Page 34 of Upon Shattered Bonds

“Tzuriel,” Arya replied. “We were there within seconds, but the flames had an accelerant.”

Zeke struggled to put his own fury to bed. “Did you recognize any of the psychic signatures?”

“None that were familiar.”

Curses muttered in the puzzled atmosphere that settled over the room. While several of his lieutenants were pacing off the residual tension, the rest had taken up residence on the black leather couches that framed the space. All of them still wore their fighting attire, save Tzuriel. His cousin had taken the liberty to change out of his soiled white button down and throw on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt.

Zeke was strangled by a lowkey anxiety that didn’t subside.

Beside him, Hemin stirred, pushing off the wall and straightening his spine.

“So, we’ve got burning buildings with no true intention for loss of life and no challenge.” Hemin said, the lean healer locking eyes with his sovereign. “Seems like smoke and mirrors.”

“Misdirection,” Tzuriel frowned. “But to what end?”

“Nothing in those storage sheds was irreplaceable or even expensive,” Matteo offered, crossing his bulky arms over his chest and scowling. “What did this accomplish other than bringing you back into your own territory?”

Zeke’s gut dropped. “Maybe that was the goal.”

“To get you to return? Why?”

The answer struck him like a lightning bolt: to separate him from Nina.

Fingers curling into his palms, he barely resisted the urge to release a blast of his power. He’d been blind, falling for this obvious trap and walking away from Nina when she was vulnerable.

The last thing he saw before teleporting back to the house in Lexington were his lieutenants’ grim expressions and Tzuriel’s understanding one. The man would hold his secrets—at least until he couldn’t anymore.

As sovereign, the rules of the game decreed that Nina couldn’t be challenged until the next nightfall. Once that happened, Zeke would be of no assistance. New Dominion law stated that a Raeth sovereign would stand alone to fend off their challenger, no exceptions—Zeke could not and would not interfere in a battle for her sovereignty. If he did, both their lives would be forfeit without mercy.

The problem was that in addition to the challenges, someone had already tried to assassinate her. It was an extra complication that threatened Nina’s safety and didn’t play by the rules. If anyone attempted an assassination again, or tried to attack her house or loved ones, Zeke would be there to stop it. His protective instincts raged inside him.

He had to remind himself that Nina was safe and well protected. Toni, Lucy, and her brothers were all standing guard, and given recent events, they would not allow an assassin within five hundred yards of her.

Neither Kaien nor Aidan said anything about Zeke’s swift return. The latter quickly excused himself, but Nina’s twin remained in the room monitoring the medical equipment.

Opening a telepathic channel to his lieutenants, he said, The reason for the attack on our territory was not to seek my return to Osiris, but to separate me from Nina. Stay alert. I doubt this attack will be the last.

Chapter Fifteen

The bed was empty when Nina awoke. She’d fallen asleep with Zeke holding her, a perfect cocoon of warmth and protection, and now he was gone. It was an odd feeling to mourn the loss of something she’d experienced precisely one time in her entire life, but she managed it.

Melancholic, with her psychic gifts only nominally recovered from their depletion, she speared out through her home to search for his mental signature. To her relief, he wasn’t far.

After the moment they had shared together last night, Nina had to admit their relationship had reached a turning point. What she’d experienced with him hadn’t simply been a by-product of the bond between them, it’d meant something more. Whether he felt the same remained to be seen.

Once her head cleared, she focused on her surroundings. In the hallway, Aidan and Kaien argued. Their voices, low but seething, were muffled by the closed doorway.

“Sire?”

Turning toward the sound, she smiled with genuine affection. “Drake.”

Though her voice was only a whisper, she knew he could hear her. When she’d woken up, her brothers had explained that Drake and Blair had left Lexington to put the rest of her fledglings at ease. A member of her clan had offered to assist by teleporting them between Houses. Blair and Drake had seen all her fledglings, and had reassured them that she survived. It’d gone a long way toward guarding against their need to travel and see to her health, putting themselves in danger. While she slept, her oldest fledglings must have returned.

Drake stepped closer, almost hesitantly. His dark hair was uncharacteristically disheveled, his collar open, and his dress shirt wrinkled.

His mouth opened as if to speak, but no words escaped him. Instead, he dropped to kneel beside her where she lay on the bed. In that moment, she knew the depth of his devastation following her attack.

“Drake.” Her eyebrows knitted. “I’m still here. They haven’t defeated me yet.”

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