Page 31 of Hell's Secret Omega

Take it? Hide it away and tell Mezor about it, using it as a bargaining chip?No, neither. General Leuther will have his loyalists search every corner of the mountain if Cyrus steals it. He will have to copy it.

He makes quick, ugly work of it in a trembling hand, straining for the sound of boots on stone. When he’s done, he shuts the drawer and resets the catch spring. He leaves the door closed but unlocked—there’s no way to lock it from the outside without the key. At least Leuther won’t know what was taken.

Relief makes his legs wobble as he climbs the stairway to the upper levels gracelessly. Now, at least, he has a single bargaining chip.

He’s not prepared to open the door and have the scent of his own heat smack him in the face. He stumbles, gripping the doorframe. How could he have forgotten? The sense memory of Mezor underneath him, the stone floor on his shins, theneed, theache—all of it roars to the forefront of his mind with a vengeance. His heart bursts into a gallop. Can he really face Mezor again?

He has to.

The arrow flies into the dark. Cyrus waits.

Mezor doesn’t come.

Chapter 20

CYRUS

A week passes.Cyrus returns to his nest. He can’t bear to sleep in the barracks anymore. He stuffs the copied ledgers and his crooked diagram into a hole there.

His nest is barely more than a crack in the wall behind a dusty tapestry, deep in the heart of Mount Hythe’s abandoned library—a hole he’s hollowed out and lined with old clothes and bits of fur. It should be comforting. Safe. With the Court in an uproar, General Leuther has Magnus running around to do his bidding, leaving him with no time to hunt Cyrus down. Cyrus should be relieved. Instead he’s so lonely that the solitary curve of the walls hurts.

The itching deep within becomes an ache, becomes a stabbing pain that plagues him constantly. His foolish body believes it’s been betrayed. Mezor doesn’t owe him anything just because they spent his heat locked in passion. Still part of him rages at the unfairness of it.

Four meetings.

He promised.

Slowly, the pain grows to encompass his whole being. He can barely crawl out of his nest to do his duties.

Then he stops leaving.

I might die, he thinks distantly, stroking the smooth walls in his delirium. They’re warm, as if alive, but it’s only from his own body heat.Is this the end?

If he dies, he hopes Ekko will forgive him for broken promises.

Chapter 21

MEZOR

The world seedtakes Mezor far from any gate, almost a full week into the mountains. The waxing crescent moon looms large in his periphery as he travels. No doubt Cyrus will try to summon him—it’s better if he’s away to resist the temptation.

Far from taking his mind off Cyrus, he’s plagued day and night by memories of the little demon under him, around him—his heat, his scent, his sweetness…on the inside, he’s being driven to madness. For the first time, Hell’s quiet dark is stifling. Even the seedling seems hesitant to push through the soil.

Deep relief washes through him when he finally returns to the gate.

What is wrong with me?

He touches the gatepost and braces himself. Cold fire engulfs him, scattering his atoms through the aether.Empty. Lonely. Aching.What are these sensations pricking at him in the void? He re-materializes in the grotto and they coalesce into a storm of emotions that almost bowls him over. His breath stops in his throat.

Pain sweeps through him—not his own. In the middle of the cottage door, his white arrow quakes as if it’s only justlanded. It’s embedded so deeply that the wood splinters when he wrenches it free. Worry turns to dark dread.

The pain he feels belongs to Cyrus. That can only mean one thing.

They’re bonded.

It’snight in the Court and the halls are blessedly empty. Mezor leaves the arrow behind. He doesn’t need it to know where Cyrus is now—a tug in his gut leads him straight there.

Fool, he curses himself.You utter idiot.Of course they bonded. Cyrus was a vergis in need who’d never known a kind touch. The bond probably took hold the instant he touched Cyrus. In his arrogance, he didn’t even consider it a possibility.

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