Page 186 of Owned

They’d never seen what I’d seen. They didn’t know how far he would go.

What he’d make us do.

Or what we’d be willing to do to keep his anger at bay.

I shook my head, but the vision was a poison that wouldn’t leave my system. It threaded through me and twisted around the memories of Lucian’s words—had they really been part of the vision? Or were they real? Had he said these things aloud?

Or did I just wish for them?

I didn’t doubt that he wanted us to tear each other apart as we fought like starving wolves for the rights to inherit his power. The image of my brothers’ bodies, bloody and broken, flashed in my mind.

I pull my hands from my hair in frustration.

It was an illusion.

An enchantment.

A fucking dream.

I couldn’t let it control me.

I wouldn’t.

I opened my eyes. The walls close in.

We’d waited too long and it seemed as though the games and manipulations were twisting in on themselves.

Valen and Titus wouldn’t risk making a move.

But Lucian already knew everything, had planned every moment before it even happened.

If I went through with it—if I fulfilled the promise of the vision I’d been shown—Lucian would welcome it.

He would reward me.

“You’re the only one—”

I didn’t know what was worse: that the vision might be right, or that I might be willing to go through with it.

Fuck.

I had to know what Lucian was planning.

We’d been guessing for too long and I wasn’t going to justwaitfor whatever was coming. I wanted to be ready—with a blade in my hand.

I draggedmy captive through the mist-soaked underbrush and his wheezing breaths were like a wet cough behind me.

The trees creaked as they moved in the wind, branches swaying in the predawn chill.

The man was as repulsive in captivity as he was in his natural habitat as Lucian’s creature.

His expensive clothes snagged on branches and tore like tissue paper.

“Where are we— You cannot—”

“Keep moving,” I growled and yanked the rope tighter around his wrists.

We were near the edge of the estate now, far enough from the mansion to go unnoticed—far enough that no one would hear his screams for help—but not so far that I couldn’t still feel the pulse of my blood bond with Avril.

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