Page 103 of The Umbra King

She turned dead eyes to him, all the anger gone. It was worse than her rage. “I saw you leaving,” she informed him. “Shirtless. Imagine my surprise when I walked into this room to find Nina getting dressed, too.”

He tried and failed to control his own building rage. The shadows twisted into the air, and she slapped at them. “Call off your dogs.”

“Listen to me,” he said in a voice so lethal it would send the bravest of mystics scattering. “I didn’t touch Nina. When I returned from my run, she was waiting for me. I told her to get dressed and leave, and I left to have her reassigned.”

Rory’s mask cracked with a flash of uncertainty, and Caius approached her. “Believe me,” he pleaded.

The wheels in her mind turned, and when she looked back to him, she said two words that gave him hope. “Prove it.”

“Come with me,” he said, taking her hand.

He marched her through the palace to the staff quarters, blowing open doors with his shadows. “Where is Nina?” he growled to various staff in their rooms.

“She doesn’t live here anymore, Your Grace,” a maid stammered.

“I am aware,” he returned. “But she was in the palace recently. Someone must have seen her.”

“She was in the staff quarters earlier,” Rory supplied. “With two men.”

Caius turned back to the staff gathered in the hall. “Where is she?”

“She left, Your Grace,” a man said. “I saw her, Felix, and Vince leave not long ago.”

Felix and Vince. He needed to check the files to find out who these men were.

Guiding Rory through the palace, he looked at her as they walked. “How easily you believed the worst of me.”

Rory stared straight ahead, her face never betraying her emotions. “I don’t know you, Caius.”

He gave her hand a light squeeze. “You will.”

When they enteredNina’s apartment building, he stopped by Linda’s office and asked her to call Nina down.

“The king is here for you,” the woman’s voice said as she made her way back to the front with Nina on her heels.

Another voice echoed through the hall. “The king?” Nina sounded excited. “You didn’t give me time to freshen up.”

The woman made a gruff sound. “I don’t think it will be necessary.”

When Nina rounded the corner of the hall, the excitement drained from her face at the sight of Caius’ anger and Rory’s presence. “Nina,” Caius clipped.

Her eyes darted between Rory and him. “Yes, Your Grace?”

“If you ever lead mymateto believe you and I had relations again, I will send you to hell,” he snarled as he took a threatening step forward. “Understood?” Rory’s spine straightened when he claimed her, and he fought to keep his attention on Nina.

Whether or not Rory wanted to admit it, they were mates, and he would be damned if anyone treated her as anything less than the queen she was.

Nina’s face leached of color. “Mate?” She shook her head wildly. “No. No, that’s not right. She’s been bothering you, and I washelping. It was the only way to keep her away from you.” She reached for him, but a shadow grabbed her wrist. “You’re too kind to tell her yourself,” she tried again. Her face was stricken. “You would keep her by your side? A ruthless murderer? What about what we had?”

Before Caius and Nina had a physical relationship, he made it abundantly clear it was purely physical and nothing else. He didn’t know why Nina was acting this way.

Her lip wobbled, and she fled, crying, down the hall.

“What was that?” Rory muttered under her breath.

“That,” Linda said, “was a delusional girl coming unraveled.” She waved and stepped back into the manager’s office.

Caius said nothing as he and Rory left, and once on the street, Rory grabbed his arm. “I’m sorry.”

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