Page 53 of Soulless Deeds

As we reached my sub-penthouse, Aster spoke another command. “Tell Spencer dinner goes ahead as planned.”

I pressed the emergency stop button in the elevator before the doors could open, folded my arms and turned full bodied to my mistress.

“What dinner?”

Aster flicked an irritant glance up from her phone, impatience rife in the red depths of her eyes. “I have a dinner scheduled with the Kings. An unofficial meeting, per se, to discuss our progress and potential plan for the Ludus.”

“And when the fuck were you going to tell me this?” I scoffed. “I’m your second in command, Aster. You’ve been keeping an awful lot from me lately. Am I going to be chained and questioned under the point of your sharpened fucking nails alongside the rest?”

She pitched a brow at my tone. “Is there a need to?”

“If I ever had the thought, you’d never know it. You’d already be dead,” I said, the statement altogether blasphemous but true.

Aster paused, then released a sincere chuckle, returning her attention to her phone. “I wouldn’t expect otherwise. I raised you, after all.”

I hadn’t realised my muscles were stiffened into stone until they began to spasm. “What are you doing with Spencer? What are you playing at?”

“Don’t you trust me?”

Inhaling deep, I forcibly breathed out my tension. Unfurling my arms, I went with honesty. “I find myself questioning thatmore often these days. What are you doing with her when you go on your little excursions? What are you ordering her to do?”

Aster gave me her undivided attention, eyes panning down my frame as if really seeing me for the first time. “Echo, darling. You haven’t been paying attention if you think that girl would take orders from me… Or anyone.” A strange expression flashed over her face that I’d never seen before—it almost looked like sorrow. “There is a greater connection here than you originally thought.”

“What does that?—”

Aster pushed to her tiptoes and dragged on my ear like an errant toddler. “When the time comes, you will know. As of right now, don’t fucking push it.” With that scolding, Aster retreated, nicking my neck with the tip of her nail. The shallow cut was an indicator for the end of the conversation.

I turned and released the emergency stop button, and as I stepped out to enter my apartment, Aster said her final piece. “I’d never put Spencer in harm’s way, Echo. I’d never do that toyou.”

Perplexed, I shifted, catching that red gaze. “Me?”

“Spencer’s nother, Echo. She isn’t Camil?—”

“I said never to speak her name again. Unless you have that bitch locked up somewhere so she can take all my hate, all my fucking anger in order to repent for her sins.”

“When are you going to let her go, and see what’s right in front of you?—”

“Enough.” I growled, my teeth bared, ready to rip her to shreds.

The doors conveniently closed, the last image of Aster shaking her head in disappointment.

I crossed the foyer and came to a halt in the archway. Spencer hadn’t seen me yet, too preoccupied with stirring a spatula through an overflowing bowl.

The kitchen was a bomb site, ingredients coating every surface while countless dirty utensils were strewn wherever they could fit. Front and centre of the whole damn mess was Spencer, stained cooking apron tight over her front, flour ribboned throughout her auburn hair.

My lips involuntarily lifted at the sight, the vision domestic and achingly generic. The total opposite to Spencer…or me.

The longer she stayed, the more accepting I became of her presence. I could sense the inevitable shift inside my bones, no matter how hard I tried to push against it. I was loathe to admit that I enjoyed the refreshing, fucked up dynamic—our endless bickering, the running taunts, the constant game in tug of war.

Before long, I found myself rushing to get home, looking forward to the end of my day so I could return, just to be with her, to see her face.

I craved her company, seeking her out on purpose, addicted to the attention only she could provide. I didn’t like the power she had over me, influencing my everyday life like she had a say in it at all. I had to gain control over myself because I knew the inevitable end all too well.

I smoothed my features before stepping further into the room. She became aware of my entrance at the same time a distinct ring sounded. Ignoring me completely, her interest diverted to her phone, features igniting with genuine joy as she answered. “Hey,lover.” My jaw clenched as my hands curledinto fists. She hadn’t seen me for two days, and I couldn’t even get a hello?

Sure, I was jealous… And I despised her for it. Yet, I wanted it all. To be on her mind, in her thoughts, festering inside her fucking dreams so she wasneverfree of me. Just like I was never free of her.

Spencer turned her back, bending over to check the oven, and it took everything in me not to groan out loud. She wore skimpy black lingerie beneath her apron, her plump ass shining for me to sink my teeth into.

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