Page 63

Erinyes Island

Adrian

I woke up to silence. Not the kind that soothes, but the kind that claws at your insides. The apartment was empty. Not just physically. Spiritually. Like every breath I took was missing something. Missing her. It felt hallow. Off. Like I was inhaling absence.

Iryen was gone. And in her absence, something inside me rotted.

The air still carried her. My bed, the couch, my car. They all reeked of her, like some cruel ghost. Two days. That’s all it took for her to root herself in every cell of my existence. She was still here somehow, everywhere. Except in the one place I needed her most.

With me.

The ache wasn’t just emotional. It was physical. A crushing weight behind my ribs. My lungs refused to work right. My skin burned with phantom touches. And my heart, no, the thing pretending to be a heart, couldn’t stop spasming in this sick rhythm of missing.

And worse?

I could still feel her. Faint. Like a memory I couldn’t relive. Her presence still lingered in the bond like a dying ember refusing to snuff out. The string between us, stretched thin and quivering, refused to break.

The shrill ring of my phone sliced through the stillness, dragging me back to the surface. I didn’t want to answer. I wanted nothing but to lie between the sheets, smelling her faint jasmine scent. But the name on the screen made something in me snap.

My mother.

I didn’t want to hear her voice. Didn’t want to see her name.

The dishonesty still simmered under my skin like acid.

She’d lied. Kept the truth about who, what, we were.

From me. From Malia. My little sister still did not know she wasn’t fully human.

And gods help me, I prayed she never would.

That she never had to feel what I felt. That she never came face to face with death.

Still, I swiped to answer as I made my way to the whiskey cart and served myself a generous dose. Neat, just as is my humor.

“Adrian,” she breathed, and the sound of her voice set my teeth on edge. Desperate. On edge. Not good.

“Yes?” I answered. Cold. Flat. Controlled.

“You need to do something, and fast.”

The hair on my arms stood on end. My heart raced with imminent dread.

“About what?” My voice turned sharper.

I didn’t have the patience for games. Not today.

“You haven’t seen the news?” she demanded.

“Not yet. Why?” I asked in a dry tone, but what I really wanted to say was.

No, Mom, I haven’t seen the fucking news. I barely got out of bed this morning. My chest is aching with a dull pain that has become my companion.

What a fucking mess.

“Lorenzo filed a petition to explore marine life in Erinyes. He wants to turn it into a tourist dive site.” She continued for my delight.

That fucker, always meddling in my life, always poking in my business, interfering in anything and everything. Any other day I would leave him be, not engage in any attempt to ruin my work, but not today.

Today, I will gladly interfere in his. Ruin his plans of exploring a precarious life.

“Fuck.” The word came like a gunshot.

Rage blurred my vision. My blood ran cold even as white-hot rage surged up my throat. Lorenzo. That greedy, bottom-feeding bastard. He wanted to gut the sea. Pry open its secrets. Her secrets.

Aetheria.

My grip tightened. The glass in my hand creaked.

I’d kept it together for the last two days. Barely. Training. Testing the limits of my power. Choking on grief. But now? Now I was burning.

And her name exploded in my mind like a detonation.

Iryen.

“For now,” my mother continued, distant, “your father has delayed the request. But it won’t hold. Not for long.”

“Then I’ll make it permanent.”

She fell silent. I was already pacing.

Thoughts raced through my mind. Only one solution will be definitive and unquestionable. It will be tricky, and I’m going to hate every step, but her safety and the safety of her people are at stake. And I will do anything to ensure that she remains protected.

“I’ll buy the damn island. Petition the Senate. Enforce maritime sovereignty. Lock it down.”

My father had pulled every string in politics for years. I had no intention of letting those ties rot. Even if it means giving in to what I fought against for years. Even if it means selling my soul to the devils in suits—if it means becoming one myself .

“I’ll tell him to start the paperwork,” she blurted. Then, softer: “Adrian…”

“Talk to Malia.” I blurt out, not ready to talk with her more than necessary.

“What?”

“She deserves to know what she is. What we are.”

Silence.

Then, finally, she said, “I will.” And the line went dead.

I stared out the window, heart still thundering, breath uneven. The idea of legislation, ownership, barriers, permits—it should have overwhelmed me. It didn’t. I welcomed the chaos.

Because if I couldn’t have her, I’d settle for protecting what she loved.

Her kingdom. Her people. And her secrets.

She was mine. Whether or not she likes it. Whether it killed me.

And if the world thought Erinyes was untouchable before, wait until they saw what I’d do for the woman who shattered me.

I would burn my empire to the ground if meant keeping her safe. If it meant keeping her alive.

Hell, I would destroy the fucking government just to have her.

I never belonged here. Not really. Not in the penthouse, not in the luxury, not in the lie I wore like skin. The company, the name, the legacy—all it ever did was fill a void. Until her.

And now?

Now, all I had was that void. That hole in my chest where my heart used to be.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t fuck function.

She broke me. And I wanted more.

My favorite kind of madness, with her name carved into it.