Page 218 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“I know it sounds insane,” he said. “But the way she spoke and the things she knows…” He shrugged. “The point is, when I…left you last time, I went back to her. Nottoher,” he added in a rush as Kat’s eyes went wide. “But I didn’t know where else to go. I don’t know where I belong anymore. I’ll be one of them, and it seemed…logical, I guess. When I came back for you, I told her I had some things to take care of before I could fully commit to herand her House. She can’t know I’m back yet, and she certainly can’t know about you.”

“So you brought me to the Underground? Where, if I am discovered, we will both be killed?” she asked slowly. “How is this any safer than staying in the Arius Kingdom?”

“It’s not really for you,” Axel admitted. “It’s easier for me to get blood. It’s safer for me to be around you in the Underground.”

Kat nodded, but she didn’t respond. He gave her time to process everything, his fingers still moving along her soft skin. Letting his shadows out, he wondered how much longer he’d have them to toy with, and he sucked in a breath when she let tendrils of flames tangle with them. He reveled in it, cherished it, knowing in mere days it would likely all be gone. They’d never feel these pieces of themselves act as one again. They’d never get to have something that was supposed to be fated for them.

Fate could fuck off.

Finally, after several minutes, she said, “I understand everything you’ve told me. I understand your reasoning, but Axel, I can’t just stay in this penthouse day after day. I don’t need to leave the Underground, but I do need to leave this space. We’ll both go mad.”

“I just need more time, kitten,” he said. “We need to get safeguards in place, and?—”

“From what I’ve gathered, there are no such things as safeguards in the Underground. Or Devram, for that matter,” Kat interrupted.

She wasn’t wrong, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try.

“I still have my power,” she went on. “And while you might not have your magic anymore, you will still be of the Arius bloodline. You’ll be powerful in other ways, Axel. You’ve spent years in the Underground. You are constantly telling me you have connections and know people.”

“It’s not the same,” he said, shaking his head. “I know you don’t understand?—”

“Don’t do that,” she snapped. “Idounderstand. It’syouwho doesn’t. I know you see certain behaviors as ingrained into the Fae, but the Legacy are the same. You are all so indoctrinated with the way things are, you don’t realize that theycouldbe different.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Katya,” he said, meeting her stare once more.

There was a warmth there he wasn’t expecting, along with something else he couldn’t place. Some type of unwavering belief in him maybe? He wouldn’t know because no one had ever looked at him like that before.

“You say you don’t know where you belong anymore, but there’s a freedom in that, Axel,” she said softly, reaching up to cup his cheek. “You gave me a freedom when you let me be more than another Fae bound to your kingdom. I know it’s strange. I know it’s hard to know what to do with that. I’m still trying to figure it out too, but you get to decide where you belong now. You get to make a new path.”

She took his hand then, placing it on her stomach.

“And maybe that new path will lead to a world where we don’t have to hide.”

Cienna had said it would take a week or two for the curse to take everything from him. She’d been wrong. It had taken three.

Three weeks of slowly feeling his shadows slip from his grasp. Three weeks of drinking more and more blood every day.Three weeks of exercising self-control when Katya walked into a room.

These last few days had been torturous. Her blood had called to him as much as her power. He’d ordered extra stores, was more than prepared, but none of it smelled like jasmine and citrus, spices and heat. None of it smelled like her, and the urge to take grew stronger with each passing day.

But despite his agony, despite the gnawing hunger and the desperation to take from her, the rations he’d secured were doing their job. They were allowing him to stay in control. They were keeping him from attacking her as she sat beside him, a damp cloth pressed to his brow. There was a sadness in her eyes, and her heart was racing too fast. That couldn’t be good for her or the babe.

“You don’t need to be here for this,” he whispered.

His entire body hurt.

Curled in a ball, sweat beaded on his brow as he shivered from chills that wracked his body, and Axel idly wondered if this was what a fever was like. He’d heard of such a thing, but he was sure he’d never experienced one. This couldn’t be a fever though. He was fairly certain that was when the body temperature got too high, and he was freezing. But he was also sweating. None of that seemed right.

Theon would know. Theon knew everything with all that stupid, useless knowledge. His nose had always been in a book. In fact, Axel couldn’t remember a time Theon didn’t have a book in hand. Granted, he was five years younger, but it still remained that his earliest memories of his brother included books. The asshole had never deigned to join in chaosphere games with him and Luka, and Theon never let him go into his room or touch his things. One time, Axel had found his tablet left somewhere. He’d opened it and tried to figure out the password. He hadn’t known it would lock up after so many attempts.

He learned later that Theon had been punished for that, taking the blame. It was the first time he’d associated safety with love. Theon loved him, and therefore did whatever he could to keep him safe and protected. It was how he’d been taught to love, and it was how Axel had learned to love.

Kat’s smile was soft and sad. “I do.”

“I’d rather you not, just in case.”

“We’ve already had this argument. Multiple times,” she chided. “I’m not going anywhere. I don’t believe you will hurt me.”

“I know that, but?—”

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