Page 16 of Owned

“Do you think they’re all here?” I dared to ask.

My father chuckled. “It would be a mistake to be absent—” He glanced up at the rearview mirror and his icy eyes met mine. “Who would be foolish enough to ignore my summons?”

Good point.

One of his guards opened the rear door and Lucian slid out of the vehicle. The gravel crunched under their feet as they walked toward the cemetery entrance.

With a grunt, I turned off the engine and exited the SUV.

Bastian and Valen stood near the entrance, waiting for me.

“Hurry it up,” Bastian said with a slight lift of his chin.

“This doesn’t feel right—” Valen said.

“He won’t shut up about it,” Bastian growled and nudged his elbow into Valen’s side. Valen just glared back at him.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” I said. “Come on. He won’t want to be kept waiting tonight.”

Bastian snorted. “Does he ever?”

I didn’t have to answer him.

I brushed past my brothers and strode through the gate that led to the section of the cemetery that housed the crypts and mausoleums of Messana’s dearly departed elite.

Lucian and his guards were ahead of us—I could see their dark shapes in the mist.

“Keep your mouths shut,” I said over my shoulder.

“Why?” Bastian’s voice echoed through the gravestones.

“You never know who’s listening,” Valen hissed back.

Exactly.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t been paranoid before—but something about the way Lucian was acting didn’t sit right with me. Our father had never been predictable, but he had never kept so many secrets from us.

And the announcement of a date for the wedding—

He intended to marry Avril.

Not just that—he seemed dead set upon it.

But why?

What use would he have for her?

The women he usually took for his pleasure were… different.

Not like her.

My hands tightened into fists at my sides and my magic swirled in my chest—I couldn’t bear the thought of his hands on her smooth flesh. And I didn’t have to ask to know that my brothers felt the same.

She was mine.

Ours.

We reached the marble entrance of the tomb where Lucian and his guards had already disappeared. I exchanged a brief glance with Bastian and Valen before I followed my father into its depths.

---