Page 39 of Malice: The Mate Games (Apocalypse #3)

“Thanks to you, I’ve discovered the beauty of my shadow form. He’s opened many new doors for me.”

A flare of desire pulsed from her, but she averted her gaze. Something was wrong. This would not stand. How could I protect her if she kept things from me?

“Merri,” I said, voice firm. “Tell me what happened.”

“Not until I can tell you all.”

Frustration, the likes of which I’d never known, radiated through my body. “Just tell me now.”

“No, because then you’re just going to make me repeat myself four times. I’m tired of having the same conversation over and over. It’s my news, I’ll deliver it how I want, and you’ll shut the fuck up and let me.”

I stared at her, my voice coming out as a dark growl. “Excuse me.”

She wilted for a second, as if only just now realizing what she said, before straightening her shoulders and squaring off. “You heard me.”

Balling my hands into fists, I stood and took a deep breath in an attempt to gather my composure so I didn’t shout at her. “Fine. You have ten minutes. If you aren’t in the library by then, I will come up here and haul you downstairs over my shoulder. Am I clear?”

“Crystal.”

“I’m glad at least one of us knows how to be reasonable,” I muttered.

“Can’t wait for you to catch up to the rest of us,” she called behind me as I headed for her door.

I shot a final blazing look at her over my shoulder. “Keep pushing, wildflower. See where it gets you.”

Not bothering to close the door behind me, I stormed into the hallway. My shadow spread across the floor and up the walls, coating every surface near me in black.

“Malice! Sin! Chaos!” I bellowed from the top of the stairs, knowing that no matter where they were in the chateau, they’d hear me. “Library. Now!”

Chaos popped his head out of his room, rubbing a towel over the wet strands of his hair. “Why are you shouting?”

“Merri has an announcement.”

He snapped to attention the way only a master of war could manage. “What happened?”

“She refused to tell me anything until all four of us were together.”

“And you let her get away with that?”

I raised a brow. “What precisely would you have me do, Chaos?”

“Good point.”

Sin stumbled out of his bedroom, hair tousled, shirt askew as if he’d just thrown it on. “What’s wrong? Demons? Where are they?”

“Emergency book club meeting,” Chaos muttered.

“Nope. I’m out.”

Chaos leveled his gaze at Sin. “Merri called this meeting.”

Sin’s posture changed instantly. “Oh, well, in that case, I’ll just go brush my teeth.”

Malice was already standing in the foyer, a cup of tea in his hand. “You bellowed?” he asked as Chaos trailed me down the stairs.

“We’re meeting in the library,” I snapped, blowing past him.

“Goodie. You know how I love a meeting that could’ve been an email.”

“Email doesn't exist anymore,” Sin declared, jogging so he could catch up with us. “Besides, Merri picked the book this time.”

“What?”

I took pity on Mal and said, “Merri has something to tell us. She’ll be down momentarily.”

Malice glanced between me and the others. “This feels like a lot of skulduggery for a simple announcement. Did something happen?”

What little was left of my patience evaporated. “How the bloody hell should I know? She refused to tell me a fucking thing. Now shut up and get your arse in the library so we can move this the fuck along.”

There was dead silence as my three brothers stared at me in shock.

In a move that surprised no one, Sin broke the silence first. He whistled, long and low. “Wow. Somebody made Grandpa angry.”

“Wouldn’t you be if she was clearly distressed and refused to tell you why?” I snapped.

As soon as I reached the library, I stalked to the wall of shelves and began pacing. I didn’t do well with uncertainty. Death was the one certain thing in life. I was inevitable. I had no room for what-ifs. Death came for every mortal creature without contest.

Not knowing what she was going to tell us had my heart in a vise, and it kept squeezing until I was sure it would be crushed to dust.

It was exactly sixteen steps in one direction before I was forced to spin on my heel and stalk back the other way.

My focus was inward, but I felt the stares from the others.

Malice appeared the most outwardly calm as he sipped his tea.

Chaos was a bit harder to read with his furrowed brow, but I would bet he was just as unsettled as I was.

Sin, as always, was an eager little puppy. He couldn’t keep himself still.

“What do you think she’s going to tell us? Do you think it’s about Lucifer?” Sin blurted.

“Oh my God, it’s not about Lucifer!” Merri shouted, exasperation clear in every word as she stood in the doorway.

Of course she looked like an angel sent from heaven. Hair falling down her back in long crimson waves, body clothed in a simple pair of sweatpants and one of her favorite well-worn T-shirts.

“Then what is it?” Chaos demanded.

“You guys need to settle down. Sheesh. I told Grim it’s not about Lucifer.” Her smile was soft and sweet as she approached us. “It’s a good thing.”

“Why didn’t you think to mention that?” Malice asked me.

“She never said.” Then I glared accusingly at Merri. “You never told me that bit.”

“You were too busy jumping to conclusions to bother.”

Something loosened in my chest, and I inclined my head in assent. “You’re right.”

Her eyes widened, but Sin interrupted any response she might have been about to toss my way.

“Well, what is it? We’re all ears, kitten.”

Nervous energy zinged through the room, most of it from me.

I didn’t have a wealth of experience when it came to good news.

Things in my life could rarely be classified as good.

I was actually more anxious waiting for Merri to share something she was clearly excited about than I was if she was about to drop something dire on us.

Dire I could handle. Had handled countless times before.

What the hell was I supposed to do with happy?

“I realized something while I was sleeping. It was the final piece of the puzzle I’d been missing since Lilith sent me to you.”

“Go on,” Chaos murmured.

She all but bounced on her toes, her eyes darting around the room to land on each of us as she spoke. “You four are mine. Not just my protectors or my bodyguards. You’re my destiny. My mates.”

The floor dropped out from underneath me. Of everything she could have said, nothing could have shocked me more.

Or garnered a more extreme reaction.

“Impossible,” I spat before anyone else had a chance to so much as blink.

Merri’s mouth dropped open, her face going pale. “I thought so too, but then I realized how everything just fi?—”

“You’re wrong.”

Everything she was saying was so wrong. Merri wasn’t my mate.

She wasn’t. I knew that as surely as I knew myself.

The horsemen didn’t have mates. We barely had anything that constituted a soul.

Our kind weren’t made for happily ever after.

We were the antithesis of happily ever after.

That’s simply how it’s always been and how it would always be.

Period. The end. It didn’t matter if one or all of us might wish differently.

“I’m not,” she said, but her voice had lost all of its fire.

“You are. We are not your mates, Merri. We never will be. It is impossible.”