Page 76 of Never Run from an Immortal

His gaze burned into her. “And she let the world believe you fled because of the betrothal.”

Rae nodded. It was the story her mother had spun. That she’d jilted the Fae prince and bolted. It was that or admit their princess had murdered her own cousin, and her mother would rather let the world believe it had been because of Rae’s poor choices rather than her own failings. “I had no interest in marrying Casius, but I would have endured it. It might have prevented all of this.” Nim. Seylan. Maybe even the Liberalists joining forces with the factions. All of it like a game of dyshe, and she was the first piece.

“Your brother knew you had my magic?” Aidan asked. He handed her another glass of visk, and just as she wished for a joint to go with it, he pulled one from his pocket, lighting it with a silver ember from the tip of his finger.

Rae almost smiled at that, but the mention of her brother snuffed out any joy she felt at seeing Aidan’s trivial use of the magic she’d returned to him. “No one but my mother did. And she died a year after I left.” A fact he was well aware of.

“But you were here because of him,” he said as if he saw through all her layers of bullshit, and she wondered for a second if he’d already sought every answer for himself whilst she slept. “Forhim. Omnia was just a front.”

He handed over the joint and Rae nodded, eyes falling shut as she took a deep drag and pictured Seylan’s face. There was no use hiding the truth from Aidan now. “The silver,” she said on an exhale. “Every item I enchanted. It’s spread wide across Demesia. My magic is like a web over the whole city. I was going to nullify the Orders for my brother so that he could start from an even footing.”

“To protect him,” Aidan mused as she passed him the joint. “Take out the competition, put us on the same level as the humans.” He clicked his fingers. “Just like that.”

When Cillian had first explained it to her, Rae had been hungry to prove herself. To do something good. To allow her brother to rule fairly in a world that seemed to be anything but when he possessed little magic and was a sweet, shy character that others would only abuse. “And now it’s over. And the competition is far worse than Vampires and Fae have ever been.” But they were borne of magic too. Torrin and the other hybrids all had an alarming amount of magic at their disposal.

Aidan seemed to consider that. “I was your mark. At Rush.” The night they’d ‘met,’ but she’d already been watching him for months, observing his patterns. “Did you orchestrate the attack too?” he asked coolly as he handed back the joint. To his credit, whatever anger he was feeling, and Rae was certain from the way his eyes had darkened and the tightness in his stance that he was alight with it, he kept it contained.

She shook her head. “I knew it was going to happen. I just needed to get close to you. I needed more money for silver; I needed to know if you were in on all of it, to know what you knew.”

“I would have helped you,” Aidan said quietly, the words clipped.

“You wouldn’t have looked twice at me, and we both know it.”

“Do not presume—”

“To know you? You’re absolutely right, Vale, I don’t know you at all. We’re strangers to each other.” Even as the words fell from her lips, she knew they’d never truly been strangers at all.

“Strangers,” he repeated flatly. His anger was palpable. And he had every right. She’d used him, withheld his magic. Had almost taken everything from him.

“The tattoo?” he asked, downing the last of his visk. “More spells?” Rae brushed past him to the bathroom to run the tap over the end of the joint, discarding it in the bin beside the sink. She didn’t have an answer for him. The only other person that had known she’d had his magic was dead. The only person who knew about hers was dead now too. Besides, Aidan still had secrets, she was sure of it.

“So, now what?” He blocked the way back into the bedroom, his silver eyes as molten as the metal she was so used to melting with her torch, her skin heating as his gaze roamed over her bare legs.

“You got what you wanted,” she said, waving a hand dismissively to try and get past him, but Aidan didn’t budge, his scent and warmth wrapping around her.

He closed a hand around her wrist, the other tilting her chin up to look at him. “And you?” he asked, his tone far kinder than she deserved.

Rae swallowed. She couldn’t do this. Not now. She cleared her throat. Held her head high. “I got enough.”

The fingers that had touched her gently before slid to her throat, Aidan’s grip tightening. “You think I’m going to let you leave when you’ve just admitted you can take down every Vampire and Fae in the city?” The words were harsh, both a promise and a threat that seemed to linger between them, but his eyes fell to her mouth, his thumb grazing her throat.

And Goddess damn her, but Rae leaned into his touch. “It’s only a matter of time before Maddock discovers I’m here.” Shegave a light shrug, if only to hide the shiver of anticipation that slid through her. “I know what you were trying to do, Vale. An alliance. It was a smart move.” Her attention dipped to his mouth, and she couldn’t help but rest a hand over the scar on his heart, a frown creasing her brow. It was his anger she needed. His resentment, his rage. All the feelings he had every right to over what she’d done, all of it because ofhim. “Don’t ask me to stay.”

Aidan didn’t say anything. Instead, he kissed her. It wasn’t a request or a plea. It was a confession, a declaration, a demand. It was hungry and wild and ravenous and furious and a mirror of everything she felt spiralling through her; Rae kissed him back just as greedily.

Resentment simmered in her veins, hot and molten, and she couldn’t have snuffed it out even if she tried.

Tell me to stop, Rae,he rasped in her thoughts.

Never.She pulled his shirt over her shoulders, fingers curling into his hair as he caught one of her nipples between his teeth, his tongue flicking over the tip.

Everything she’d endured. Every beating, every near drowning, every drop of pain had all been because of his magic inside of her. And Rae had hated him for it,loathedhim for so long that wanting him like this,needing, only fuelled her wrath even more.

She bit down on his lip as she kissed him and Aidan groaned into her mouth, carrying her to his bed, her fingers already working his belt, one hand reaching for him, sliding down his cock as he lowered her to the mattress. Rae leaned forwards to take him into her mouth, Aidan’s hand fisting into her hair at the back of her head as she moved up and down his length.

“Fuuuck,” he breathed. “You’ll be the end of me, Farren.”

Her other hand slid between her legs, fingers working to ease the tension building there until Aidan’s hand came down overhers. This was what she needed. What she didn’t dare let herself examine too closely.

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