Page 38 of Forsaken Dream
Chapter Eighteen
Echo
“Good day to you, beloved.” The male spoke from the threshold of the mill, the musical notes to his tone not diminishing the threat in it at all.
Reeling from the knowledge that this male was my fourth mate, my brain felt like it on vacation, hearing but not understanding the words spilling from his lips. All sharp angles and grace, he exuded nonchalance so perfectly it triggered all sorts of alarms inside me. Warnings I ignored because I was uncertain of what was happening. What were the odds that the fourth mate would show up there of all places, and at the exact time when Josh had ripped the necklace from my neck?
And what was with the dramatics of blotting the sun anyway?
Was he the devil himself?
I didn’t get it.
Wait? Didn’t he just call me beloved? The arrogant jerk expected me to run up to him to give him a hug just because I felt the connection, which I only knew about because of the three glaring males standing around me. Unfortunately for him, he was about to receive an ugly awakening. First, he barged in like a jerk while I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the human. Second, he scared the shit out of me with his entrance.
Maybe he expected an applause?
“No.” Snapping at him, I glared and jutted my chin in defiance.
“No?” One of his eyebrows curled up, while Tyler snarled a warning when he looked like he was about to come closer.
“Yes, no.”
I knew the males hadn’t attacked him, for the time being, because none of them wanted to step away from me until they had to, instead choosing to close rank around me as if that ensured no one could come anywhere near. Possessive much? On the bright side, at least there was no bloodshed, yet.
“Echo,” Vaser muttered in a way that told me he wanted to say something that I probably wouldn’t like, so my elbow wedged itself between two of his rib bones making him grunt.
“Don’t Echo me, Vaser. I said no.” The irrational urge to piss the strange male off was stronger than my need to act like a grown female. “He doesn’t get to waltz in here with his dramatics, expecting me to bat my eyelashes and clutch my chest as if I’m some swoony female just because he decided to grace us with his presence. I don’t care what the fates have charted for me, he can get a ticket and wait in line.”
“What are you talking about?” Tyler, per usual, growled. He had no patience for my tirades and word vomit.
“Him.” With a huff, I swirled my hand in the direction of the male before crossing my arms over my chest. “If he thinks just because he decided to show up that I’m about to give him an easier time than the three of you had, he is sorely mistaken.”
“Echo,” Vaser tried again, but I remembered the human.
“Oh dear fates, Josh.” My body jolted so hard the incubus nearly dropped me on my ass. “Did you kill him?” It was impossible to keep the accusation from my voice when I addressed Tyler.
“He lives.” The gargoyle squeezed the words through clenched teeth, his yellow eyes flashing in such a way that I could tell he’d imagined killing the human many times over.
“What do you mean he can wait in line?” The incubus lost his patience, shaking me gently in his hold. “You do know who that is, no?”
“I would think the scum was a more-pressing threat than the human,” Tyler added, menace dripping from his mouth.
My jaw opened to tell them that was the one we talked about when the angel spoke, curdling my blood with his smooth voice.
“That’s the Unseelie prince, dove.” Angelo backed up until his spine pressed against my side, sandwiching me between himself and Vaser. “Fear not, he will have to go through me first.”
But I wasn’t listening. White noise filled my ears, thundering so loud I thought my head was going to explode at any second. A chill rushed through me, and it came from the depths of my soul as I watched all my efforts and struggles to pave my own destiny crumble into dust. In the middle of it all, as I continued to slowly die inside from the unexpected and very much unwelcomed twist of the fates, my mind kept screaming over and over again:No, he couldn’t have known. My father was an evil, cruel bastard, and if he knew the arrogant prick was my fated mate, he would’ve made sure the male was killed at birth. He couldn’t have known. He couldn’t have.
“Go back to your hole, scum.” Tyler had enough, and he took a threatening step toward my betrothed. “If you want to live, you’ll stay away from our mate.”
Something passed over the male’s features too fast for me to follow or understand, and then he schooled his face back into the devil-may-care mask from before. It could’ve been a surprise, but if it due to my stubborn refusal before he’d voiced his requests or because of the protective circle the males formed around me and Tyler’s claim of me being their mate, I wasn’t sure.
“You cannot claim what already belongs to another, I’m afraid.” His shoulders rolled gracefully in the resemblance of a shrug. “You know as well as I do what happens when oaths are broken. I, for one, would not wish what happens when provoking the ire of the fates on my worst enemy.”
I swallowed thickly when he stepped inside the tiny mill, sucking up all the remaining so I couldn’t breathe.
“Remove your hands from my betrothed.” The musical voice sounded like a caress when he addressed Vaser, or it would’ve if I actually liked poisonous barbwire tearing at my skin until it was shredded to the bone.
