We’d be leaving in a few hours. I needed to see him. “Can you take me there.”

“I thought you might ask. But are you sure you want to see him?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

She shook her head as if dispelling an errant thought. “No reason. Come on.”

We took an unfamiliar route, dodging guards and hiding in the shadows, but five minutes later, we were running along a parapet and into a tower. “First door on the first landing,” Cora said. “I’ll wait here.”

I took the flight of stairs to the first landing and knocked on the door. There was no answer, but the door opened when I tried it. The room beyond was dimly lit and shrouded in shadows, and a figure sat looking out into the night.

I’d recognize those golden locks anywhere.

“Conah?” I approached him. “Conah, it’s Fee. I wanted to see you before we leave.”

“You shouldn’t have come,” he said.

His voice sounded hollow.

“I wanted to see you.”

“Want. Want is what caused this. I wanted you. I wanted you so much that I wished for a way out of a union with Kiara. I wished for another path, and my wish was granted in the worst possible way. Fate took her from me. I thought I wanted you more than I needed her, but I was wrong. Nothing can replace her. Nothing, and you…You are nothing.”

My throat tightened. “Conah, what are you saying.”

“I’m saying that I don’t want to look at you. I’m saying that whatever I felt for you is gone. Dead. I’m saying that when I return, we will be colleagues and nothing more. I’m saying I want you to leave.”

His words were like knives piercing my heart. I cared about him. I‘d come here to tell him that. To tell him we were there for him and that we’d get through this together. I’d come here to mourn my friend with him. My eyes pricked and misted.

“What happened to Kiara wasn’t your fault, and it certainly wasn’t mine. But if it makes you feel better to punish me, then go for it. I just came here to tell you I loved her too and that I’m going to fucking miss her. The rest…the rest is your issue.”

I turned and left the room before he could say anything else to cut me.

I was so fucking ready to get out of here.

We were approaching the Dominus quarters when Azazel handed me the envelope marked with my name.

“From Lilith.”

O-okay? I broke the seal and read it. Then I read it again. “Motherfucker.”

“What does it say?” Azazel sounded worried.

I passed it to Cora. Like, I just couldn’t even deal with Lilith’s shit right now. And to think I’d felt sorry for her after she told me her Samael curse story. Fuck that.

Seraphina,

As a Dominus, you belong to me. You are my righteous Blade, and you will do my bidding. As Conah is indisposed, you will take on his Dominus duties on top of your own. War is coming, and our reaper army must be reinforced, and it will be your job to make sure the cadets at the Academy are prepared for what’s to come. You will report to me in person monthly to report on the progress of cadet training. To aid you in your task, I will send my most trusted Blade, Keon.

Do not fail me.

Lilith

Cora pursed her lips. “Fuck, Fee, how are you going to cope?”

Azazel’s jaw was tight. “She should have given the duty to me. She’s aware I’m well equipped to train cadets.”

“I don’t get it. Surely, she wants the job done properly. There’s an actual war coming,” Cora said. “No offense, Fee, but you don’t know the first thing about training cadets.”

“The Academy in the human realm is one of three,” Mal said. “The weakest one,” he added. “Lilith isn’t counting on the reapers from there.”

“No,” Azazel said. “She simply wants a reason to punish you if you fail to deliver.”

“Great.”

“We got this,” Cora said. “Right, guys?”

Mal nodded. “I’m up for extra duties.”

Azazel slid his hand on top of my thigh. “We work as a team.”

“As a team,” Mal echoed.

I blew out a breath. “When do we start?”

“I’ll speak to the administration and set it up,” Azazel said. “We’ll need to get more training space set up and update the cadet schedules. Shouldn’t take more than a week.”

Enough time for me to meet with Grayson and ask him to mate with me. My stomach dipped, and it wasn’t due to the altitude.

I stood outside Lumiers, waiting for the line to connect. Azazel sat at his desk in Lumiers’s outlier office, sipping a mocha.

I shouldn’t be nervous. I was simply returning Grayson’s call. The call he’d made to Azazel on Petra’s urging. The call he’d made to get hold of me.

But my stomach was all over the place. Nerves, excitement. Fuck.

Answer the goddamn—

“Hello?”

His voice speared me, leaving me speechless for a moment.

Silence. “Fee?”

“Grayson…”

Why did this feel so good?

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

I caught the sound of a female voice in the background, and jealousy bit me in the ass.

“I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” My tone came out harsher than intended.

“No. It’s fine.” The sound of a door closing. “Petra said you wanted to talk?”

“Yes. I need your help. The bond between Hunter and me…it’s not a regular mate bond. It’s a fated mate bond.”

“Fucking hell. Fee…this is bad.”

“I know. And I don’t want this, Grayson. I don’t want him, but Petra said if I didn’t do something about the heat, it would kill me. She suggested…She suggested that I mate with you.” I didn’t wait for his response but forged on. “My Loup is attracted to you, and you and Hunter are fraternal twins. I know this isn’t ideal. It’s not how I wanted us to make this decision, but…I need you.” I took a deep breath. “I understand if you can’t do this.”

“Fee, get your ass over to the house. Now.” There was a growl to his voice that woke the beast inside me and shook away the primal desire that was lurking on the fringes of my consciousness.

“You’ll do it?”

“Yes, I’ll fucking do it. I’ll mate with you.”

Azazel loaded me into a taxi. “Call me…after.” He looked pained.

I reached up and stroked his jaw. “I love you.”

He covered my hand with his. “One week out of the month, Fee. We can’t afford more than that right now.”

I nodded and offered him my lips for a kiss.

I was expecting a peck, but he cupped the back of my head and deepened the kiss, pushing his tongue past my lips to claim me. My body came alive, panting for more, and I clung to him, half out of the taxi before I realized what was happening.

He broke the kiss with a chuckle, but there was no humor in his eyes. No, there was only potent desire, the kind of desire that spoke of being bent over a chair and fucked raw.

“Shit, Azazel.” I touched my mouth. “You’re bad.”

“No, Fee. I’m fucking good. Remember that.”

He closed the door and stepped back. I pressed my palm to the window and craned my neck to watch him as we pulled away from the curb.

We turned the corner, and I sat back and closed my eyes. Grayson needed to be my focus now. The heat was a tingle in my veins. It wouldn’t be long before it hit again. I needed the mating to be over before that.

We turned another corner. We were about thirty minutes from the house. The taxi’s radio crackled, then his mobile rang. He answered using his handsfree, and I fixed my gaze out the window, watching the world go by.

We made a sharp left, then another right.

This wasn’t the way to Grayson’s. At least I didn’t think it was? “Excuse me?”

The driver ignored me.

“Hello?”

The partition between passenger and driver went up.

“Hey!” What the fuck?

Panic flooded me. We were on unfamiliar territory now. I tried the door. Locked. Fuck. I tapped a message into my comm.

Something wrong. Driver taking odd route. Think being kidnapped.

I hit send just as the taxi came to a halt on an empty backstreet.

“Let me out now.”

If the fucking driver thought he could take advantage of a lone female passenger, he was about to get a nasty surprise. I launched myself at the partition, using my preternatural strength to put a crack in the thick Perspex.

The driver let out a girly scream and then tumbled out of the cab. I caught a flash of his face twisted in fear.

Yes, bitch, you do not mess with me. “Open the fucking door, and I’ll let you keep your balls.” He slammed his door shut and ran.

What the fuck.

I yanked at the handles, but the fucking locks were still engaged in back. The driver could be back at any moment. Maybe with reinforcements. I punched the Perspex again and again, ignoring the shockwaves of pain shooting up my arm.

Wait a fucking second.

I flicked my wrist, and my scythe bloomed to life. It sliced through the barrier like butter, and then I was tumbling out of the cab. I hit the ground on hands and knees. Free.

“Not bad.”

I froze at the sound of the familiar voice, then slowly looked up into Hunter’s dark eyes. What the fuck was he doing here?

Water stung my face, and it took a moment to register that he’d sprayed me in the face.

It was in my throat, acrid and burning.

“What?” I scrambled up and tried to step away from him, hands up to ward him off, but my limbs felt like jelly. “Wha…” My mouth refused to work.

“I can’t let you do this,” Hunter said. “I’m sorry.”

Drugged. He’d drugged. Me…How? I was a Dominus…the only drug that could take me down was in the Underealm, so how…Scythe…where was my scythe? Fuck, brain going off-line.