Page 80 of Secrets & Curses of Crimson

“Yes.” Luren clipped.

Thea glanced at where I was hiding, and her eyes flashed red like she was telling me she knew I was spying. When she was gone, Luren sighed and stood up. He straightened the ugly crown on top of his head.

“Have you talked to your mother recently?” Luren glanced at Jesper.

His dead mother?

“No, I haven’t had time to go see her.” Jesper’s face gave away his lie, but Luren wasn’t looking at him. He was too busy looking at a map of Elloryon.

“This is the only warning I am giving you, Jesper.” Luren stared up at him. “If you and your mother try anything to get me out of your way, I will kill her in front of you, and then I will lock you in the cells to rot away.”

“Why would we do that? We are getting everything we wanted from this arrangement. Well, except Thea.” Jesper glared. “I told you I wanted to marry her, not Tally.”

“Thea would gut you the moment you let your guard down,” Luren said matter-of-factly, but I barely heard over the possessiveness pounding in my ears. Why was Jesper so damn persistent on taking my mate? Did he care for her, or did he want to use her for something? It didn’t matter; she was mine, and no one would ever take her from me.

“She could have learned to love me.” Jesper barked back. Luren laughed loudly.

“You?” He chuckled. “It is clear that Thea loves Cassius. It doesn’t matter how many times her memory is wiped; she always finds her way back to him. She willneverchooseyou. You are lucky I am letting you marry Tally. She will be a good wife to you.”

“She isn’t Thea.” Jesper frowned. Damn straight she wasn’t. Jesper and I could agree that Thea was exactly what we both wanted—smart, funny, kind, loyal, and pretty. Jesper knew no one else could even come close to her. Too bad for him, the stars made her for me.

“You will get over this infatuation with Thea. She does not want you. Besides, she is a bastard child. Why would you taint your bloodline with a bastard? A witch bastard, no less.”

Jesper became enraged at this. His face turned red as he walked toward Luren.I don't think I had ever seen him this angry, especially toward Luren.

“I am a witch bastard too, or did that escape your memory?”

I froze at his declaration.

Jesper was a bastard child? And part witch? What the fuck was happening? I glanced around like someone would explain what was happening.

“Your father is royal, and your mother was a witch. You still have a good bloodline.”

So Jesper’s mother wasn’t the Queen of Kizar. Thea must know this, but why was it important to her? Jesper smiled smugly at Luren.

“By that logic, you are saying Thea has a good bloodline too. Her father is royal, and her mother was the fucking queen of blood witches. By your logic, Luren, Thea has a better bloodline than you.”

I smiled to myself because Jesper was defending my wife, and I knew that would piss off Luren more than anything. Luren’s face turned bright red in his fury.His hands fisted by his sides, like he might punch Jesper. I would love to see it.

“That’s why you don’t want me to be with her. It would make me more powerful than you. That’s why it kills you that she loves Cassius. He is already powerful without her, but with her… they are unstoppable.”

This had never been about power for me. I knew Thea was powerful the very first time she used her fire magic in front of me. This attraction to her has always been about Thea and the type of woman she was. Even if she was magicless, I would not have been able to stop my need for her. She is all I have ever wanted since I first saw her in my dreams as a child.

Thea destroyed any other woman’s chance at catching my attention before we ever met. And it wasn’t her power and magic that did that. It was everything else about her. It was why I never dated, never touched another woman. I knew Thea was mine before I knew she was real. I savedeverything for her: first kiss, first date, first hug, my godsdamn virginity. I belonged to her the moment my heart first beat.

Mate bond or not, I would have never been able to resist her. And if she had been fated to someone else, I would have wiped their existence from the realm before she knew about them. Because I was not selfless like Della was with Haden. I was selfish. I wanted Thea happy, but I wanted her happy with me.

Every day, I will question why the stars thought I was the one who was worthy of her. But maybe it wasn’t about being worthy. Maybe the stars knew I would be nothing without her. I would be lost. Thea loving me made me the man I was. Without her, I would not have a purpose. The realm is a better place because Thea found me worthy of loving back. There was no doubt in my mind that Thea saved me. She was the reason I was a semi-decent man.

“Which is why we need her to kill him before she realizes she loves him. No one will be more powerful than me.”

Jesper looked pissed.

“I have to take Gwyn to a stupid play she has been bugging me about.” Luren left, and Jesper stood fuming in the throne room. Perfect.

I stepped out from the shadows, and before he could register what was happening, I had him in a death grip in my shadows and was moving to Kizar.

“Let me go!” He thrashed around. I released him and took a step back so he could recognize we were in his home.

---