Page 32 of Avaritia

“And what were you really?”

Verity laughed, her scent bright and sweet. “I worked at a pet store. I’ve always liked animals. They’re more straightforward than people.”

“What made you want to come to the shadow realm?” I asked gruffly. I needed to find a way to restore the balance back to where it had been before. Verity needed to be an easily compartmentalized presence in my brain. She was too multifaceted now, too variable, too distracting.

I wasn’t sure which box to put her in yet, but I’d find one. Her answers would give me the context I needed, and once I’d put her there, that was where she would stay.

“Everything and nothing, I guess,” Verity mused, nibbling absently on a strip of meat and staring out of the window. “On a practical level, my rent had just gone up, so I was going to be forced out of my house anyway—we physically couldn’t squeeze any more roommates in there. And then, perhaps on a more emotional level, I guess I hoped I’d find some sense of… belonging. Purpose. I don’t know, it sounds stupid when I say it out loud.”

It didn’t. But reassuring her of that wouldn’t help me fit her into the Verity-shaped box I was searching for.

“And did you find it?”

Verity hummed, her gaze unfocused as she looked out the window. “Yes and no.”

She wiped her fingers delicately on the napkin as I finished eating, our midday meal coming to an end with me no more decided about what to do with this new mate of mine than I had been before.

“Did you find it?” Verity asked, cocking her head to the side, a small smile around her mouth as she threw my own question back at me.

“Did I find what?”

“Whatever it was you were looking for out of this conversation.”

I grunted, impressed that she’d figured me out. At least one of us was succeeding. “No.”

“You’re overthinking it,” Verity advised, pushing her chair back as she stood. “You had it right when you were speaking to Orabelle. I’m a power source, and you feed from me. If you want to make it fun, then chase me down for it, I do love a hunt.” Verity shrugged, as if she hadn’t just dropped the most enticing piece of information I’d ever heard in my lap. “What we have is practical—I get to stay here, build a home for myself here. You get to feed. It doesn’t need to be any deeper than that.”

She walked away, glancing at me over her shoulder as she pulled the door open. “We should probably talk about kids at some point though. I’d really like a lot of babies. Something to think about.”

My fist was wrapped around my cock before she’d shut the door behind her.

Chapter 10

“Fester,” I called softly, trying not to draw attention to the fact that my cat had escaped the confines of my room again until I absolutely had to. I’d been strutting around the palace all afternoon, sassy and confident after my mic-drop moment at lunch, and my goddamn cat was single-handedly undoing all of my hard work. “Where are you?”

I tiptoed as best I could in my knock-off glittery Docs, peeking into every room on the second floor that had a door so much as cracked open. Which wasn’t many, to be honest. There was a thin layer of dust on most of them that suggested they hadn’t been opened in a while.

What was the point of having such a big house if you didn’t use it?

If this was my house—properly mine, not this weird, in-between situation I was currently in—I’d have a dedicated room for everything. Reading room. Plant room. Yoga room. Sex dungeon. Nail studio. And it would all be aesthetic as fuck. Having a mansion was totally wasted on Theon.

Maybe I could convince him of the benefits. He was clearly feeling at a loss for what to do with me.

“Fester. Where are you, my favorite boy? Come here, Mommy swears she’s not going to be fucking furious at you for stressing her out like this,” I singsonged. Not even a single yowl, and I knew that furry little bastard could hear me.

Of course, he could have gone outside, but I’d yet to see an open door or window that led out there—probably because of the incessant rainfall—and it wouldn’t be like Fester to run away. Ever since I’d rescued him, he’d been pretty well glued to my hip.

Right before I could start panicking, Fester darted up the stairs from the first floor, sprinting past me with a piece of meat in his mouth that was nearly as big as his head.

“You are a little shit weasel,” I whispered, herding him back into my room while he greedily hoarded his prize, leaping onto the ledge with it. “You’re in big trouble, mister. I am seriously disappointed in you.”

Fester flicked his tail like I was being the annoying one here, chewing loudly on the slice of meat he’d thieved from… somewhere. Presumably, there was a kitchen somewhere. Fester had managed more exploring than I had.

“I’m going to keep looking around, but when I get back, you can expect a lecture on the dangers of sneaking out, young man. Do I make myself clear?”

Fester didn’t even deign to yowl at me, far too interested in his snack. I’d taken him into the dining room a couple of times now, and I’d been planning on finding another room today where he could explore before opening up the entire house for his perusal, but apparently, he’d gotten bored with my leisurely timeline.

I shut the storage dungeon door—triple-checking it was all-the-way closed this time—before heading off down the hallway at a less stressed-out pace this time.

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