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I couldn’t take my eyes off my soulmate. The way she looked at me from across the room moments ago was more than desire. It was an unmasked awe, adoration, gratitude, and so much more that I was scared to even hope.

Currently she was standing twenty paces from Penina with a silver throwing knife in one hand and a blindfold in the other.

“You could at least try to be respectful, boy.” Bane grumbled stepping next to me, indicating my stare.

I didn’t bother dragging my eyes away from the view. “Fuck off Bane…I don’t recall Eve appointing you as her guardian.” I smirked and spoke in a low growl only he could hear. “Ah, that’s right, she asked me to watch over Remnant, not you . ”

“Eve made a mistake. Dark deserves far better than the likes of you, boy.”

I tore my eyes away from Remnant this time and leveled the swordmaster with a lethal look.

“I could say the same to you. My mother definitely deserved better than you…and so does Penina. You’ve never deserved either of them and yet somehow the goddess still honors you with gifts that you continually spit on. ”

Bane’s eyes narrowed.

“ That's right, asshole.” My voice was low only for him. “I know what Penina is to you. We all do.” Growling, I turned my back on him. I despised the bastard to my very core.

“Careful, fairy boy. Your soulmate was correct when she said Bane will be needed for the Sanguine and if it wasn’t for him…you may have never found her.” Ethereal commented.

I grunted. “He won’t betray us, he just can’t admit his unrequited love for my mother wasn’t what fate intended. Penina was and that pisses him off.”

“You cannot help who you love. The swordmaster loved Skylar by choice, he loves Penina by fate. Neither does he feel he can act upon and that makes him dangerous. He may not betray you, but he doesn’t have to help you either.”

“Ready Penina?” Remnant cooed and my attention turned back on her beautiful profile.

“I’ll have ten seconds to throw, you must be ready at any moment.

” Remnant held out her blade for the shadows to keep before wrapping the blindfold around her eyes.

I traced my fang with my tongue, images of what I could do to her blindfolded flooding my depraved mind.

She held out her hand and the shadows gently laid the dagger over her palm.

“I understand the rules.” Penina, bounced softly on her feet with excitement. She had changed her attire again as she often did. It was a passion of hers and the green jumpsuit she wore now allowed her freedom of movement. If anyone had a chance to dodge a thrown dagger by soulmate it was her.

Remnant inhaled deep. “Riley, countdown please.”

“Ten…nine…eight…seven…”

We all held our breath when a flash of silver soared through the air and thunked loudly into the wooden wall.

“Goddess’s bitch.” Penina snarled, holding her arm where her jumpsuit had torn and blood seeped between her fingers.

Remnant didn’t even take off the blindfold. “Just a flesh wound, shifter.” She pulled the blindfold off and smirked. “Xi, please heal our friend.”

My brow raised. I didn't know the elemental twin had healing abilities .

“Don’t get too excited, your majesty.” Xi shot over her shoulder at me. “My healing capabilities are basic at best.” She waved her hands over Penina’s exposed mocha skin, healing it instantly.

“Alright, Nina.” Tyr said eagerly and pressed a glass into her bloody hand. “You lost, give us a truth we don’t know already, and we'll all drink to it.”

Penina’s brows furrowed over her deep brown eyes and then smirked. “I don’t like pasties.”

I choked on my drink and everyone stared. Even my father made a non-committal sound.

Remnant snickered. “What is it with you shifters and your pasties?” She pointed at the elemental twins. “You both as well?”

Riley clutched his arms to his chest wistfully, his hazel eyes narrowed on Remnant. “Freya’s pasties are unlike anything you ever had. A golden savory pastry bursting with warm flavors of buttered meat and vegetables, then cooled by the sweet, salty, tartness of ketchup. It is like sex.”

Remnant rounded on me and I tore my eyes away from a very stoic Tyr who was staring at Riley with hunger in his eyes.

“You’ve been holding out on me, shifter?”

I didn’t care who was watching, in two blurring steps my hands were in her hair tilting her face upwards. “I would never hold you back from such a delight, little umbra. Watching you eat has become one of my favorite pastimes.” I purred and inhaled the flood of desire pouring off her.

With shaking hands she rose her drink between us, her emerald gaze watching me over the rim of her glass she whispered. “Slàinte!”

“Slàinte!” The others said robotically, following her lead.

I watched the pale column of her throat with each long swallow and then slowly pulled the glass away from her wet lips to finish the rest of the contents with a dark grin.

Remnant drew in a ragged breath and spun away. “My turn to dodge. Who’s my dagger?”

“I thought you’d never ask, Dark.”

Bane sauntered across the room and gave me a smirking glare. I set the glass down slowly before I broke another one today and gave him a warning growl.

“I hate to say I told you so, fairy boy.” The panther drawled.

“Sooner than I expected.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at the back of his head .

“Indeed. In my day, an upstart like this would have been squashed immediately.”

I snorted. “You were just telling me not to make an enemy of him.”

“I do believe we are now past any peaceful resolutions.”

“I cannot kill him. Penina would never forgive me.”

Ethereal sighed. “Pity.”

I watched the bastard take a silver dagger into his hand.

My father’s hand snatched his forearm. “Don’t be a fool, Bane. I won’t interfere on your behalf this time when my son comes after you.”

Bane sniffed and wrenched his hand away. “I don’t need protection from your boy, Asher. Besides, Dark wanted to play. This is a perfect way for me to assess where we need to resume her training.”

I snarled. “The two hours you trained outside wasn’t enough assessment for you, Steelhead?”

His eyes glittered back at me. “There are many ways to assess one's training.” He winked at me before pulling the blindfold down and I could still feel his mocking gaze even covered.

Tyr gripped my shoulder and pulled me away. “Fuck him, your majesty. I’m sure his old ass is too slow for Beauty anyway.”

I looked at my soulmate who watched me calculatingly.

“Make him lose, Remnant. ”

Bane snickered.

She raised her brow at me. “Is that an order, your majesty?”

I shook my head. “You don’t need an order to beat that bastard. It’s merely a request from a fae that cares about you.”

A fae that loves you I wanted to say.

She tilted her head, staring a long moment into my eyes. Something changed inside of her and she nodded quietly more to herself than at me.

Reaching the wall, she faced Bane. “Count—” Remnant’s voice cut off when Bane’s arm drew back and the silver knife flew through the air straight at her heart.

Roaring with rage, Tyr could not hold me back when I plowed into the swordmaster. My claws sinking into the back of his shoulders viciously, his face half smashed in from hitting the stone floor from my assault, blood already pooling around it .

A singular steel blue eye glared over his shoulder at me where his blindfold had been knocked off and he attempted to lift his head up.

I snarled and shoved him back down, my claws sinking more into his body. He let out a pained cry and I snapped my fangs just above his exposed artery that pulsed wildly at his neck.

Across the room I heard Penina snarl. “Idiot fossil.”

“I could end you!” I raged.

Bane groaned and then spat blood out of his mouth. A look of comprehension suddenly crossing his face. “Impossible!” He wheezed.

My growl abruptly cut short with realization. Bane had…played me.

Shaking with rage at his sick test to satisfy his theory that I was Remnant’s soulmate, I roared again, rattling the manor with my fury.

Twisting my claws deeper into the swordmaster's shoulders, I reveled in the sadistic pleasure of his tendon’s shredding and the painful cries emitting from his smug face.

I leaned lower and dropped my voice so that Remnant could not hear my next words.

“You thought yourself an anomaly, that you and Penina were a mistake because you are from two different courts.

You rejected your bond and now you attempt to make others suffer but I won't play your fucking games anymore, Bane Steelhead.” His eyes narrowed on me and I hissed low.

“Out of respect for my family, I will spare your life…again…but know this—I have no reservations about making sure your life is a nightmare full of despair and pain. You think you are familiar with that now but you have no idea how much worse I can make it for you. Consider yourself fucking warned.”

Bane gasped, spitting out more blood and with a lethal smile on his lips he whispered back to me. “Must kill you…knowing that I’m the sole reason you even found yours.”

Roaring, I dragged his body up on my claws prepared to rip his arms from his body like wings off a cooked chicken.

Then everything went black and shadows swarmed around me.

Breathing heavily, I blinked through the darkness. Bane was gone and now Remnant knelt in front of me. Her hands reached shakily for my face and pulled my eyes down to hers.

“Emon.” Remnant cooed at me, like one would to sooth a child .

“Little umbra…” I whispered brokenly. Even in my momentary rage with Bane, I had not scented any blood from her, but I knew my soul would not be calm until I absolutely knew for sure. Retracting my claws, I brought my bloody hands up to her face. “Are you okay, did he harm you?”

Remnant snorted and leaned her face into my hand. “Of course I am okay, Emon. Bane is harmless. I was his novice for many years, nothing he does surprises me anymore. You should have known better.”

My puffing sigh of relief blew her hair back into the shadowy darkness.

“I can’t—” I swallowed hard. “I can’t bear to even think about you being harmed.” I trembled. “I need you Remnant, let me show you…let me take you away from here. Just this night, to show you the truth. You said we need to make time.”

She frowned in the shadowy darkness. “But the others…tomorrow—”

I kissed her lips softly and groaned when she kissed me back. “We will be back before tomorrow. Let me show you.”

Remnant shivered and then leaned in kissing me again. “Okay.”

I pulled back and stared hard into her emerald depths. “Be sure, little umbra. Tell me—tell me you choose this.”

Her hands reached up and covered my own. “I choose this, Emon. I choose you, shifter.”

I released a satisfied groan and pulled her tightly to my chest. “Little fiends.” I growled at the shadows around us. “You know what to do.”

Snapping, the shadows plunged inward, instantly transporting us to the location I projected in my mind.