Page 61 of Hell Fae Warden

Ajax’s eyes met mine, his wariness hitting me right in the chest. It was a brief glimpse of emotion that he probably didn’t mean to show me, but he was worried.

Which made me worry.

He clearly knew something bad was coming.

Because he knows I touched the source, too,I realized.I admitted that during my interrogation.

And now we were all going to see Lucifer. Well, Ajax would visit with him first, and he would have to confirm whatever Melek had already shared with the Hell Fae King.

Sex couldn’t change the truth.

Nor would it change my fate.

A hint of an apology seemed to lurk in his expression, there and gone in a blink.

Then he grabbed Az’s hand and disappeared.

CHAPTER14

AZ

Cami’s tastelingered in my mouth, pleasing my inner Phoenix. It was a distraction I didn’t need right now, not with Typhos requiring my attention.

A portal in the Underwater Kingdom. Fuck.

At least my half brother couldn’t be blamed for this one. He was still being held captive over the first illegal breach.

My feet touched down in an east-wing palace corridor with Ajax beside me. He immediately dropped my hand as he looked around, his expression timid.

I frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he lied.

My inner Phoenix bristled, not liking that one bit.

Frankly, neither did I.

I grabbed him by the neck and pushed him up against the wall—similarly to what I’d done to Cami, only much rougher now—and forced him to meet my gaze. “Speak.”

He rolled his eyes. “Fuck you, Az.”

“Oh, you have no idea how much I’d like to fuck right now.” My playtime with Cami had been unduly interrupted. Of course, I hadn’t planned to seek out my own pleasure from her.

Not today, anyway.

No, all of that had been for her and Ajax. My way of trying to make amends for my wrongs.

My errant bird had tried to kill Ajax, something I could never truly apologize enough for. And Cami, well, I wasn’t quite sure why I felt the need to please her. I wanted to believe it was because my Phoenix had demanded it, but I would be lying to myself.

I’d wanted to please her. To make her feel good. To reward her for her strength, for standing up to me even when she shouldn’t, to revel in her magnificence.

It’d all been entirely selfless on my part. I’d simply wanted them to feel pleasure, and it had only seemed appropriate to offer Cami as a gift to Ajax after everything I’d done to him.

Not to mention the heartbreak of his confession.

He never talked about his past. While I was familiar with what had happened, it hadn’t prepared me to hear the anguish in his voice as the truth serum forced him to speak.

I swallowed, the memory of it clouding my mind and making me loosen my grip on his throat. But I didn’t release him.