Page 89 of The Umbra King

“If I said yes, what would you do?” she asked, raising her brows.

He fisted the back of her dress and pulled her closer, his lips brushing against her ear as they walked. “I would fuck you until the only name you remembered was mine. Do not tease me, Miss Raven.”

She stopped. “I haven’t seen you in days and before that, you were an asshole. What gives you the right to say those things to me?”

He was silent as he watched her, and shadows swirled across the ground as his intensity grew. “Are you saying you don’t think about it? That it’s not what your body has craved since the moment we met?”

The words were confident, and the look on his face never wavered. She hated he was right, hated that his words made her wetter than she’d ever been. What was it about him? Why did she believe his declaration of not killing either of their sisters? Why was she asking herself so many questions again? She annoyed herself.

Like the names of colors, her soul justknew. Her body wanted him despite the way he treated her, and it made her grit her teeth.

“I cannot control my body’s reactions, but I can control myactions. You will never touch me again,” she seethed, angry with herself more than anything.

The bastard smirked. “Haven’t you learned? I know when you’re lying.”

She wanted to stomp her foot and demand he believe her. “Your words are honey, but your actions reek of shit because you are full of it. No woman wants a man who treats her like an insignificant ant, not even if he is a king.”

With all the dignity she could muster, she threw open the door to his office, pissed it was the only entrance she could use to the sky room. She left him standing in the hall, and to her disappointment, he let her.

Caius watchedRory leave with her head held high, and while her words were harsh, her determination to resist him made his cock harden against his zipper. His feisty little mate with a savagely dangerous streak was no longer someone he could resist.

When she was hurt, his entire existence narrowed to her and only her. Sam’s words ran through his mind on repeat, and for the first time, he considered approaching his sister for help about Gedeon.

When his brother framed him for Atarah’s murder, Adila refused to allow him to defend himself, but what if he could make her listen this time around?

The morningof Atarah’s murder, Caius was in Erdikoa, hungover from the night before.

His brother went out with them, and when Caius woke up the next day, it was almost lunchtime. The woman he’d fucked in the bar’s bathroom was nowhere to be seen, despite him usually bringing his women back to his room for more.

He had no recollection of the end of the night.

His head was killing him, and after drinking a pitcher of water and showering away his hangover, he donned his signature black button-up shirt, black pants, and silver rings.

He left his room in search of his brother to ask him what happened and saw Gedeon standing at the end of the long hallway dressed in the same outfit as Caius.

Caius remembered thinking it was odd because where he was all dark colors and silver accents like his palace, Gedeon was the golden child, dressed in light colors and gold.

Caius followed him, and by the time he rounded the corner and entered the only door in the hallway, which led to the throne room, his heart plummeted. Atarah lay on the ground with a dagger in her heart, and her dead, glassy eyes looked back at him.

Caius raced across the room and fell to his knees to feel for a pulse, knowing he would find none. One hand wrapped around the dagger and the other braced on her chest as he pulled the weapon out and inspected it.

His vision tunneled when he realized it was his dagger their father gifted him when he came of age, and as he climbed to his feet, a maid stepped into the room and screamed. When his eyes met hers, she turned and ran, and when the Lux Palace legion ran into the room and caught him red-handed, he knew he’d been set up.

And he knew Gedeon was to blame.

He couldn’t lethis brother get away with killing Atarah and framing him.

Caius finding hisAeternumcomplicated things, but maybe it didn’t have to. If he could make Adila understand, he could have his cake and eat it too.

At least, he hoped. But revenge was a powerful motivator, more so than fear or greed, and if Adila wouldn’t hear him out, he would send Gedeon to hell himself.

Even if it meant going with him.

30

Lauren steppedthrough the office entrance to the sky room and held out a piece of paper to Rory. She grabbed it from the woman who was becoming her friend and scanned the words written in haste.

Rory,

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