a moment, thinking through everything he’d said to me over the last… Fuck, was it only an hour or so?

It felt like he’d imparted a lifetime of knowledge upon me in a day.

But something he’d said to me before reaching this cell played through my mind now, reminding me of what had brought us all here to begin with. Cami’s training.

He’d wanted to select a dark soul for her to extinguish, to help her learn control while also offering me a gift of sorts.

Dakota’s death .

She’d been the one to walk my parents up onto that stage. Emelyn, too.

I could still hear her taunting laugh .

Only, she wasn’t laughing now. Actually, she appeared almost dead. “Is she even coherent anymore?” I asked.

“You tell me,” Lucifer returned, clearly taking his role as teacher seriously.

Rather than press him, I focused on Dakota. But then I thought better of it. “Cami?”

“Yeah?”

I glanced back at her. “Can you sense anything? With Dakota, I mean?”

Cami frowned and moved to my side. “I…” She trailed off and swallowed. “I only sense darkness in her.”

“What do you sense in Ajax?” Lucifer inquired softly.

Cami shot him a look, one that said she wasn’t pleased with him. “Pain. Because of you.”

Lucifer grunted. “Look deeper, Camillia.”

“Why?” she fired back, her feisty energy causing my lips to quirk. Leave it to Camillia De la Croix to amuse me in an otherwise dark situation.

“Because he’s trying to teach you,” Melek interjected. “This might not be the venue Ty originally intended to use for today’s lesson, but he’s improvising.”

Cami crossed her arms. “And I’m supposed to just accept that?”

“Are you intentionally being a brat?” Lucifer asked, arching a brow at her. “Because you should know that I have a penchant for putting brats in their places.”

That only had Cami narrowing her eyes more. “I am not being a brat.”

Melek coughed.

“I’m not!” She threw her hands out to the sides and spun to face me. “Lucifer hurt you, then told me to use his power to help end your suffering.”

“He wanted you to kill Dakota,” I translated, nodding. “That’s the training exercise—extinguishing a dark soul.”

Her lips parted, her arms falling at her sides. “He wants me to kill someone?” She turned on Lucifer in the next blink. “Why the hell would I want to kill someone?”

I winced.

When Lucifer and I had been discussing our plans, I hadn’t quite considered this potential reaction. But seeing her fury now, I wasn’t exactly surprised by it.

Cami wasn’t a killer, let alone an executioner.

Fuck , I thought. This is going to get bad…