Page 269 of Psycho Devils: Aran's Story 2

A horrible irony.

The worst part of it all—I’d burned my mother after I was born. Scorched the skin off her arms and breasts when I was settled on her chest.

But she’d lived.

And she hadn’t told my father or his mates.

Purposefully.

She’d performed her function. Her duty was to birth an heir for the illustrious House of Malum, and she had. Then she’d taken the money and left without a word of warning.

And I’d killed them all.

The sins of my past coalesced with the failures of my present.

The inferno ravaged me as my fever spiked.

It demanded release into the silence.

My fire wanted a freedom that my soul could never have without a soul bond.

I fell to my knees.

Sobbed out flames and begged the fire to take me.

“Breathe. Focus on my voice.” Arabella was inches away.

Scorpius’s voice was beside hers. “You are in control. You control the flames. They are you. They don’t rule you, you rule them. Concentrate, my Ignis.”

“Concentrate on me.” Orion’s lyrical voice was so sweet it hurt.

If I could let the flames consume me, I would. I’d have done so years ago. The problem was the fire didn’t want to hurt me; it wanted to hurt everyone else around me.

It always left me unscathed.

If it weren’t for my mates and their powers, my fire would murder indiscriminately.

I was a killing machine. An abomination.

With Scorpius and Orion, I was justice.

Now I was detonating.

I opened my mouth to tell my mates to step back, but purple flames shot higher into the air.

Someone swore.

This was the end.

I closed my eyes, tears of fire streaking faster down my face. Ashes and smoke surrounded me.

There was no returning from this.

I’d lost all pretenses of control.

Even if my mates tried to activate their powers, it was too late. There was an order to things. Orion had to activate his powers first for all of us to be in tandem.

It was hopeless.

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