by Mara McQueen
His amused voice stopped her. "Just don't destroy it before this evening. I'd hate to eat among ruins."
She turned back to him eerily slow. "I don't remember inviting you over."
"I didn't invite you to my study today, but here you are." The grin that stretched over his gorgeous face should have been illegal. The Capital had rules for everything, why not this? "We need to share one meal a week, remember? Contract says."
She should've torn up that contract while she'd had the chance. All she asked for was to nurse her wounded soul and pride in peace. Was that too much to ask?
He popped another snack into his mouth. Unflinching. Detached. Uncaring.
Ava's insides boiled with anger at the unfairness of it all.
She straightened her spine as taught as it would go and sauntered to his desk.
His brows shot up, but he said nothing, watching her every move. He picked another snack and chewed slowly.
"May I?" Ava pointed to the bowl.
Raiden huffed a laugh. "What's mine is yours."
Asshole.
She picked up a cashew nut and flipped it into the air, catching it in her mouth. The mountain girl in her had picked the right time to show itself.
She chewed just as slowly as him, a victorious smile taking over her face.
She licked her lips slowly, tasting victory. "You're eating. I'm eating. Clause completed for this week. Have a nice day."
Raiden froze. His beautiful dark eyes blazed with fury. Ava loved it.
She indulged in one last glimpse before turning toward the door. It might've been petty, but she mentally patted herself on the back.
Big, menacing Prince telling her he'd come by her place unannounced. Who did he think he was?
But underneath that victory, she felt a gash of disappointment opening up. Is this what her life was going to be like in the Capital? Taking her small victories by angering Raiden then sulking back to her giant, empty house?
This was no life, no matter what comfy clothes she put on or what shade she painted her walls in.
She needed to do better. She—
She didn't hear him move. One second he was fuming behind his desk, the next he had his arms around her. Ava didn't even have time to curse him out before he whirled her around toward the closest pillar, away from the door.
Her back molded to the ancient column as he towered above her. Gone was Raiden's iciness, replaced with a blazing stare that bore straight into her soul.
His fingers circled the side of her neck, thumb pushing her chin up.
"You think you're clever?" he asked ominously low, voice barely above a whisper.
Ava met his gaze with all the courage she had, ignoring the way her body wanted to lean toward him. How her hands wanted to grasp his shoulders and pull him down to her. Craving burned through her veins.
Traitor. Every single cell in her body was a traitor.
"I was more clever than you right now. I'll take what I can get."
His body pulsed with fury as his gaze explored every inch of her face.
Ava felt his every breath and heartbeat in her own chest. She wanted him even closer. Yearned to taste him again so badly, she almost shook with need.
This had to stop. She couldn't let this insane longing destroy her.
"What do you want, Raiden?" she asked, almost desperately. She couldn't understand him. He'd made his choice, why did he keep trying? It was over. Done. As soon as he'd placed that hideous crown on her head, he'd made himself clear. Why was he still trying to mess with her mind and feelings? "Live your life and let me live mine. Why can't you just let me be? Why don't you leave me—"
His lips crashed against hers, swallowing the rest of her words. Ava fell all over again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
AVA
Ava didn't know if they were kissing or fighting, but she couldn't stop.
Madness took over her the second Raiden's lips claimed hers. Seeking. Demanding.
His fingers wound in her hair, gripping tightly. Ava's hands coiled around his neck, nails digging so hard into his skin, she was sure she'd leave marks.
Good, a dark part of her hissed.
They pulled each other closer, until their bodies were flush. They gripped, they yanked, they tugged as if they wanted to devour the other whole. As if even a breath of space between them was unbearable.
Their kiss turned frantic, all tongue and lips and teeth. Wanting more. Craving impossibly more.
Nothing else mattered but this blaze between them, burning them whole.
Ava gripped onto his shoulders tightly, pulling herself up. She'd promised herself she was going to climb him, hadn't she?
Raiden's hand traveled down to her ass and pulled her up in one go. He pinned her to the pillar, not stopping this wild kiss for even a second.
Ava snaked her legs behind him, pulling him into her.
Her fingers fisted in his hair, messing it up. His hand traveled up her thigh, dragging the dress higher, higher, higher—
The silk slip Marcella had insisted Ava wear ripped. The sound instantly sobered her up. It sounded exactly like the rips she'd slashed into her wedding dress on that godawful day.
Anger melted the ravaging lust away as bitter memories came flooding back.
A beast roared inside Ava.
She didn't know what came over her, but Ava—dear, sweet, needed-to-be-protected Ava—bit down on Raiden's lower lip hard enough to draw blood.
He groaned low in his throat, but he didn't stop kissing her. Neither did she.
The copper tang invaded their mouths, coating their lips, but it only seemed to spur them on.
Their movements became more frantic, almost desperate.
What was going on? What was happening to her? She wanted to eat him alive and she couldn't stop tasting him. She couldn't let him go.
You have to.
Why? They were both obviously insane. Let them destroy each other.
Because he's not yours.
So what? a savage part of her roared. She'd seen enough, been through enough. She'd survived enough. She deserved to give in to temptation for once in her life.
He will never be yours. He's Kimbra's.
Ava fisted her hands in his hair until it hurt.
This isn't you.
Maybe it was. The Underworld had tried so hard to break her spirit, maybe it had finally succeeded.
Think of Kimbra. Kimbra. Kimbra. Kimbra!
Ava ripped her mouth from Raiden's and pushed him away. He relented, breathing heavily.
Good Lord, blood trickled from his lip down to his chin.
She touched her own lips and pulled her hand away, staring at it in horror. Her fingers were stained with blood.
The haze of furious lust had melted, leaving behind a vicious reality.
"It isn't enough that you broke my heart, now you want to do the same to Kimbra? We're never doing that again," she whispered fiercely, as if that could somehow erase the fact that she'd been moments away from screwing him right here, against a column, with dozens of people outside that door.
He gave her a bloodied, monstrous grin. The Dragon, in all his glory. "Didn't you have fun?"
Fun? Fun? She'd never felt more alive in her life. Something had snapped inside her and she was never letting it out again.
She stared at him, shocked. "Go fuck yourself."
"Why?" He ran his thumb up his chin, picking up a drop of his own blood. Then he licked it, eyes burning into her. "When I'll be fucking you very soon."
Another wave of desire crashed over Ava. What the hell was wrong with her?
She couldn't stay here. She couldn't be around him. He turned her into an animal, driven by the darkest instincts.
She ran to the doors, bursting into the corridor. A dozen pairs of shocked eyes narrowed on her.
Raiden stepped behind, making a show of licking his bloodied lips for everyone to see.
He chuckled low in his throat as Ava took off
, uncaring who saw her.
"I'm never leaving you alone," he said, his dark voice haunting her down the corridor.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
RAIDEN
"Weeks of investigating and we didn't look for this?" Raiden asked, eerily calm.
He tilted his head at the figure in front of him, assessing. His sword hissed through the air, cutting it clean in two. Its rubber torso fell with a thud on the wooden floor. Raiden arched his weapon again—three more training dummies cascaded down into bits.
But nothing could quench the rage inside.
"We've all been kind of busy," Patrice said over the monitor, sounding tired and ticked off, even for her. The five best of the Brotherhood Elite were having another secret meeting and this one was filled with one ugly truth after another. "You know, with the new spouses we want to kill, but can't?"
"That's no excuse." He should have seen it. He should have prepared for it.
But not even his greatest suspicions could have ever come up with something this vicious.
Treason. In the Brotherhood.
"The Committee had sealed the Treaty transcripts until now. And they weren't exactly legally obtained," Logan said, trying his hand at reason. He usually succeeded. Not today.
Raiden scowled. "Have we run out of spies?"
They all remained silent.
Raiden slashed further down the army of training mannequins, dodging their programmed moves. They might have been created to mimic a real, human adversary in battle, but they were no match for him.
Beads of sweat trailed down his chest and across his temples. It wasn't enough. He was too on edge.
"Everyone suspected the Syndicate side negotiated the one-year transition clause." Axton's voice resounded over the call. "Ella was shocked the Brotherhood insisted on putting it in."
If even Axton's she-devil, the sharpest woman in the Underworld, hadn't seen this coming, that was a problem.
"Do me a favor," Raiden said. "Ask Ella to tell Ava about what happened today."
He doubted Ava wanted to be in the same room as him, let alone hear anything he had to say. Better hear the bad news from someone she trusted.
"Consider it done," Axton said.
Raiden finished slicing through the first half of the mannequins and turned to the monitor, reining himself in.
He rolled his neck, easing some of the tension snapping at his muscles for the past hours. Since she had come into his study, blown his mind, then run away.
"Who did it?" His dark voice resounded through the entire training room.
The Treaty negotiators were kept secret. It was a tradition the Committee, council extraordinaire, had insisted on for decades. In case the other Clan members didn't like the clauses. They couldn't take it out on the Committee, but some went against their own members.
Not the Brotherhood. They protected each other. Which is why it was so godsdamned illogical for one of their own to demand five of its best members—including the Prince—to be left out of new missions for an entire year.
Someone had wanted to sabotage them. For what, he didn't know. But whoever this was, they were playing a very dangerous game. Raiden would make them lose.
"The advisors." Logan clenched his jaw, looking frightening. "Banu and Dima."
An ugly silence filled the room.
Banu and Dima had sworn to protect the Brotherhood with their lives.
Mason growled hard enough to vibrate the speakers. "Those motherfucking animals."
"What are they trying to hide?" Axton asked.
"What are they trying to do?" Patrice hissed.
The monitor erupted with curse words, shouts, and threats. All directed at the esteemed advisors.
But all the chaos stilled as Raiden's dark laugh filled the space. He laughed so hard and open, he threw his head back.
"Raiden...you're starting to scare me, man," Mason said, concerned.
"My apologies," he purred. "But, you see, now I can kill Banu and Dima in front of everyone."
Banu and Dima had sealed their demise the moment Raiden had found out what they'd put Kimbra through. He was a man of his word. He'd promised her not to assassinate them for what they'd done.
After Ava had fallen from her horse and he'd almost lost her, he'd planned on destroying them, starting with their reputations and ending with their fortune. Status was everything to those two. When they'd lost everything, he would strike. An accident. A slip of the hand.
Now, though...Oh, now he had to draw every drop of blood Banu and Dima had in them and be congratulated for it.
A mere transition clause in a Treaty, that could be reasoned away. Banu and Dima had silver tongues, they could make it look like it had been in the Brotherhood's interest. A show of goodwill toward the Syndicate.
Raiden wasn't going to let that happen. The advisors never did anything without a reason. Without benefiting directly from it. They'd propped up and protected the Brotherhood because they became important and revered. But they'd reached the limit—advisors were all they were ever going to be.
Unless they changed the Clan itself. Whatever they planned, it was big. It was treason and they'd be judged as any traitor—without mercy.
"I want proof. The kind of proof not even the Committee can ignore," Raiden said. "The kind of evidence that will make their army and supporters want to tear them alive."
If they'd managed to get that clause in the Treaty, their connections ran deep. They must have had an entire arsenal of secrets and bribes. Where did they get the money? Every single cent was accounted for in the Brotherhood, down to the last fishbone.
"Ella's got a plan to get it," Axton ground out. A plan he didn't like, then.
"Is it good?"
Axton nodded, grimacing.
"Perfect." Raiden turned to the mannequins, slashing his way through them again.
"What are you doing?" Patrice asked.
Getting all his anger out so he wouldn't march into the throne room and decapitate Banu and Dima then and there. "Practicing."
He could feel Patrice's eyes rolling. "You're already the greatest swordsman of our generation."
"Among the greatest." He'd seen Seleka in battle. Knew what she taught at that "school" of hers.
He'd also learned how to kill his enemies without causing pain. Raiden was good at killing his rivals; that didn't mean he liked doing it. Quick and efficient. Their lives taken away before fear even reached their eyes.
Now he wanted to cause pain. Wanted Banu and Dima to hurt as much as possible.
He sliced, ducked, and obliterated while they discussed Ella's plan. Raiden had to admit, they didn't call her she-devil for nothing. But it was only the start.
"Get me that recording," he said slowly, arching his body out of the way of a menacing dagger, fast as the wind. "I'll deal with the rest."
Getting proof of Banu and Dima's wretchedness was only the beginning. Raiden had to finish it. But for the first time in weeks, he could taste victory.
The advisors were going down.
"For the good of the Brotherhood," the five of them said in unison, before the monitor turned black.
Then Raiden let loose. All his fury spilled out. All the frustration which had been boiling inside him for the past weeks.
His sword hissed through the air, leaving behind nothing but piles of limbs.
Raiden inhaled deeply, marveling at the gore behind him. It would be nothing—nothing—compared to what he'd do to the advisors.
They'd been dripping themselves in gold for years. Everyone had to see their greatness, bask in their glory. Raiden would cover them in blood.
But he needed to wait. Banu and Dima needed to be obliterated from the Clan and history without anyone shedding a single tear after them. He couldn't risk anyone doubting his decision.
He rolled his shoulders back, shaking his now damp hair.
After the day he'd had, he deserved a nice, long shower.
His tongue flicked out against
the bite mark Ava had left on his lower lip.
That had been a fiasco.
A very pleasurable fiasco, but he didn't want her furious in his arms. He remembered that night in the throne room. How she'd looked at him. So open, so trusting. She'd had nothing but resentment for him back in his study. And lust, but that could fade away in a blink.
This wasn't how he'd planned today. He was supposed to go to her under the guise of the contract. Spend hours together, away from curious eyes. Try to mend what had been broken between them.
What he'd broken.
It had all gone wrong and Raiden was trapped. Give into his heart and risk Ava's life. Wait and he'd risk losing her heart forever.
Raiden cursed his duties. He hated that he had to guard so many lives while risking the one person he wanted most in the world—Ava.
Ava, Ava, Ava. Who didn't even want to look at him.
His weary steps echoed in Kimbra's empty courtyard. His "home". The sentinels marched on top of the outside wall, their pointed helmets spearing the sky.
Raiden knew they'd seen him, even though they pretended not to. Good. That's what a sentinel did.
Nobody saw anything. He'd played his role well. Maybe too well. Now everyone thought Ava was only a nuisance to him. An obligation. And she believed it, too.
He had to take Banu and Dima down and fix this. All of this. Then he'd slowly build the trust back between him and Ava.
It might take weeks. Months. Years. But he would do it.
His deep sigh echoed around him on a loop as he neared the door. All the windows were firmly shut, even on this balmy night, perfect for a clandestine walk.
That was strange. Kimbra hated closed spaces. She insisted on opening every window, day and night.
He approached the door cautiously, barely cracking it open enough to peer inside.
He stilled.
There, on his bed, was his beloved favorite, Kimbra—and she wasn't alone.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
RAIDEN
Raiden rolled his eyes, closing the door tightly behind him.