Page 116 of Shattered Jewel

Even my internal thoughts gasp at the word. I knew these guys were dangerous and highly skilled at their nighttime activities, but to label themselves exactly how Sarah titled her nighttime pursuits … the parallels are all too vivid in my head.

Kaspian continues, “If, at any point, they decided I was no longer of use to them, I didn’t want the necklace anywhere near me in case they managed to break my defenses.”

I give Kaspian a long stare, peeling back the layers of his sentence and understanding how the Sovereigns might break through his mental walls. Torture. Carvings. Scars and punishment.

“And so you hand it over to the one person they’d look to next?” Wilder asks, eyebrow cocked at Kaspian. “I always thought you were the smartest one of the bunch.”

Cav glowers at Wilder. Wilder ignores him, being the reckless one of the bunch.

“Elara’s family has kept the Heart safe for centuries. Why assume they can’t do it now?” Kaspian says.

I raise my chin in surprise at his unexpected defense.

“Can we get back to the point?” Wilder interjects. “The necklace is missing, and so is Axe. Anyone heard from him?”

Together, they form a triangle of simmering anger around me, Kaspian at one end of the room, Wilder at the other, Cav at the peak.

And me, dead center.

Sasha shuffles closer into my side, lending me her strength.

“I tried to contact Axe as soon as I couldn’t find him or the necklace,” I answer. “He’s not answering my texts or calls.”

I shift my gaze towards the empty space next to Cav. The realization hits me like a gut-punch. The bed sheets are cold, the imprint of Axe’s body still visible but quickly fading.

“I’ve tried as well,” Kaspian says. “His phone goes straight to voicemail.”

“Maybe he just needed some air. He tends to wander,” Wilder suggests, but I can tell he doesn’t believe his words. Wilder’s mad honey eyes...they’re different. Serious and somber.

Cav is quiet. The one who plans and can predict the future with scathing accuracy is uncharacteristically silent, and I don’t know if that should scare me more than Axe’s sudden exit.

If anything, it sends a cold dose of fear over my head.

The missing necklace. Axe’s disappearance. His confession that the Sovereigns had been using him…

“I don’t like this,” I say, leaning into Sasha’s warm side, my heart ricocheting with anxiety. “Something’s wrong.”

“Undeniably,” Cav finally intones. “Axe is acting off, even for him.”

Wilder grunts in agreement, his fingers drumming on his thigh.

“He’s been distant recently,” Wilder adds. “More caught up in his own thoughts than usual. He barely looked me in the eye when we last spoke.”

The revelatory insights drop like stones in my stomach. My mind races back to every interaction I’ve had with Axe, searching for a sign, anything that can offer a hint of our present predicament.

And all I can find is the guilt shining in his eyes.

I swallow down the knot forming in my throat and force out the words that have been chewing on the edge of my thoughts. “Do you think Axe took the necklace?”

The air seems to deaden.

“To what end?” Kaspian muses in his smooth baritone.

“No idea,” Wilder responds tersely, rubbing the stubble on his chin, “But it’s sure as hell suspicious that both disappeared at the same time.”

The tension is thick in the room, a palpable entity that lunges for my voice and steals my breath. Our cohesiveness as a group threatens to unravel with each passing second, frayed edges catching on the sharp blades of unspoken accusations.

“Just because he’s acting strange, doesn’t mean we should accuse him of betrayal,” Sasha defends, her light, feminine voice almost out of place in this gloom. “Plus, I like him. He’s my favorite out of all of you. He wouldn’t do something so heinous.”

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