Page 27 of To Crave Truly

“Leave and don’t come back. I can’t do this. We can’t do this. It’s not fair to either of us.”

“Don’t do this. We’re supposed to be together.” Tears filled her eyes. I was hurting her, but I couldn’t do this anymore. I couldn’t bury myself any deeper inside the shell of a man I was becoming. Soon there would be nothing left.

“Elissa, I can’t marry you.”

“But what about your father? My mother? This has been planned for generations! And you’re going to throw it all away for what? Some woman you might love?”

“Elissa!”

“No!” She yelled as she stood, looming over me. “I will not let you ruin this. We’ve both come too far to let all this go to waste.”

“We don’t belong together. I’ll make you miserable, can’t you see—”

Levi burst into the room, his red hair wild and his chest heaving with every breath. “She’s back.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lori

My body jerked to a sudden stop, and I fell forward, my face smacking the ground. “Fucking portals.”

Iver laughed at my grumbling but held his hand out to help me up. Of course, he’d landed perfectly with not a hair out of place.

I took his hand and got to my feet, taking in my surroundings. We’d materialised at the boundary of the Conclave, and we’d have to stroll through the square to get to the Elite team’s house. That’s if we managed to cross the boundaries without issue but I doubted that. I knew that as soon as we crossed it alarm bells would be ringing.

I turned to Iver and found his black eyes watching me intently.

“Look, I’m not sure whatever your game is here but if you want me to vouch for you and keep you out of Cassian’s basement you’ve got to tell me what your end goal is here.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “I just want Iveri back. Lucifer made a deal with me that if I helped get you back, he’d help me save her.”

I crossed my arms across my chest. “What if she doesn’t want you back?”

He flinched. “If she tells me that, then I will leave her be.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes. I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me.”

I nodded. “Okay, then. I know I can’t tell my team what Mordecai wants me to do, but can you?”

He shook his head. “No, I let him do the same to me to gain his trust. We are going to have to steal it.”

“What is it? This Lapis Lunae?”

“It’s a moonstone. It harnesses the power of the moon and I’m guessing Mordecai wants to use it on the next blood moon.”

“To do what though?”

“Not sure, but I’ve a feeling it has something to do with you. You’re one of the most powerful creatures to walk this earth and that has to mean something.”

I huffed a breath and walked towards the boundary. “I guessed as much. Come on. I want to go home.”

I held my hands up in the universal symbol of surrender and stepped across the boundary line. Iver did the same and once we’d taken a few steps into the Conclave, we kneeled and waited for the troops to arrive.

It didn’t take as long as I’d expected. They’d clearly been practising.

I watched the first guy approach. His buzz cut hair, large build and warm brown eyes came closer.

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