Page 36 of A Story of Sinners

My chair squeaked as I jumped to halt him. “Where are you going? I have questions and you have answers.”

Malachi laughed, a low, dark noise that made the room go eerily still. His brow furrowed and then softened. “And I will answer your questions, my light, at another time. The secret meeting your friends held about me has concluded, and we have run out of time.”

He reached out and softly pinched a lock of my hair between two fingers. I recoiled, my hair sliding from his grasp. He rolled his eyes.

“You have company,” he stated, teeth flashing as he took a step back. A whirlwind of shadows encompassed his body and swallowed him whole. When the shadows cleared, Malachi had disappeared.

The door to my room flew open, and Brandon entered, his neck craning as he scanned the room. He pulled the curtains and checked behind them, his gaze scanning the corners of the room, under the bed, in the armoire.

“I heard voices. Who was here?”

“I think you know,” I answered, and Brandon cursed beneath his breath. “How did the secret meeting go?”

Brandon’s eyes slid to me. “Not so secret, I suppose. How did you know about it?”

I shrugged, then sat back at the tea table. “He knew. I don’t know how. He knows anything and everything. It’s as if there isn’t one thing in this world or the next that could escape his notice.” I shivered. “It was one of the many reasons he terrified me so much as a child.”

Brandon sat across from me and examined the cup Malachi had drunk from. “What can you tell me about him?”

The question made me bristle. “There’s not much I can tell you. We haven’t seen each other in a very long time. We were close as children, but that’s all we were: children. The memories are nothing more than a blur,” I answered, feeling the smallest bit protective. “He was cruel then, and he may still be. I know just as much as you do.”

Brandon leaned back with a sigh, his eyes hazy. “Do you think he is a threat? Do you think they wish to destroy us?”

I slumped in my chair, completely unsure of the answer to that question. If Malachi didn’t get whatever it was he wished for, then destruction would be a very real possibility.

“I don’t know, Brandon. I don’t know anything. Stop asking me.”

Brandon bowed his head and fidgeted with his armor, then met my eyes. “Happy name day. I’m sorry we forgot.”

“There is a lot going on. It’s understandable.”

“No, not for me,” Brandon shook his head. “Of all people, I should have been the one to remember. I wouldn’t put it past Aiden or George to forget, but me? You’ve always been my closest friend, even if I haven’t been yours.” He met my eyes. “Thank you, by the way…for protecting me.”

“Always,” I answered, reaching across the table to grasp his hand. “No matter how much you piss me off.”

Brandon chuckled and smiled, and I met his smile with one of my own. It had been a long time since we’d chatted, and I missed this. Still, there was one detail nagging my thoughts.

“Brandon,” I started. “You weren’t surprised when you discovered what I am. You already knew. I know you did.”

Brandon hesitated. “I knew you weren’t human, I was sure of it. Still, my suspicions of what you were, were just that—suspicions. But yes, a shade was at the top of my list.”

“How long did you know?”

“A long while. I would have kept your secret forever if I had to, but Aiden demanded the truth. He had me follow you, and when I gave him nothing to work with, he grew suspicious of me. I didn’t have a choice but to tell him.” Brandon dragged a hand down his face and groaned. “I thought it would be better this way. I thought that no matter what you were, what you were hiding, Aiden would accept you with open arms. I was wrong.”

“What I am is a hard truth to swallow for anyone,” I responded, my eyes tracing Brandon’s sorrow filled expression. “Except for you. It should be exceptionally difficult for you to understand, but it wasn’t. Why? My kind killed your family.”

A soft smile passed his lips, and his eyelids lowered. “I’ve known you for a decade, Dahlia, and you’ve been my friend for just as long. You having magic was hardly a problem to me, and it probably would never have been a problem to anyone else, if you’d been honest.”

I slumped in my chair, knowing it didn’t matter if I’d been honest, but Brandon would never see it the way I did. The truth would have gotten me killed, even if Aiden had chosen to protect me. Once a truth is uncovered, it spreads like wildfire. It had been a lose-lose situation.

The door behind me creaked open, and the rich smell of my mate seeped into my nostrils. Brandon’s spine straightened, and I leapt from my chair to face Ryken.

Every fiber of my being wanted to run to him, to hold on to him, to squeeze him tighter than ever before, but I resisted the urge. He wasn’t to be trusted until he proved himself.

I shuffled closer to Brandon, blocking him from my destructive mate. A slow smirk stretched across Ryken’s face, and my heart pumped with each step he took. When he reached the table, he dragged a fingertip along the wood and licked his lips.

“Don’t knock him out again,” I instructed, holding my hand out to stop his path, meeting a firm chest.

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