Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Catalina’s smile was gentle. “Oh, mi amor. Don’t you see? You don’t have to be perfect, don’t have to get everything right. Not with the person who is your heart’s mirror. All you have to do is love.”
15
A day after they’d spoken to Tanika’s parents, Aodhan walked toward Illium’s Tower suite as the smudged curtain of night settled over the city. He felt as if he was stuck in mud as far as the case went, his body and mind grimy from even this tangential association with a being who thought they could own another, treat them as an object.
You are mine, pretty one. Always mine. Only mine. I have branded you.
He’d never told Illium about Sachieri holding a glowing red iron to his chest, searing her motif of ownership into it in an agony of scalding flame that burned his nerves and slapped blackness over his vision.
Not just once.
Over and over again, each time his immortal cells healed the scar. She either hadn’t been clever enough to learn the technique that gave Jason his permanent tattoo, or she’d just enjoyed hurting Aodhan because he refused to say what she wanted to hear, refused to give her words of love and devotion.
Say it! Say it! You are mine! That is your only future. Confess your love, my pretty one, and I’ll make it nice for you here, gilded with your every desire.
The only desire Aodhan had had was for freedom.
The sire knew about the brandings—he’d torn open Sachieri’s and Bathar’s minds, uncovered every horrific detail, and then he’d punished the two until there could be no more punishment. But he’d never told Illium of that horror, as aware as Aodhan that their Bluebell’s heart could take no more.
The last brand had already healed by the time he was found—and even Sachieri had begun to realize that she was pushing him closer and closer to true death. Only…in his mind, the torture hadn’t stopped after his rescue; he’d woken up screaming to the burn of a searing brand day after day in the Medica.
The irony was that he’d refused to scream for Sachieri. Weak, starved of light, his wings useless, and his strength stolen, his reactions had been all he could control in that hellhole. He’d gone inside his head, to a place where no one could hurt him.
And he’d stayed there after his period of pain madness in the Medica.
But there was to be no more retreating for him—he’d made that decision after he finally realized the damage he’d done to himself and to others around him. Most of all to Illium, the man who had loved him even when Aodhan hadn’t loved himself.
Wanting to see his best friend and lover, he opened Illium’s door and called out his name.
Silence greeted him, no Smoke bounding over to examine him and decide if his presence was acceptable.
Shoulders dropping, he closed the door and went to his apartment instead. Illium wouldn’t mind if Aodhan waited in his suite, but Aodhan would only miss him more if surrounded by his things, his scent embedded into the walls.
The door opened to the low murmur of music and the golden glow of candlelight. It sparked off him with a muted softness that was sunlight turned liquid. He’d liked the time of candlelight, appreciated its gentleness, and now his entire living area—which flowed into an open-plan kitchen—glowed with it.
“Blue,” he murmured when Illium moved out of the candlelight clad in a simple cream tunic open at the neck, and jeans, his feet bare. “What are you up to?”
Instead of answering, Illium cupped one side of his face and nuzzled him. The other man’s hair was soft against Aodhan’s cheek, the scent of him so familiar that it made a sob catch in Aodhan’s throat at the sense of coming home. “You look tired, Adi.”
“Body and heart,” he admitted, because this was Illium. “I also need a shower.” Turning his face into Illium’s palm as he put his own hand on the other man’s hip to hold him close, he pressed a kiss to it.
“I’ve already prepared everything for you.” His fingers wove through Aodhan’s hair, his gaze tender. “I had my spy watching for you, so the water should already be at the perfect scalding temperature you like.”
“Really?” Once, Aodhan would’ve been annoyed; now he felt caressed by the love that Illium gave so generously. “You asked Vivek to track me?”
“Only when you were within visual sight.” Taking his hand, Illium tugged him to the bathing chamber. “He’s always keeping everything in sight anyway. He thinks I’m playing a prank on you.”
“Where’s your little shadow?” Aodhan had become used to Smoke pouncing at him in welcome.
“Hanging out with Vivek while he does night shift. I figured Smoke and candles weren’t a good mix.” A brush of fingers against Aodhan’s jaw. “Tonight, we play, Adi. I didn’t think you’d feel like flying to the Catskills, so I brought the picnic to you.”