Page 102 of Malice
In quick succession, Dahlia laid down her next word without saying anything.
“Destiny?”
“Yep.”
Soulmates and destiny. Was I sensing a theme? Or was I reading way too much into words a romance author was intimately familiar with?
“D-E-A-T-H.”
Dahlia blinked at me. “You trying to tell me something?”
“I dunno, are you?” I asked, watching as she spelled eternity with her next set of tiles.
Eternity. Yeah, it was her trying to tell me something. Especially with that look on her face. Dahlia Moore didn’t play with words unless she wanted to send a message.
“Dahlia, why are you here?” I laid my hands on top of the table and looked her dead in the eye. “We both know it’s not because you want to play a game.”
“A mutual friend sent me.”
“Who?”
She looked around the empty room and then shook her head. “The ghosts are always listening.”
“So you came to pass along a message, but you’re worried about being overheard? How does that work?”
Dahlia huffed out a breath. “I didn’t exactly get a choice.”
“Gee, thanks. It’s great to see you too.”
“No, no. I didn’t mean that part. It’s great to see you, obviously. I just mean, there’s a lot going on, and right now I much prefer staying close to my mates.”
There was that word again.
“It must be nice having mates.”
Confusion flashed across her face, and she cocked her head. “You should know.”
“What?”
“You’ve found yours, haven’t you?”
The question brought me up short. I was falling in love with them; that was something I knew for sure, but that didn’t automatically mean they were my mates. I didn’t think succubi had mates. Did they?
“I can see you working this out in your head. There’s no doubt they are your mates, Merri. Fate brought you together.”
“Lilith did that.”
“Just because there was a middleman doesn’t mean it wasn’t fate at work.”
My chest felt tight and warm all at the same time. “They’re only connected to me because of the dreamwalks. I’m not a shifter or vampire. We don’t do mating bonds.”
Dahlia inspected her nails before locking eyes with me. “Uh-huh. So would you say my mates and I aren’t really bonded? None of them are vampires or shifters.”
“Kai is a dragon.”
“Not the same. He’s a fae who inherited a dragon curse from his father.”
“Tor?”
