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Kaos felt Jaxi still even through the distance. “The Queen?”

He watched her gaze move from him to his brothers, then locking back on him. “The Queen?”

Her jealousy boldly filled the air like a tempest and Kaos was sure it was smile worthy.

“Kaos told you about her?” Krave asked, his own obsession entering the fray.

Her gaze snapped to the Kissing King. “Oh yes,” she fired out, arms folding tightly. “She’s all he talks about.”

“She’s possessive,” Kaos murmured, unable to keep his smile from growing.

Kross chuckled low. “She might be more dangerous than the Queen.”

Jaxi’s head snapped toward him now. “Excuse you—I am a deeply nurturing presence.”

A snort threatened his throat.

“I bake. I rescue stray cats. I cry during commercials. I am not dangerous—I am a gentle threat at most.”

Krave smiled wryly. “Gentle’s not what reached Nominous.”

Jaxi blinked.

Kade leaned forward, voice softer now. “That flare didn’t just come from him. You carry something strong—something that answered his chaos with your own.”

Kollaborator nodded, gaze steady. “That wasn’t just danger—it was magnitude.”

Something shifted in her beside him—sharp and rising, like color hitting oil. Kaos didn’t move. He felt the weight coil through the air as her silence stretched thin. She stared at Kade, but her focus had pulled inward, fracturing and reassembling too fast for her to speak.

“You said it was Kohl,” she realized, facing him. “That night at dinner. The Queen. The bond. You made it sound like it belonged to him.” Her voice hit clean, hard, gaze slicing. “But it was you. It was always you.”

The room bent with her revelation.

“You sat across from me, moaning and groaning about this sacred bond—this spiritual orgasm you two shared through holy intimacy and celestial therapy or whatever the hell you called it.”

Her voice cracked against the air like a whip.

“I thought I was jealous of Kohl. Thought he had some tragic love story tucked into his past like a broken heirloom.” She pointed now—fingers trembling from the storm she called up. “But it wasn’t in his past, it was in yours . And it wasn’t some heirloom , it was your whole damn identity .”

Kaos didn’t blink as he sucked her in.

“You paraded it around like it defined you,” she cried, her fury growing like a third heaven. “Like it made you noble. Sacrificial. Holy.” Her voice pitched. “And all that time, you let me think he was the one who lost her, who suffered for her. Who got all spiritually naked with her.”

The words slammed down like a challenge.

“You let me carry that image, let me seethe while you sat there soaking it in.”

Kaos felt his Rage stir. Not at her. At the truth she just cracked wide open. At how deeply he’d wanted her to burn for him. More so now.

Her mouth opened once more, lips parting with a gasp of disbelief. “And now I’m in love with the bastard who used it like foreplay.”

Her passion moved through Kaos like sanctified power. He went to her, blocking the room with his body, forcing her to look up. He took her face in his hands and leaned his mouth to her ear. “Say it again,” he whispered.

She took hold of his hands and lowered them. “Say what?”

“That you love me.”

She stared at him, jaw setting harder, anger flaring brighter. It tasted like spiritual cool-whip, and Kaos waited, his body alive with the pulse of possession.

She shoved him away and declared war with a jab of her little possessive finger. “Do you know how much worse this is? Now that I know it was you all along? You—the smug divine lunatic who sat there acting like her memory was some tragic poem?”

Her hands flew, wild and dramatic as she paced out his judgment.

“Maybe I should march back to that wall and paint you as a weeping black demon in a diaper, wailing over your celestial soulmate .” She nodded, liking the idea a lot.

“Or maybe I’ll just whip out a fresh canvas and capture your sacred grief in interpretive glitter.

” She stormed bravely up to him, eyes blazing.

“Or maybe I’ll save Mr. Ominous the trip and unmake you myself. ”

His brothers all erupted in stifled snickers while every inch of her jealousy sang to him like sacred flame. He inhaled it deeply, her fury the air he was built to breathe.

Kollaborator checked the nearest card. “Well. That leaves us exactly fifty-three minutes to throw him a going-away-forever party.”

Jaxi jolted. Her eyes locked on the card, then on Kaos—fear swallowing her whole.

“Fifty-three?” Her voice caught. “That’s all that’s left?

” She whirled back to Kaos. “Why are you standing there, we need to hurry!” She turned on the others, hands flailing at them like blades.

“Why are you all just standing here? He’s going to be erased! You said that!”

Kaos watched as she shoved the stupid divine beings toward the door with her tiny human hands, crying “Move, move, move!”

She suddenly spun and faced him, eyes huge with disbelief. “You’re not moving?” she shrilled, storming over and yanking him toward the door. “My God, am I going to have to rescue you by myself? I’m just a girl, a human girl!”

Kaos couldn’t speak as she pulled him. He glanced once more at the painting on the wall, gaze locking on her face. Fearless, fierce protection. She was standing between him and his eternal death, he realized. Determined to save him. With no thought of herself.

And it unmade him more than Nominous ever could.