Page 106 of Cursed Heirs

“Thank you.”

“Wait, Saryan.”

“What is it?”

“I didn’t make myself available to you while you were recovering at my home, because I believed it would only aggravate you at a time when you needed to focus on healing. It’s not to say that I wasn’t concerned. And I am grateful for what you’re doing for my daughter.”

“As I am for what you’re doing for my son. Let’s enjoy this temporary truce of ours then.”

“Let’s.”

I stopped listening as I heard a door open and close and the clack of Abigail’s heels a moment later, the meeting coming to an end.

“Well, shit,” Talon exclaimed. “That was a hell of a thing. Abigail’s gonna get a solid lead on Alena! She’ll really be back with us!”

“At a steep fucking price,” I pointed out.

“It’s the only way,” Ore stated. “Alena should’ve been back by now. It likely means she breached most of Constantine’s hold over her, he realized, and he’s holding her captive, keeping her from returning to us.”

I shuddered at the thought.

As if there hadn’t already been enough shudder-inducing things that the devil incarnate had visited upon our love.

“He’ll pay,” I seethed, before I could reign it in. “He’ll pay for what he’s done to her.”

“He sure as shit will,” Tal growled, right there with me.

“You cannot warn your father aboutthis,”Ore told me. “It will fuck with the chance of getting this lead if he stops Abigail from doing this.”

“What will Alena think if she knew? Worse, if she knew we were in a position to stop it and we didn’t?”

“She’s been in that madman’s clutches for too long already. Every day she remains risks there being permanent damage to her psyche. Besides, it’s her mom’s choice.”

“Also, X, do you really think we can stop a Fallen from doing something?” Tal spoke.

I looked at Ore pointedly. “I think Orpheus can.”

He scoffed. “As much as I hate to admit any failure on my part, I didn’t fare well against Alena. Abigail Rose is another story altogether.”

I gave him a withering look. “Nice try. Alena can extinguish dark magic. That’s different.” I laid my hand on his shoulder. “Do you realize that with your father compromised, outside of Constantine, you’re the most powerful wielder of dark magic in the entirety of the supernatural world now?”

He stared back at me and I saw that he hadn’t allowed himself to acknowledge it yet.

“I’m not going to stop Abigail from doing this, X. If it comes back on us when Alena is returned to us,I’lltake the heat.” He lifted a shoulder. “I handle her wrath better than the two of you anyway.”

Tal piped up, “What if this is one of those things, one of those moments that are steeped in regret, the moment that breaks us?”

“Better that than Constantine succeeding in breakingher,”Orpheus said, steadfast.

I cursed under my breath.

As we looked at one another, weighing it all up, one thing was clear.

All there’d been lately were hard choices.

Brutal choices.

Unfair choices.

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