Page 120 of The Female

“I’m sorry,” he says.

Refusing to let my shock be shown, I blink slowly and continue staring at the door behind his head.

If I ignore him long enough, he’ll go away.

“I understand why you’re angry with me,” he continues when I don’t respond. “It’s justified. We dropped the ball here, and it was, unfortunately, a pretty big fucking ball. How can we make it better?”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. The answer to his question is obvious. “Telling everybody the truth would be a good start.”

Silas hums in agreement, seemingly not surprised by my demand. I’m sure he anticipated this would be my request. It’s the right thing to do, and they know it.

“We can do that,” he admits. “And we should have long ago.”

“Are you going to tell the whole truth?” I ask. “That you’ve known about this for decades and kept it a secret?”

I already know what Silas’s answer will be as he sucks in a deep breath and glances away. They’re going to pretend they just found out and play the role of hero. Revolting.

“Telling people that will cause needless drama.”

Pathetic.

I lean forward and rest my elbows on my desk. Dropping my head into my hands, I let out a pained sigh. Why couldn’t they have done the right thing when they had the opportunity? I wonder if they’d even bother entertaining the idea of sharing the information if it weren’t for me throwing a fit.

Neither Silas nor Gray seemed particularly eager to tell me the truth of their own volition, and I’m willing to bet they’d still be lying if I hadn’t found the report.

Silas clears his throat and rubs the back of his neck, the action oddly human-like.

“I have a present for you,” he murmurs.

“Oh, wow. Make a girl mad, then buy her a present. So original.”

Silas raises a brow, clearly unamused by my snarky response. I purse my lips before gesturing for him to show me what he got, wanting the present even if I’m mad.

I try to keep any intrigue out of my expression as he pulls two navy-blue gems out of his pocket. One is fastened into a necklace, a thin, gold chain looped through a hole carved into the top of the rock, and the other is just the stone.

Silas sets them both on the desk. I hate to admit they’re beautiful, the stones shimmery and full of rich color.

“I had these made a few days ago, so this isn’t a present I purchased just because you’re angry with me,” Silas says. “Your lack of power makes you helpless—no offense—so I had a mage shove a handful of mine into the stones.”

What? I didn’t realize that was possible.

“They should be fairly straightforward to use. If you slam one into somebody with enough force, it’ll explode. It won’t kill me since the power is mine, and it probably won’t work on Aziel since he’s stronger than me, but it should bring down anybody else.” He gestures for me to pick them up.

I tentatively run my finger along the top of them both. I must admit that’s pretty cool.

“Won’t it kill me?” I ask.

Silas shakes his head and grabs the stone not connected to the chain. He holds it out for me to take. I do so carefully, afraid to set it off.

“I gave the mage some of your hair, and he was able to extract your DNA and tie it to the stone so it won’t affect you. It’s a lot of intricate magic I don’t understand well enough to explain accurately. This one’s for you to test out on me. The other is for you to wear.”

He wants me to test it out on him? Under normal circumstances, I’d be nervous about shoving an exploding rock against his chest, but that sounds particularly exciting right now. I stand and walk around my desk with the gem in hand.

Silas squares up, his feet separating so he has a firm stance.

I pull my arm back for momentum before flinging it forward without hesitation. I open my hand mid-thrust so all that’s between it and his skin is the gem, and I follow through until my palm slams into the center of his chest.

The stone heats just a second before Silas grunts and falls back, the sudden distance causing the stone to drop to the floor. I glance between it and Silas, noting that the vibrant color has vanished and all that’s left is a gray-looking pebble.

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