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“Damn it, Jani.” He pulled her hard against him, her face pressed to the crook of his neck. She heard his heartbeat beneath her cheek and it came to her. Like lightning on a dark night or a crack of thunder that rocked her to her soul.

Her breath snagged. This was why the cat had called him Mine . Why she’d felt his love and had been able to draw on it to finish the shift.

Because the mate bond had budded, fragile as a just-born rose. Her mom had told Marjani she’d know it when she felt it, and oh, she did. It made her hot and yearning and needful—and sad to the depths of her soul.

Because she couldn’t let that beautiful, delicate bud grow into anything. For so many reasons, they weren’t right for each other. She was a fada soldier. He was the stupid-rich, classy-as-fuck envoy of the ice fae king. She could never fit into his world.

And as for Fane fitting into hers? Yeah, right. She could just picture him living in a den in Baltimore. And what would Adric say? He might be more tolerant than Leron, but if his sister—and second—came back mated with a part-fae, it would cause trouble.

“Jani?” He set a finger under her chin and tipped up her face. What he saw there made him furrow his brow.

Then his face changed. His eyes crinkled and his lips curved. For once, she didn’t see a trace of wryness or irony in his expression.

Just wonder and heat.

He said her name again, low and rough. “ Jani .”

Mate. That was the cougar.

Her heart lurched. “No,” she rasped and turned away.

Fane grabbed her upper arm. She stilled, and he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “When this is over, we're going to talk.”

“No.”

“Yes,” he returned, soft but firm. Warm lips traced the side of her neck. “Do you think I’ll let you go just like that? No fucking way.”

And here she’d thought he was laid-back. But it made her smile, deep inside, to know he wanted her so much. Even if it would never work.

She pushed at his arms and got her nape nipped in retaliation.

“I want your promise.” A growled demand.

She blew out a breath and gave in. Because really, what was she afraid of? Give the man a few days, and he’d see for himself how impossible this thing between them was.

“Fine.” She let her head rest against his shoulder. “I promise.”

“Good.” He kissed the spot he’d nipped. “And now, we’d better go before the king sends someone looking for us.” He urged her toward the door with a hand on her back.

She halted. Corban had lifted his head to watch them. She slipped out of Fane’s grip.

“Wait for me outside,” she told him. “I’ll be right there.”

“Leave him.” Fane’s gaze followed hers. “We don’t need any more trouble.”

“I can’t.”

“Then I’m staying right here.”

She recognized that tone. He wasn’t going to budge. Still, she tried one more time. “I don’t want you to see this.”

“Jani,” he said, very patiently. “I've seen a hundred turns of the sun. Where do you get the idea you have to protect me?”

She dragged a hand over her stubbled head. “Stay then,” she gritted, and crossed to her cousin.

Corban pushed himself up to stand on trembling legs, chest working like a bellows. Tiny sparks of light spread over his black fur, dim but visible, and then he changed to man. Somehow, he’d found the strength to shift.

He crouched on the floor of the cage, lungs heaving. He’d always seemed larger than life: a dominant, compelling man like his father. Now he was emaciated, his brown skin covered with sores, deep lines of pain scored on his face.

She felt an unexpected wave of sorrow. If only she could call Adric—let him handle this. But her smartphone didn’t work inside the castle, and besides, he was three thousand miles away in Maryland.

She set her jaw. “Tell me what happened to Luc. Why is he with that fae bitch?”

Corban lifted his head, and she braced herself for a sneering comment about how she’d managed to get herself captured not once, but twice.

When he said, “I’m ready,” it took her a few beats to understand.

She drew a serrated breath. “Not ’til you tell me what happened to Luc.”

Corban didn’t seem to hear. “Use your fucking knife. Don’t let me die like some animal in a cage.”

Her fingers tightened around the switchblade handle. “Why should I show you any mercy?”

“Because it’s Adric’s fault I’m here.”

She scowled. “Oh, no. You don’t get to put this on Ric.”

“He sent me after Lady B.”

“So? You were supposed to turn her over to the king, not ally yourself with her.”

“I’m not stupid, Jani. I knew Adric sent me to India to die.”

“Because you gave me to those river fada, you bastard. We both knew you were behind it, even if we couldn’t prove it.”

His big hands clenched on the sheepskin rug.

“Without any backup, I was an easy target for Lady B. So instead, I made a deal with her—she’d help me win alpha, and I’d protect her from Sindre.

But the king kept sending people after her, and she gave up and came home.

Somehow they worked out a truce—she has him wrapped around her little finger now.

And I’m in here.” His gold eyes burned into hers, filmy and tinged with madness. “So my loving cousin owes me.”

“Like hell. You brought this mess on yourself. You worked against him from the day he took over as alpha.”

“I should’ve been alpha, not him.”

“No fucking way. It was a fair challenge. The stronger man won.”

Corban growled.

“You just don’t get it, do you? Ric is stronger than you in every way that counts. The clan has a chance now, under him.”

Her cousin closed his eyes.

She rubbed her nape. Why was she fighting with him? He was going to pass out without her learning anything.

“Tell me what you know about Luc,” she said, “and I’ll do it.”

Beside her, Fane tensed.

Her chest squeezed. She didn’t want him to see this. He’d probably never killed a man in his life, while she’d killed so many, their faces ran together in her mind.

“Go,” she hissed. “I promise, I’ll be there in a minute.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll wait.”

“ Please ,” she said, but all she got was a shake of his head.

Then Corban spoke, and she turned back to him. Maybe it was better if Fane saw her as she really was—a killer. Then she wouldn’t be forced to reject the mate bond, because he would.

“He’s…with her,” Corban said. “The lady.”

“He went with her willingly?”

“Yes. She…told him…only way…to help you.”

“She lied to him?”

“Don’t know.”

“It might not be a lie,” Fane inserted. “You're alive, aren’t you? That may be due to the bargain he struck with her.”

Oh, Luc. Marjani briefly closed her eyes.

“So he’s bound to her?” she asked. “He accepted her geas ?”

“Yeah. She has a thing for fada lovers. Luc’s probably even enjoying himself.” Corban’s lips stretched in a death’s-head grin. “Until he…pisses her off.”

“Is that what you did? Pissed her off?”

A shrug. “I told you…what you asked. Now…do it.”

“One more thing. What did you tell her about our quartz?”

Her cousin’s eyes slid sideways. That was all the answer she needed. Her breath caught at his treachery.

“Damn it, Corban. What the fuck have you done?”

“Couldn’t…help it. She’d heard something. Figured…some of it out herself. I tried to…bargain with her. But I lost.”

“Jani.” Fane touched the small of her back. “We have to go.”

“I’ll be right there.” She crouched next to the cage. Corban’s eyes met hers through the iron bars.

“You don’t have to do this,” Fane said. “I know it’s why you came, but he’ll be dead by tomorrow anyway.”

She shook her head. It wasn’t about her revenge anymore, but how could she explain that to Fane? She barely understood herself.

“Do it.” Her cousin crawled forward until they were just inches apart. He stared at her, his body trembling from the effort to keep himself on all fours. “Or are you too weak?”

Anger spiked through her. Not because he’d called her weak—she knew he was simply trying to goad her into doing it—but because she was going to have to kill her own cousin. Yet another death to haunt her.

“Fuck you.” She pressed the catch releasing the blade. “I hope you go straight to Hades.”

“Count on it.” His mouth twisted. “Wondered if…you had…it in you.”

“Believe it. I learned from the best, remember?” She slid her arm through the bars, careful not to touch the iron.

Corban gave a weak chuckle, before turning his head at an angle so she could slice his artery. He closed his eyes.

She took a deep breath, and then did it, quick and clean. It took a minute for him to bleed out. She set a hand on his shoulder and waited. She needed to witness this, so she could report to Adric that he was really dead.

And because even a bastard like her cousin didn’t deserve to die alone.

Corban’s eyelids fluttered. “Tell Adric…not doing…so bad.”

She swallowed over a boulder-sized lump. “I will.”

Air rattled in his emaciated chest—and then he lay still. His heart gave a few rapid, erratic beats and then lurched to a stop.

“Peace,” she whispered and stood up. She wiped her blade on her pants leg and then shoved it into her pocket.

Her eyes met Fane’s. She lifted her chin. Just let him look down at her. She refused to be ashamed.

But he held out his arms. “Come here.”

Her mouth worked. She stared at him miserably, and then stumbled the three steps between them. His arms wrapped around her, strong and comforting.

“You did good,” he said. “It was a kindness to put the poor man out of his misery.”

Her breath rasped out. He was right. So why did her heart feel like a weight had been attached to it?

She’d hated Corban, but he’d still been her cousin. And a member of the clan.

She closed her eyes and breathed in Fane’s clean scent. “I wish…”

He nodded against her hair. “Me, too.”

“Why the hell did I have to meet you? I was doing just fine without you.”

“I know you were.”

“No, I wasn’t,” she contradicted. “I was going feral. I am going feral. It’s just too fucking hard to be a human.”

And then she was blubbering like a baby. Deep, wrenching sobs that felt like she was being turned inside out.

“Hush, now.” Fane rubbed her back. “It’s okay, love. It’s okay.”

She cried harder. Because it wasn’t okay, and it hadn’t been for a long time. The Darktime had taken her mom and dad, and good friends like Jace’s sister Takira.

And although the Darktime was supposed to be over, bad things just kept happening.

“I’m…so tired,” she said on a sob. “So fucking tired. Of all the killing. And I can barely control my animal anymore. It wants out, and I’m not sure why I shouldn’t let it.”

“Oh, love.” Fane rocked her back and forth like she was a child. “I’m so sorry. Your cougar is beautiful, but so is the human part of you.”

Her breath rasped in. “But it’s so…hard to be human,” she said to his chest.

The cat was so much less complicated. Straightforward. Basic. Mess with it, and it would rip out your throat and not lose a moment’s sleep.

“I know.” Soft lips brushed over her temple. “But you’re not an animal, you’re a fada. And I’m pretty sure that means accepting every part of you. Woman. Cougar. Even that small part of you that’s fae.”

She took another rasping breath and nodded. He was right. She’d just been trying to forget it.

“And you know what?” He pressed a kiss to each of her eyes. “I want to learn every part of you. Everything. Because that’s what makes you who you are.”

His words were balm to her broken soul. For so long, rage had been a bitter black knot in her chest.

Now, the knot slowly unclenched. Her sobs slowed until she hung in Fane’s arms, drained.

“I love you.” Fane stroked a hand over her head. “Whatever happens, remember that, okay?” He waited until she nodded before saying, “Stars, I hate to say this—but we have to go. The geas is pulling on me. And if we stay here much longer, that bitch might come back.”

“Okay. Okay.” She took a deep breath and then pushed away from him. She scrubbed at her face, knowing she must look like shit. And why did she care? But she did. Fane made her care about things like that.

He took her by the arm. “You all right?”

“Yeah.” She took a last look at Corban. The lines of pain bracketing his mouth had smoothed. He looked almost peaceful. That was something, anyway.

Her jaw tightened. “You know what? I hope it pisses off Lady B to find him dead. The woman’s a monster.”

His smile held absolutely no humor. “It will. That, I can guarantee.”

He reached for her, but she shook her head. “Let me wash first.” Crossing the room to the kitchenette, she turned on the faucet as hot as she could stand and scrubbed her hands and arms.

As she watched the blood-stained water swirl down the drain, the shadows in the tower thickened. Her fangs pricked her gums.

She washed the tears from her face and strode back to Fane. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Yeah.” He twined his fingers through hers, and together, they headed down the stairs.