Arabella looked back over her shoulder, and her bloodshot eyes widened, horrid bruises standing out against her skin as she blanched. Sinful lips parted.
Her face contorted with fear, and she whipped her head back around, blue braids flying as she sped up.
My heart rate increased at the sight of her wounds.
She turned the corner, disappeared from view, and I pressed my hand harder against my lips to hold back a scream.
If she’d just calm down, I could take care of her. Fuss over her. Make sure nothing harmed her ever again. I’d protect her from the world if she just let me.
Instead, she ran from me.
Rejected my help.
If she didn’t want the good guy, then why should I give her that? I’d already decided she was mine.
When I’d kissed Aran’s mouth and promised him he’d be my toy, it was Arabella who had melted against me like butter.
She’d agreed.
We’d both tasted it.
And there were repercussions to my ownership.
The petals drifted faster down my neck like whispering silk. If this was how my sweetheart wanted to play it, then she’d get what she was asking for.
I pulled my fingers away from my lips.
Lightning cracked.
Blinding light exploded.
Our footsteps pounded like thunder.
She could run, but I’d always catch her. Drag her back to me.
She would never get away.
Because you couldn’t run from your destiny, and I’d already decided she was mine.
Arabella lunged toward our room. “Orion is about to lose it, do something!” she screamed as she entered.
Oh, I’d lost it all right. She’d find out how unraveled I was.
I opened my lips.
If she didn’t want me when I was nice, then I was done pretending.
Gold metal clicked as it floated off my ears and separated into the shards of a crown above my head.
I sucked in air.
Opened my vocal cords.
And began to si—
Oomph. Two bodies slammed against me. A hand slapped over my face, and my arms were restrained and pinned behind my back.
“What are you doing?” Corvus snarled, silver eyes frantic as he stared at me with horror.
I tried to push Scorpius off me, but his grip was rock-solid, and he used the couple inches of height he had on me to wrench my arms back further.
There was nowhere to go.
My mates boxed me out and blocked my view of Arabella as the door slammed. She’d disappeared inside our room.
I wanted to scream.
My sweetheart was so close but still out of my reach.
Corvus’s face shattered. “Are you okay? Is there something we can do to help you? Was it the fall? Did it make you worse?” Flames danced atop his skull, and he crushed me against his chest.
Corvus trembled against me while Scorpius stood stiffly.
“I’m fine,” I mouthed as I forced myself to relax. “I’m fine. I just got a little worked up. It was nothing.”
I let my head lull forward and nuzzled it against Corvus’s chest tenderly. I gave him what he needed.
Melted against him.
I gave him my obedience.
Corvus slowly relaxed against me and whispered, “Thank the sun god.”
Scorpius’s punishing grip turned into a firm embrace, and my Protector and Ignis stopped constraining.
They clung to me desperately.
I’d done the right thing.
Ever so slowly, I forced my vocal cords to untense and rebuilt my mask. The crown clicked back onto my ears. I pretended for my mates’ sake that this was what I wanted. All I needed.
Sometimes I felt like the worst Revered in history.
Like I was playing a role I couldn’t fulfill.
How was I supposed to provide balance and calm for others when I was untethered myself?
Corvus squeezed my torso and whispered against my temple, “It’s all going to be okay. We’re going to find our fourth.”
I nodded back like I cared about the faceless Protector I was also supposed to bring peace to. How could I?
I was struggling to help my Ignis and Protector even though I’d known them all my life. Even though my life purpose as a Revered was to help them.
But my sweetheart didn’t need me.
She wanted nothing from me and rejected my attempts to help her. She was independent in a way I could never be.
Arabella fell apart daily, yet she didn’t want anyone to pick up the pieces for her. She did it herself. She didn’t need me, and that fact alone made her mine. Period.
Fingers curling with anticipation, I trembled.
All it had taken was a few seconds in a lightning-streaked hall. Everything had changed between us.
She could run, but I could hunt.
A male devil was possessive of those he cared for. But a devil king from the House of Malum hoarded his treasure and breathed fire on anyone who dared challenge his affection.
I’d massacre cities just to make her smile.
From the haunted look in Arabella’s eyes, it would come to that.
I wouldn’t hesitate. Not when it was for her.
Anything for her.
Chapter 21
Aran
DUDE
The Legionnaire Games: Day 33, hour 2
Overwhelmed by all the horrible things I’d learned about Jinx, I sprinted down the empty halls.
It was late at night, and everyone at the academy was in their rooms.
The quiet made the realization so much worse.
“So much,” Jinx had said brokenly about how much she’d made us forget.
My memories had been erased. I no longer knew what was true.
What was I if not a collection of my remembered experiences? I was a fractured being. A soulmancer, one of the rumored beings of darkness.
I ran because I had to do something. Otherwise, I’d fall apart.
I ran from myself.
But when I glanced behind me, something very real was chasing me down the gleaming hall.
Lightning flashed and highlighted veins that bulged out of a tensed neck. The beast ran with his hand pressed over his mouth.
A devil hunted me.
He was chasing after me like he wanted to hurt me; he was sprinting like a predator that wanted to do horrible things to its prey.
In the empty hall, there was nothing left of the man I’d thought I knew.
The soft, pretty man was gone. Dead.
He was still breathtakingly stunning, but he was cruel. Sharply edged. Dangerous.
Had he ever existed?
A sharp bolt of pain streaked down my spine, and I pointedly ignored the implication.
Heavy footsteps slapped against the chilled black marble floor like gunshots.
A towering being barreled after me, and his expression was pure evil.
Pumping my legs with all my might, I ran faster than I had when I was missing an arm and ungodly chased me in the desert.
I ran faster than I had after I’d eaten my mother’s heart.
Being chased down the halls of Elite Academy was the most frightened I’d ever been.
Like my subconscious knew I was running from something terrifying.
My breath came out in short, painful bursts, and my heart pounded erratically in my chest.
Crystals clinked as chandeliers swayed from the vibrations of his steps.
Just one more hall.
Turning the corner, I lowered my head, pumped my arms, and drove forward with my legs. I didn’t need to hear him to sense how close his presence was.
Goose bumps erupted down my arms as I threw myself through the bedroom door. I screamed for Malum and Scorpius and didn’t stop running until I’d locked myself in a shower stall.