Page 218 of Storm of Secrets and Sorrow

Still, she let herself linger in the warmth and the dark. The steady rise and fall of chests. The muscles and power that almost felt like home.

Just a few more minutes before destiny beckoned.

38

AXEL

“Ineed to show you something,” Katya said, bursting into the bathroom, and once again startling him.

“You have got to stop doing that, kitten,” Axel said. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears as his heart rate slowly went back to normal. He’d just finished drying off from a shower and was wrapping a towel around his waist.

“Hurry,” she chirped.

Gods, she was practically bouncing around with excitement.

“What if I had been indisposed?” he asked.

Her brow furrowed. “I heard the shower shut off moments ago.”

“People do things besides shower in a bathroom, you know.”

“Of course I know that.”

He waited, but she just continued to stare at him as if he was the odd one for suggesting a person shouldn’t barge into a bathroom.

She’d been awake before him this morning, which had been rather disappointing. Today was going to be a long day, and he had no idea what to expect. Apparently, the plan was to go about the day as normal. They’d all attend the Solstice servicein a couple of hours, and then the Sources and heirs would take their leave to bestow the third Source Mark. There had been no word on Theon’s deadline, and his father hadn’t spoken to any of them since dinner a few nights ago. That alone had Axel on edge. Usually when his father went days without speaking to him, it meant something was coming. That something usually ended with his power drained, chains on, and days spent in a state of madness from bloodlust. Maybe this would be the time his father would force him to trigger the curse.

That was one of his greatest fears. That he would be so desperate and blinded by need that his father would shove a Fae at him, and he wouldn’t care. Would he even recognize what he was doing? What if it was Kat as a way to punish him? For what, he didn’t know, but his father had to know he could use her against him by this point. With all the unknown surrounding today, he once again found himself wondering why he’d ever thought this was a good idea, while knowing he wouldn’t have changed his decision.

“Axel?”

Kat’s voice drew him from his thoughts, and he plastered on a fake smile. Stepping forward, he brushed a kiss to the top of her head as he murmured, “Happy Solstice, Katya.”

She stilled for a moment before brushing her fingers along his arm. “Are you all right?”

“Of course,” he said, tugging at a curl. The warmth of her touch didn’t quite sink into his soul like it usually did. “Let me get dressed, and then you can show me what you found.”

A few minutes later, he had on pants and a shirt, although his shirt was unbuttoned and loose. Katya was already shoving a book under his nose.

“Look at this,” she said, tapping the page.

“It’s a Mark,” Axel said, trying to reach around her to the coffee carafe. “It looks kind of like the last Source Mark.”

“That’s because itisthe last Source Mark,” Katya said. “Or at least some kind of variation of it.”

“What do you mean by a variation of it?” he asked. Keeping his finger on the page, he flipped it shut, looking at the cover. “What book is this?”

“The one Cienna gave me,” Kat answered. “I’ve looked through it numerous times, but it’s incredibly complicated to translate and understand.”

Axel knew that. He’d sat with her one night and watched her struggle her way through two pages.

Two pages.

In five hours.

She’d put the book away, getting lost in other books these past weeks, so what had possessed her to suddenly pull it out this morning was beyond him.

“I’m going to need you to help me out here, kitten. Why are we excited about this?” Axel asked, rubbing at his chest. He needed a drink or blood. Maybe both. Anything to keep his rising anxiety about this day down.

---