Page 28 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)
“ T ake down the veil. I know you’re here.”
Thaddeus did away with the weak magic, casting aside the invisibility spell with a flick of his hand and a ripple of fingers.
He’d heard Cael approach, but had become so lost in his thoughts, trying to keep that strange darkness beneath his control.
His thread of magic provided more information than he’d anticipated.
Though Grison believed he’d been present, the foolish Fae never secured his little sanctuary once it was determined he’d left.
Cael settled beside Thaddeus where he leaned against a tree, staring out at the endless expanse of dark water.
He’d returned to Cael’s home, needing time to work through the tumultuous emotions that knotted deep within his chest. So many things he thought he’d lost the ability to feel.
Decades of disassociation, the only emotions revolving around a princess whose face he couldn’t draw to his mind.
A princess who’d left him to die when only the eve prior she’d promised him the world.
Nay. The only person who haunted his mind was a redheaded, fragile mortal. A mortal woman with ethereal green eyes and milky skin, a faint spray of freckles over her nose, beneath her eyes, pillowy lips…
A sharp breath fled his lungs. He dropped his arms from his chest, letting his head fall back against the tree trunk.
“The mortal woman?”
“Kill her.”
The command cooled his blood, stirring that alien darkness.
Let me see you try.
“Had I wished for you to leave me in solitude, I would’ve erased the energy path in my sift and woven stronger spells to keep you away,” Thaddeus said at last. He cast Cael a sideward glance. “I knew you’d come.”
“I can follow your sifts, even if you have the gift of erasing any and all traces.”
“Aye. Blood sense.”
“Mm. Indisputable proof we’re brothers by blood, whether you like it or not.”
Thaddeus huffed, hooking his thumbs on his belt. “I never denied our kinship. Doesn’t mean I can’t erase all tracks from your keen senses, Cael. Should I wish not to be found, I can easily make it happen.”
“And yet you wanted to be found, otherwise you wouldn’t have left such an evident energy link to your current position after your brief return to check up on your woman.
” Cael plucked a leaf from one of the low branches and traced the edges.
“You didn’t bother to try and hide the fact that you healed her completely tonight. ”
Thaddeus remained silent, staring out at the sea.
Aye, he’d healed her beneath the guise of torment.
He sowed seeds of loathing deep into her mind while stealing the tiniest of pleasures by holding her against him.
Cael believed his mating with a mortal woman a gift.
A second chance for the wrongs he’d done in his life.
What he could never understand was the degree of torture ’twas for him to suffer.
The Goddess dealt him a punishment worse than death in Rori, all while tormenting him with old, suppressed emotions and sensations coming back to life.
Cael would never be privy to the severity of the wrongs Thaddeus had committed. He could never learn the worst of them. The very action that marked him as a dead Fae.
“Your actions confuse her, and she doesn’t deserve such treatment. Why do you choose to stalk her from shadows only to perform little miracles and disappear, leaving her rolling in uncertainty?”
“I’ve naught to offer her.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Cael snorted, shoving away from the tree to face Thaddeus. “You’re her anam cara , Thad. You have everything to offer her. Everything no other man will ever be able to offer. You’re the one who will complete her.”
Thaddeus scowled. “I will break her.” Slowly, he straightened on his feet and prowled close to his brother. “I will destroy her. ’Tis all I have to offer.”
Cael’s lighthearted air melted into something heavy and tense.
The easygoing glow of his eyes turned stormy with flashes of silver.
“Then why do you bother hanging around? You’re not going to kill me.
You’re not going to kill anyone here. It’s all a bunch of smack talk. Why do you stay if not for her?”
“Grison and his men are not to be trifled with. My presence around you buys you time to make a decision regarding Cassy and a chance to leave this area and lay low for a time.”
“Avoiding lies through omission.” Cael leaned into Thaddeus. “Tell me you don’t stay for Rori. Tell me to my face your decision to linger is not for her.”
Bloody Cael, trying to trap him with his words.
A small, cold grin pulled at the corner of Thaddeus’s mouth.
“I have forged a path of my own conscious decisions that will forever prevent me from offering anything to another aside from disappointment and heartache. I am perceived to have aligned myself with a treasonous movement. I partook in a battle against Fae alongside a woman who turned traitor to her own father. I am a walking target should the right men discover I survived the battle on Talaenian ground. The only essence by my side is that of the Goddess’s death hound, awaiting the time to take me from these worlds.
Do tell, Cael. How does a dead Fae offer anything to the living?
There is no reincarnation for us. Death is permanent. ”
A spark of uncertainty touched Cael’s eyes. The hardened lines of his face smoothed, if only slightly. “Stop exaggerating. That’s nonsense. You’ve committed crimes, sure, but none that would mark you with an instant death sentence.”
“Mm. Do my words sound played?”
“Yes. You didn’t answer my question.”
“A question was never asked of me.” Thaddeus chuckled, straightening up and folding his arms over his chest once more.
“Cael, you best understand the brother you once knew is no longer alive in this body. He ceased the moment I chose to follow Daeanna. The man before you is ruthless and calculating, with little conscience. I am the Fae whose name is not spoken of out of fear of retribution. I had been Daeanna’s weapon.
Her best-kept secret. Do not fool yourself into believing I will ever be the brother you once knew. ”
Thaddeus brushed past Cael, the briny breeze filling his stagnant lungs and tangling his hair around his waist .
“Thad, if you have no good intentions, then leave her alone. Don’t fuck with her head.”
“Be mindful, ’twas you who told her we were soul mates. Any hope she possesses is because of you.” Thaddeus paused to cast Cael a sharp glance over his shoulder. “I gave her no reason to hold even a sliver of hope.”
With a flick of his hand, he sifted from the beach, Cael, and the serenity that had turned sour.