Page 36 of King of the Dawn

Once a safe place where no one would find us, the atrium had become Rose’s new favorite spot to be, and I’d be damned if Alastair, the stupid little puppy dog he was for constantly following her around, would catch sight of my bare ass.

So, I scooped up Evie and wrapped a blanket around us. I’d need to get a small bin with a change of clothes for us to keep in this room at the rate we were going.

I was certain that this was going to happen again, and again.

My resolve to set her free was smashed into a thousand pieces, and my selfish nature, the monster of a Vasiliev that I was, came rushing to the forefront once again. She was mine. Ryan could have her back when he took her from my cold, dead hands.

“Are you distracted, Jericho?” Yuliya’s voice pierced through my brain, causing a migraine.

Her eyes flicked up to the ceiling, but I knew that her gaze went far beyond that. Up the wall, all the way to the woman who was in the bedroom over our heads, singing that sweet, haunting melody as she made candles.

Fucking candles. I shivered with anticipation, missing the heat of her, and her fucking wax, on my skin.

What world did I live in that simply watching her hands manipulating the wax made me hard?

“I am,” I admitted. “But I will not be for long.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Yuliya tilted her head, her arctic blue eyes curious and sparkling.

“It means that when she is safe, when the threat is gone, I will be letting her go.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

I chuckled.

How easily had Eve penetrated our lives, and become a part of our dysfunctional, deadly little family. She was a nurturer in the midst of killers. In so many ways, she was perfect for me. Except for the fact that she was in love with someone else.

I couldn’t tell my sister that. I definitely couldn’t tell Rose. They’d blow a gasket, and take it out on poor Evie. Especially Rose. She had grown close to my temporary bride, narrating her life to her belly. “Here’s your Lolo,” she would say as if she was speaking to the belly button that poked out like a button. “And there’s your Lola Evie! And Aunty Yuliya…”

My daughter had a whole thing about her kids coming out and knowing their family immediately. She said that we all had to speak around her belly so that they’d be soothed by our voices when they came out. That they’d be used to family around at all costs. It was all true, of course. When the babies came, she’d have to pry them out of my arms with a crowbar. Rose would be the most well-rested mother in the world, because those children would be staying with me all the damn time. Between me and Yuliya, those kids would be spoiled rotten. Surely, they wouldn’t miss a grandmother they never knew… right?

I’d miss her enough for all of us.

“I mean to set her free, Yuliya. She doesn’t belong here. Her heart belongs elsewhere, and she should have the life she chooses.”

“She chose you,” Yuliya said, looking down at her palm, before she clenched it in a fist. “That is what that stupid Irish hand-cutting thing was, wasn’t it?”

“Handfasting,” I corrected her. “And how do you know about that?”

Eve and I had handfasted in private.

“I can see the scar,” she said, cutting her glare towards my palm.

Jesus, when had I started caring about stupid Irish traditions? Why was I trying to defend their insanity?

“Whatever.” Yuliya rolled her eyes, reaching for her glass again, and downing it in a single gulp. “She didn’t need to cut your hands and do that. It’s supposed to be an eternal vow, no? Enforceable by all of those insane, potato-sucking Irish?”

“Callum and Eoghan will allow her to put those vows aside. I’m certain of it.”

“Why would you want her to?”

“Why do you let a bird out of its cage?”

“To watch it fly?” she said the answer as a question.

“Exactly.” I remembered that fucking book. The damn inscription that she cradled in her hands. Ryan. “She’s been incarcerated for sixteen years with the Greens. Now, with me. I am no jailer.”

My sister stared at me in utter confusion, as if I had gone completely mad. Maybe I had. But if I couldn’t confide in her, then I wouldn’t be able to confide in anyone.

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