Page 184 of Wicked Bonds

Her brow furrowed, some of her confusion melting beneath a hot wave of intense emotion.

Fury.

It thickened the air around them, drowning out all the other emotions in the clearing.

Leela pressed her palm to Balthazar’s lower back, clearly feeling the sensation through their bond.

It resembled a deep red flame, glaring angrily and burning hotter than everything else. Except it was invisible, and no one really seemed to notice it except Balthazar.

Because he could sense Stas’s volatile emotions.

Just as he could hear the rage pouring through her thoughts.

She’d pieced together something the rest of them had yet to realize. But the moment she thought it, Balthazar knew she was right.

“You watched it all happen,” she said, the words deceptively quiet. “We called you for help, and rather than come to our aid, you stood by and let it all happen.”

Osiris stared at her, his green eyes—the same color as his granddaughter’s—giving nothing away. “You needed a training field. I provided one.”

Her eyebrows lifted.

But it was Caro who spoke next, her ire rivaling her daughter’s fury. “You orchestrated this?”

Osiris glanced at her. “Not directly. Leek already knew the truth as a result of Vera’s rushed memory manipulation. I merely moved the inevitable along by giving them an agent to manipulate.”

“Patreel,” Leela said, surprising Balthazar. Not with the answer—he suspected the same—but with her vocalization.

“He’d served his purpose and was no longer of use to any of us,” Osiris replied, the words an indirect confirmation of his involvement in tonight’s events. “He also deserved his fate, something I imagine you can appreciate, given the part he played in your reformations.”

Leela’s jaw clenched, her mind echoing an agreement to his words, with an immediate rebuttal following.Patreel didn’t know,she thought.He was just a puppet.

Balthazar leaned into her, telling her without words that she wasn’t alone in that mental conflict. Because he agreed that Patreel should be punished for what he’d done, but he also felt that it wasn’t truly Patreel’s fault, either.

The High Council of Seraph were to blame here more than anyone else. Or the original members of it, anyway.

“Patreel may have earned his fate, whatever it actually ended up being with the council,” Stas said. “But Grace didn’t deserve to die. Neither did Ash. The Hydraians on the beach didn’t deserve to be hurt or killed either. And my father, Jay, Lizzie, andBabyAidyndid not deserve any of this.”

Stas stepped forward with each statement until she was only a few feet away from Osiris.

“Sacrifices are often necessary when training one as powerful as yourself,” he replied, unfazed by her nearness or the quiet fury pouring off of her.

“Sacrifices?” she repeated. “You put everyone in jeopardy. You let innocent people die. Just totrainme?!” Her fist connected with his jaw, causing everyone around her to gape in shock.

Caro stepped forward, but Osiris lifted his hand, halting her midstep. Either the action had done it, or he’d released some sort of compulsion. Balthazar couldn’t read anything off the ancient immortal, his emotions and mind were completely his own. No doubt from a rune of some kind. Or perhaps a result of power alone.

However, that didn’t seem to intimidate Stas.

She was in his face as she said, “I willnevertrain with you. Not now. Not after this and what you’ve done. You’re a monster.”

“I’m not the one who sent the Seraphim here to destroy Elizabeth and her progeny,” he pointed out, his voice lacking emotion. “The High Council of Seraph did that.”

“Yet you stood by and watched them almost succeed,” she snapped. “That makes you just as complicit.”

“It makes me patient,” he returned. “It means I have faith in what you can do. And I was right to have that faith, as evidenced bythat.”

He gestured to Adriel, Arvane, and Kital, all on their knees, their expressions filled with wonder as they continued to stare at Stas as though she were a goddess worthy of worship.

“And what if you were wrong?” she demanded. “You would have just let them kill Lizzie? Aidyn? Jayson?”