Page 23 of Of Daggers and Deceit

“Defence numbers have dwindled, and more Omegas were taken last year than ever before. Your sister could finally be the ace the Haven has needed for a very long time.”

I closed my eyes and gripped him, my heart seizing in my chest. I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her or the pain it would inflict on my mother. She wouldn’t survive a grief like that, wouldn’t survive the loss of her child, nor I my sister.

Zander extracted my arms from around his back as I looked up at him and saw the shift to his business-as-usual façade. Brief moments were all he ever gave me, and every time, I longed for so much more.

“You need to leave,” I stated observantly, disappointment stirring again in my gut, and he winced.

“The thinning is two days away. I have meetings to attend tonight and things to organise. I’m sorry.” He reached out with a hand to caress my cheek before letting it fall back to his side.

I took a step back away from him, and it was as if the small space between us was infinitely wider, because it felt like I could never truly reach him.

“I understand.” What choice did I truly have other than that? This was the path I chose in becoming the partner of the Supreme of the Haven. He was our busy, passionate leader, and this was the life I’d need to adapt to.

Zander cast one last yearning glance back at me before leaving, his boots clipping against the floorboards as he went until only silence remained, the loneliness of it loud.

My shoulders drooped down as I lowered myself to the lounge and looked around our home. Was this going to be my life? Was loneliness the price of his love? The price of a better life for the people of the Outer Ring?

Maybe when I was his bonded, we would lead together. Power could buy and give you access to so many different things that those without it would never experience. I knew what a life without it was like; I’d lived it before he chose me. With power, I would never hunger again. I would never fear for my life. I would know a decent bed, a warm meal, a hot shower. I would never worry about the things others worried about in the Outer Ring. I should be grateful, and in part, I was. But it wasn’t enough when so many others didn’t have the same fortune I did. This moment made that abundantly clear.

I padded across to my room, stripped down, and changed into my pyjamas, white as was expected of me. I smiled down at it, sadder than before, because I’d once felt powerful wearing this shade. Now, I felt it highlighted my lack of it. Not even the Rose of the Haven was enough to save her sister from the price of potential death.

With heavy limbs, I crawled into my silken sheets and lay my weary head down for the night. I prayed to Omni right until sleep claimed me for the guidance I so desperately needed.

My sleep was fitful, my body drained but not relaxed enough to truly submit to a restful sleep I needed. So, when a glass shattered in the kitchen, I bolted upright, immediately alert, and scrambled out from my bed, my back tight against the wall as I stared at the door.

My breaths came hurried and fast as glass crunched underfoot. A boot, surely, from the way it crumbled.

I shifted my way quietly around my room, padding closer to the door to grip the handle, adrenaline now coursing through my veins, my body coiled tighter, ready to defend myself.

Glass skidded, and a second crunch against the flooring followed. I cursed Zander for having no surveillance in the house, for that stupid elevator that so conveniently gave access to our private home from the base of this building. He placed such an arrogant amount of trust in his guards.

I didn’t trust anyone, not truly. People would sell you out for a better life within a second. They would take it if the opportunity struck.

I strained my ears to listen, but the only audible sound was the rise and fall of my quiet breaths.

Slowly, I turned the knob and opened the door as my pounding heart throbbed in my ears.

“What are you doing?”

A voice, dark and sinful, erupted from the shadow in front of my open door, and I screamed and fell back, scrambling on the balls of my feet until I gripped the single gun from under my bed and pointed it towards the offending space.

Laughter emerged in response as Sly stepped forward into my room with a cocked eyebrow.

“Who knew the Rose of the Haven was so agile.”

I kept the gun trained on him. Absolute idiot. My heart physically hurt from how aggressively it was pounding against my ribcage.

“Going to shoot your only ally, hmm?” He took a step forward, calm and confident, as if his presence here at this time of night was not a complete invasion of my privacy.

I frowned and kept my gun trained on him, my voice low and accusing. “What are you doing here so late?”

He didn’t seem deterred as he walked the rest of the way and held his hand out towards me.

My frown deepened slightly before I slowly lowered the gun, placing it on the floor beside me, hesitating before sliding my hand into his, noting the roughness of his palm. A worker, then.

“I’m sorry to have woken you. I dropped my water.”

“I was awake anyway. Why are you here?” He hadn’t answered my question the first time, and his casual attitude to breaches such as this was beginning to alarm me. I allowed him to pull me from the room, out towards the moonlit living area, the floor-to-ceiling windows allowing unrivalled views of the city. I was still shaken up from the shock of his presence, not entirely grounded in my body again to rationally process what was happening.

---