“Doesn’t need to be said,” Lemon tells her. Or is that Leiza?

Doesn’t matter. Violet’s staking her claim. I can’t help but grin. I’m not sure why she’s playing so hard to get.

She returns to the door with my jacket, and I frown, having forgotten about it.

“You can return it when you come to get your bloody present,” I say with a smirk.

“I really think you should have it back,” she tells me as she pushes it to my chest, and she exhales harshly. “I know everyone is terrified of what you’re going to do, but I’m not going to manipulate you,” she says seriously, causing my brow to furrow.

I’m a clever fellow, but this girl never makes much sense at all.

“I’m afraid you’ve lost me, love,” I tell her as I eye her lips, wondering how much I can push her for tonight.

“It’s confusing to be around you, but I get it. You want them back enough to pretend to move on with a temporary solution,” she continues, clearing her throat.

My gaze flicks back to hers as I cant my head, wondering what could possibly have her wringing her hands.

“Emit, Damien, Vance…they’re scared of you, Arion. Scared of what you’re capable of. Scared of what happens next. I don’t know what to do right now, and I wish you were Ace instead of the man most in love with Idun.”

My lips purse.

“I’m not quite sure why we’re discussing Idun. She’s a nonissue at current. And I’m certain I’ve made it clear what my intentions are with you.”

She doesn’t meet my eyes as she softly says, “Idun is coming back.”

“Eventually, I’m sure. I can guarantee you it won’t be in your lifetime, though. Their anger hasn’t ebbed—”

“She’s coming back soon, Arion,” she says on a fortified breath, as her eyes meet mine with far too much certainty. “Because the sentence is over, and even if they don’t raise the Neopry Simpletons, I will. I’ll find a way.”

I take a few steps back, completely confused…and…well, confounded. Emit even brought up the fact this could happen, and I laughed it off. Surely she’s not so soft that she doesn’t understand what will happen.

“If Idun rises, this won’t be so easy for you,” I explain very carefully.

She starts to say something but stops herself, her lips thinning. “Maybe she’s like you; maybe she comes up in search of another way.”

This time, I do laugh, because she’s utterly naïve, but my laughter tapers off as my jaw grinds.

“Why would you do this?” I ask her very seriously. “What in the hell makes you think you even have the right to toss in such an unfathomably large demand, Violet?”

“Because there has to be another way to deal with her than torturing innocent people.”

“Monsters,” I remind her. “We’re all fucking monsters.”

She nods, but she still doesn’t get it.

She doesn’t argue with me or explain this nonsensicality of hers.

“Violet, I think you overestimate—”

“I actually hope I’m underestimating all of you,” she says in interruption. “Because I don’t see this ending well for me, but I’m going to see it through. I’m going to stick it out and deal with the repercussions. I’m not asking for any other favors but mercy by your hand when she returns,” she says to me, tears abruptly springing to her eyes as she curses and bats them away.

I’m not sure what feelings spill over from her to me, but I really fucking hate them. I haven’t had to feel anything like that in too long to remember. I don’t even think she’s doing it on purpose.

“But they’re suffering, and it’s just too cruel to let it continue. Even you have to see that,” she goes on, my chest beginning to ache as those emotions of hers continue to tumble into me with a staggering, suffocating force.

I take a few more steps back, seeing this for what it is.

I suspected she was empathic long before the others, since it seemed obvious enough.

She’s not just empathic; she’s very empathic…

I’m not really sure what to say, especially with all the foreign emotions still circulating through me, making my jaw grind.

She exhales heavily, and the intensity of her stirred emotions slowly dissipates, as she seemingly gets herself under control.

Only the lingering remnants remain in me, but they feel stuck where they are, not fading like the rest.

Well, this is a new sort of hell. She’s fucking terrified of me.

Not of Idun. Not of any of the others. She’s terrified of me.

Of what I’m liable to do in the future.

“I’m a man capable of strong neutrality; they’ll tell you I’ve proven myself of that in the past,” I finally say as I take another step back.

She looks puzzled as she continues to just stare at me.

“You’ll still have the protection of my House. Idun won’t touch you,” is all I say before I duck into the front seat next to Shera.

Why the fucking hell is some sweet Portocale gypsy calling shots among alphas?

“We’re going to Vance’s. Right now,” I bite out.

“But Emily—”

Shera’s words stop when she puffs out a breath of cold fog. She clears her throat instead, as the temperature inside the car continues to plummet. Ice spreads along the windshield, and she audibly swallows.

Without another word, she drives us toward Vance’s, and I stare out the window, fuming.

“If Violet really has some sway with the others, then Idun is apparently rising,” I tell her idly.

The car jerks a little to the right, but she quickly levels it back out. My eyes cut to her very stoic profile.

“Oh?” she asks like it’s not a big deal, even though I can hear her increasing heartbeat and see the tremors in her hands.

“You think you’re in danger from her,” I surmise. “Even as my beta.”

“I think I should not have an opinion right now,” she says with a firm nod. “Nope,” she adds with a pop of her lips.

I run a hand over my jaw. “I told them I can control her when I started begging them to pull her out of the ground, and you don’t think I can?”

“Again, no opinion, Arion. I graciously request you not put words into my mouth. Remember I’m the one who keeps sharpening new pencils for you. You like me. I’m one of your favorites,” she prattles on.

I blow out a breath and crack my knuckles. “I can control Idun if I have to,” I tell her again.

“I’m sure you can, boss,” she says with another firm nod. “What happens to Violet?”

“She keeps the protection of my House and hopefully continues on fixing us.”

She gives another nod, though her lips are tensing.

“Will you just say whatever it is you bloody want to say and get on with it? I won’t stab you with any pencils,” I snap, agitated now.

She hesitates before finally speaking. “Do you really think Idun is going to idly stand by while the four of you carry on with Violet like she’s your new favorite toy?”

“Why does everyone insist on comparing women to toys? I took an online survey that said I was a chauvinist prick, and I don’t even call women toys,” I say absently.

“You demanded my opinion. Seems like Violet becomes a broken toy when Idun returns, because the answer is no. She’s not going to behave herself until Violet dies of old age, or possibly a nervous breakdown, or a cult slay—”

My claw at her neck has her words stopping short.

“If Idun rises, the cult slayings stop. Violet is safe in Shadow Hills, regardless,” I say as my claw slowly retracts.

She releases a shaky breath as she turns the steering wheel.

“Who’s off limits? Violet or Idun, Arion? I don’t want to die because I pushed your buttons about the wrong woman.”

My hand grazes the edges of a familiar piece of canvas tucked inside my pocket, and my knuckles rap against the door’s panel.

“If you wear Isiah’s jacket, do you ever check the pockets?” I ask on an exhale.

“Of course,” she says like there could be no other answer.

I give a nod. “Violet only has so long to live; a fact of which I know cannot change. She’s an unnaturally gentle Portocale gypsy who can work wonders, though. Idun doesn’t get to take that away, and she owes me this. She’ll stand down and wait it out. Violet is the woman you don’t wish to insult for as long as she lives, which will be as long as age allows.”

I cut my eyes to her, and she swallows thickly.

“Idun will stand down,” I say again. “She knows my limits, and I know her weaknesses.”

She says nothing, just staring ahead as her heartbeat works quicker.

“Violet will be safe, because Idun doesn’t want me for an enemy,” I add with a dark grin. “I’m a man capable of great neutrality, unless someone gives me a reason to choose a side.”

“I don’t understand that last part.”

“Then I’m sure Violet didn’t either,” I mutter to myself, exhaling harshly again. “It means they can deal with her on their fucking own, so long as she doesn’t break my rules. Violet will be one of those rules. Idun knows there are consequences when she breaks my rules. I don’t play her games.”

Shera clears her throat, saying nothing, as though she simply wants this conversation to end.

“Did I mention I sharpened a whole lot of new pencils for you this morning?” she chirps, smiling brightly. “Nice and pointy. And in your desk at home. Just like you like them before you stab those bad betas of yours. Remember when that made you happy?”

My lips twitch, and I shake my head. She’s unlike any beta I’ve ever had.

“If Emily’s back, you should drive home and deal with it. I’ll be fine on my own from here,” I say as I get out of the moving car, easily matching the speed, before I slow at Vance’s gates.

My eyes flick up to the house, and in the next instant, I’m pushing through the front door, having moved too fast for them to see me coming.

Vance is coming down the stairs just as I step inside, and his jaw tenses, seconds prior to my fist colliding with it.

He’s thrown through the room and crashes into the wall behind him, as I drop my jacket to the floor. As it claps the ground, he groans and rubs his sore jaw, glaring over at me.

“She fucking told you?” he asks incredulously.

“Idun’s rising. You should have fucking told me, instead of leaving that burden to her,” I say with a calmness I don’t feel at all.

He stands up slowly, watching me like he’s preparing to stop me from boxing him unawares this time, even as he staggers a step and…his eyes start to droop.