Page 29 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

Lee’s chest heaved as he stood tall and ran a hand over his short curls, his knuckles bleeding. That was what Doran noticed.

He stared for a beat before shaking his head and lifting a hand to his jaw. With a sharp jerk and a pop, he relocated his jaw, then pulled a cloth out of his pocket and wiped the blood from his face. The bleeding stopped. Not even a bruise remained.

Doran opened and closed his mouth, testing his jaw. “Other than the few hours I shifted into her, I only administered the sedative.”

I glanced at Ara, who held a hand firmly over her mouth, holding back vomit or a scream, I wasn’t sure. Her skin had lost its color, her eyes wide. “Why? Why would you help him, then release me?”

I ground my teeth and sat at Ara’s side, my leg touching hers. I needed her proximity before I killed someone—all of them.

Doran started to take a step toward the foot of the bed, but a ring of fire roared to life around him.

“Take a single step,” I warned, “and I’ll burn the flesh from your bones and throw your charred remains into the sea.”

Doran spoke solely to Ara as he said, “I didn’t know who you were before we spoke that first time, but you knew me.

” He flattened a hand over his heart. “For some reason, it wasn’t until you spoke to me and called me by my name that the feelings in my chest woke, the only tethers to who I was before I… died. It’s hard to describe.”

“Is he going to come for me again?” Livvy blurted, then covered her mouth with her trembling fingers. “He’s not, is he?”

I narrowed my eyes. “After everything Ara’s been through, that’s your first question?”

Her face crumpled as she looked to Ara, who lifted a shoulder and muttered, “It’s a valid fear.”

They both looked to Doran.

“I can’t be certain, but from what I could tell, he has no interest in mating, nor an offspring.”

Livvy sagged and released a shaky exhale.

“But he’ll come for me,” Ara said.

“No,” I snapped. “He’ll never lay another finger on you.” He never should’ve laid a finger on her in the first place—he’ll lose them all in penance. Turning to Doran, I asked, “If that were the case, why would he try to have Livvy kidnapped again all those months ago?”

“It’s always been about Ara,” he said. “I don’t know his plan, not fully. I only know the bits and pieces he let slip, but it’s not much. He didn’t trust me. He doesn’t trust anyone.” His gaze lifted to meet mine. “He has no friends, no known family, no ties. Thus, no consequences. No limits.”

“Why did he save you?” Ara asked. “And how?”

“We knew each other, or so he says. I don’t remember it, not even residual feelings remain, but Delphia does…vaguely. She says she was there the day he turned me. She tried to stop it.”

I blinked once. Twice. Jerked to my feet, scorching footprints in the wooden floor, and charged for the door.

“That memory only just returned to her mere days ago,” Lee explained in a rush. “We watched it come to her, and it was not pretty.”

I stopped at the threshold and gripped the door frame, smoke rising around my palms.

Delphia knew him. She knew him, and the lying traitor needed to die now.

But I couldn’t leave Ara. She didn’t need to see this, nor did I think she could handle it. If I waited, I’d have to hunt Delphia down. She was already here, in this inn, a few rooms away. I could find her?—

“Rogue?” her soft voice asked.

I swiveled to Ara, and she looked so fucking small, it only enraged me more. That bastard starved her, because the treacherous, lying bitch helped him capture us.

She needed to die. She would die.

I grabbed Ara’s arm, ready to drag her along, and she tensed—and so did I. The flash of fear in her eyes tore into my chest, a spark, a split second of regret, then it was gone.

“Delphia’s memories didn’t come back all at once,” Lee said. “They came in broken visions, triggered by something—one of which we witnessed. You can ask Iaso. She was there. She only remembered this on our travels here.”

“And this just happened to be the memory in which she sat by and watched Doran be turned into a Puer Mortis?”

“Yes,” he said. “Well, yes and no. She didn’t sit by and watch willingly.

From what we saw, the memory nearly killed her.

She fell to the ground and writhed. She started screaming.

” He winced and lifted his fingers to the side of his head.

“She started screaming, and it felt like knives in our ears. Iaso finally managed to wake her by stabbing a pin through her finger, but not before she ruptured our eardrums.”

“Kill her later if you must,” Ara whispered, “but I want to hear what he has to say.”

I leaned closer. “And if he’s lying?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it—but we haven’t yet.” She glanced over her shoulder and tipped her head. “He did save my life, so I trust him…a little.”

My teeth snapped together. My gaze slid to Doran, the man who possessed more of Ara’s trust than I did.

“Please,” she said quietly, the silver in her eyes cold and hollow.

A growl crawled up my throat. I released her, and she climbed back into the bed and tucked her feet beneath the blanket.

“Tell me exactly what she told you,” I said to Doran.

“Everything I’m about to say comes from her mouth, but I believe I can trust her.

” I barked a laugh, but he flattened his hand over his chest. “I can feel her here. I know I trusted her—loved her. She said when we were young, our parents died, and I took care of her, of us. Apparently, we met Adonis when we were living on the streets in Rainsmyre.”

“Rainsmyre?” Lee asked, his head swiveling in my direction.

Doran ignored his question and continued, “Adonis was much younger than us and delayed in his speech. He never spoke a word to anyone, so he was nameless. That was what everyone called him, Nameless, and he never corrected anyone. He was so young, he couldn’t fend for himself yet, so we shared food with him when we had it.

We kept him fed until another group of kids took him under their wing, then we left.

We never stayed anywhere long, Delphia said, and we never saw him again. ”

“And when did Delphia come to realize she knew the enemy?” I asked. “Did that conveniently come to her in a vision, too?”

“No,” Doran said, his expression flat. “Not exactly. She recognized him when he turned me—that was when she realized who he was and why he ‘saved’ me.”

“He remembered you two that far back?” Livvy asked.

“He forgets nothing. According to him, he remembers the day he was born. He remembers the day his mother abandoned him to the streets. Everything.”

“How is that possible?” Ara breathed. Her eyes fell to the bed, and I could practically see the gears turning in her head.

Doran shrugged. “I don’t know, and I can’t even be sure it’s true. Words from the devil’s mouth can’t always be trusted.”

Despite the friendship we once had, I took everything he said with a grain of salt, because he hadn’t been forced to remain by his side. Puer Mortis were notoriously uncontrollable, impervious to both magic and pain.

“Why did you stay, then?” I asked.

“Can I sit?” He tossed his head to the chair I’d sat in, now empty and missing an armrest. “You can just move…this.” He gestured to the ring of fire. “Do whatever you wish—whatever you must. I just want to sit.”

With an exasperated sigh, I waved my hand toward the chair, flames gone.

“When I woke, I had no memories and at the time, no feelings,” he said as he sat.

“I didn’t know where or who I was, so I became whoever he said I was.

It wasn’t until I saw Ara that I started to…

feel some kind of connection to my past life.

You need to understand that when I woke, I didn’t even know what I was.

When I felt my past life’s emotions rising in my chest, I didn’t know what it meant.

I knew nothing. I was a blank slate. I had died, and Adonis still took advantage of me, filling my head with his lies and delusions. ”

Doran’s fingers dug into the remaining armrest, his nails carving crescent shapes in the wood.

“Maybe he thought he was saving me or returning the kindness I once showed him, but this existence is no kindness. He did not offer mercy. He forced eternal damnation.”

When he looked up at me, icy rage filled his empty eyes, and my mouth twitched with a smile. Memory or not, blood or not, Fae or not, my old friend lived, and we had a common enemy.

“When I saw you in that field, I knew in my bones we’d been family once. You were my family. Delphia was my family. Ara was my family. So, I left with you all. I had told Ara I would meet her in King’s Port, but had I known she had reinforcements coming?—”

“No,” I interrupted, “because of your charade, he thinks she died, and as long as he believes that, he won’t come for her again.”

Ara released a shaky exhale, her shoulders sagging.

I sat on the bed beside her, and she subtly inched close enough that her elbow grazed mine. She touched me, willingly, unafraid. Even if her mind didn’t recognize me, her soul did, and that was enough—for now.

Doran leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped. “Whatever he has planned is set to happen on Winter Solstice.”

I stiffened.

“ This Winter Solstice?” Ara asked.

Doran gave a sharp nod. “That’s the one thing I’m completely certain of. He spoke of his countdown several times. Excitedly. Winter Solstice with you. He needed you, and he was overjoyed to already have you.”

My hands curled into fists. I’ll kill him. Brutally. Horrendously. Slowly.

Guardian’s anger flooded our connection. I’ll assist.

Has no one laid eyes on him yet?

No, not even a scent. He paused, and then, Something isn’t right.

“Me?” Ara rasped.

“He needed a storm bringer,” Doran said. “You are the storm bringer, yes?”

Ara nodded harshly. Her breathing turned fast and shallow, though she tried to hide it, subtly cupping her throat with trembling fingers.

I leaned over and murmured, “Breathe.” She gasped, wide-eyed, but nodded again, faintly this time, and dropped her gaze to my chest. As she matched her breaths to mine, I said, “Winter Solstice is a month from now.”

“Twenty-nine days,” Livvy croaked, then cleared her throat. She’d pressed into Lee’s front, her face blanched, his arm around her.

“I would imagine losing Ara this close to whatever he had planned has sent him over the edge. He doesn’t handle defeat well—or anything for that matter.

” Doran gave a faint shake of his head. “Like I said, he has no ties, no limits, and now, he thinks the one person he needed is dead… I can’t even begin to predict what he’ll do next. ”

“Attempt to kill me,” I mused. “Let him come. The bastard may be a master at hiding like a coward, but the moment he reveals himself, we’ll end his miserable life.”

Ara and Doran both shook their heads, then stared at each other, brows furrowed.

“I think he has some kind of healing ability,” Ara said.

“As do I,” Doran added.

A muscle ticked in my jaw.

“What kind of healing ability?” Lee asked.

Ara answered, “The kind that allows him to regrow a finger in a matter of days.”

“A finger?” Livvy repeated with a shriek. “Did you… You didn’t…”

“I bit his finger off,” Ara said flatly.

Three faces gaped at her. One burst into laughter—Lee. Livvy gagged with a hand over her mouth. Doran just stared, open-mouthed.

But I boiled. My skin burned hotter than normal, and Ara moved closer. She craved the heat, and fuck, my magic was more than willing to provide.

How— Why had his fingers come close enough for her to bite?

And she couldn’t react with her hands.

They’d been chained.

She’d been chained, and he touched her face, and she bit his finger off.

“And it regrew,” fell from my lips with a scowl.

“That’s not all,” Doran said. “Puer Mortis have this…affliction called bloodlust. We don’t feed on blood, but we crave it.

With fiber of our being, we crave it. But just one taste, one drop, triggers an insatiable thirst. Suddenly, we no longer think, no longer exist beyond that warm, red flow.

A pulse through an artery. Sliding through veins.

So easily punctured—” He shook his head, blinking rapidly before he averted his gaze.

“When I was new, I drained him…twice. And twice he returned.”

“How drained?” I asked.

“Completely. Not a drop of blood left in his body.”

“What is he, then?” I growled. “Not a manipulator—or not just a manipulator. He can manipulate minds, miraculously heal himself, and he disappeared that day in the clearing. I tracked him to that river bed, then poof, gone. Not even my wyverns can trace his scent.”

Ara wheezed again, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. As I tucked her into my side, she sucked in a sharp inhale, body stiff as a board, but it distracted her enough to allow air into her lungs.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Lee muttered. “Healers, yes, but heal ing ? That sounds like…”

“If he can heal any wound, including a body devoid of blood,” Livvy said, grimacing at Doran, “then, is he—does that mean he’s?—”

“Don’t,” Ara snapped. The room darkened as clouds swallowed the sun, and lightning cracked over a roiling sea. “Do not say it.”