“I read your files, you can’t traverse the shadow realm,” Enzo insisted, and for the first time I noticed that he was only half dressed, red nail marks I didn’t remember making but knew were my fault were plain to see across the exposed panes of his chest.

  “No, I went once, without supervision and swore never again,” Kain grumbled. “I was attacked by about fifty imps the first time and it was a pretty horrific experience, so I told the teachers I couldn’t, so they wouldn’t make me.” His hand moved to pull me against him. “I thought maybe I should try again... just to make sure you were okay.”

  “You were smart,” Enzo begrudgingly admitted, stepping away and surveying the destroyed room. “The moment it was discovered I could travel to the shadow realm too many people became too interested.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let's just say that I started sleeping there after the fifth kidnapping attempt. When it got worse, I left Barren and travelled to London to hide amongst the humans.”

  I shuddered at the idea of anyone sleeping in that cold, strange realm.

  “You mean you never graduated?” Kain’s eyes were wide. “No one does that...”

  “Not at Vice, or the other prissy top colleges.” Enzo rolled his eyes. “But at Barren a few students leave out of desperation every year. Eventually you get so beaten down that being a social outcast without the elders’ final blessing seems like a small price to pay for escape.” He shrugged. “I did well enough for myself even without them picking my place in society for me.” He was silent for a long minute, examining Kain. “When you’ve recovered, we should go into the shadow realm together. I’m curious as to what the two of us could accomplish together.”

  Kain crossed his arms. “Food first.”

  “Help yourself, it’s in the fridge,”

  “I’ll take you.” I smiled, tiptoeing to kiss his cheek, then hesitating for the barest second before doing the same to Enzo.

  His smug look made my toes curl. “I’ll show him, Pretty Darling. You should go and get dressed for our outing.

  I looked down and realised that, with all the commotion, my robe had fallen open so far that I may as well have been naked. “Shit.” I hastily tugged it back together.

  “You shouldn’t have told her,” Kain complained. “I was enjoying the view.”

  Enzo ignored him and headed for the kitchen, dropping a kiss to the top of my head. “Hurry up. I’ll do my best to refrain from injuring him, but I make no promises.”

  I stared into his eyes for a second, trying to judge if he was serious or just teasing, but his cold smirk gave away nothing. A quick peek at our mating bond showed me he was amused by the whole situation. Regardless of his sudden good mood, I rushed through my shower and dressed quickly in jeans and a cute lacy shirt. By the time I made it to the kitchen, both men were sat on the breakfast bar, one sipping tea from a teacup and the other inhaling the scent of black coffee from a chipped and battered mug. The seat between them was empty, but a plate of warm brioche with little pots of jam sat there waiting for me. I took the hint and hopped up onto that stool, digging in.

  “Your colour’s back.” I eyed Kain carefully. “Feeling better?”

  He just shrugged, hugging his coffee with his hands. “The chill is what gets to me, want to warm me up?”

  And of course, because this was Kain, he lifted me out of my seat and into his lap without waiting for my response.

  I sighed and snuggled into him, taking another slice of warm buttery bread. “What’s happened since I left?”

  “Aside from getting your room tidied up? Not much. Blaze confirmed that the blood on your bed was your grandparents... but aside from that there are no other leads.” A deep sorrow settled in my bones at the reminder of their deaths, and I took another bite to distract myself.

  Enzo, oblivious to my grief, gave me an ‘I told you so’ look and rolled the dregs of his tea in his cup idly. “I found out a few things last night, before I was distracted. I’ll consult the others when I drop off Lilith tomorrow. But first things first, I want your promise not to ever bring anyone else here.”

  “Your place is your place.” Kain shrugged. “No big deal, I was never even here.”

  “It’s not mine, it’s hers,” Enzo growled. “And it’s impossible to make a safehouse for someone if the whole world knows where it is.”

  “What do you mean, it’s mine?” I cut off whatever Kain would have said. “You never told me that.”

  “Technically it’s in your fake ID’s name.” Enzo shrugged. “I have several places like this all over the world. I already told you the reason we are in Paris is because you speak French better than Demonish. If you’d been raised speaking a different second language I would have chosen a different location.”

  “I have a fake ID?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “And you never thought to tell me any of this?” I paused as I realised something... “That treasure...”

  “Is all yours to do what you wish with, I have a much bigger stash in my other dens. Killing people pays well.”

  I wanted to faint, but Kain’s warm hands gently massaging my shoulders brought me back to the present. “Why would you even do this? You didn’t know me.”

  He shrugged. “You’re my mate, and you were in enough danger to warrant having six assassins sent after you in one night. It seemed like the logical thing to do.” He waved off the whole thing as though it was a minor inconvenience. “Not like you need the money with how much you inherited.”

  I shook my head, because I didn’t want any of it. “That’s not my money.”

  “They died and gifted it to you. It’s yours.”

  “I don’t want to think about it!” I snapped, and they both froze.

  Instant regret slammed me for shouting at them, but thinking about my grandparents hurt, and thinking about the inheritance that was their way of taking care of me from beyond the grave, hurt even more. I took another bite whilst I tried to smother the urge to wallow in my grief.

  I guess I understood that an assassin would care very little about death, but his apathy still stung.

  Kain rubbed my shoulders, snuggling me closer, setting our mating bond to a comforting electric tingle under my skin. “I’m sorry about your grandparents, Sunshine. I’d do anything to take this hurt from you.”

  His words and the warmth of his skin on my shoulders soothed and calmed me, giving me the courage to look up and meet Enzo’s gaze. His deep blue eyes were narrowed as he watched Kain snuggle with me, and I felt his jealousy the moment I opened my mind to our bond. I only half listened as the two men changed the subject back to who was responsible for the attacks against me, my mind whirring as I tried to understand why Enzo felt jealous. But the moment Kain left and I opened my mouth to confront Enzo, he cut me off before I could say anything.

  “Grab your weapon. We leave in ten minutes.”

  He disappeared, following Kain into the shadow realm and leaving me alone in the kitchen with only my thoughts. Ivory chose that moment to settle on my shoulder, and I sighed long and deep, scratching his tiny head.

  “I would give anything to understand what that man was thinking even half the time,” I admitted to the imp, who nodded as if he understood me and then...

  Disappeared as well.

  What the hell?

  I was about to get annoyed at the imp running off on me when I felt the slightest pulse down the strange bond that we shared. Curious, I reached out along the bond, and I nearly vomited as a strange double vision settled over my eyes. The sensation of seeing something over the top of something else was so disorienting that I had to close my eyes and breathe deeply before opening them again and spinning to face a wall. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but the blank wall did help minimise the effect and let me focus on whatever Ivory was sending me.

  Ivory was sending me what he was seeing, and for the first time I understood what Maddox had meant when he said that imps were useful spies. He followed along behind Enzo and Kain, his vision bobbing as he flew around.

  “We have nothing in common,” Enzo snapped, fiddling with the sleeve of his coat as Kain watched him carefully.

  “That’s not true. We can both come here, we both adore Lilith.”

  “In my case adoration does not seem to have achieved her affection,” Enzo muttered, his brows furrowing.

  “Perhaps that’s because you were threatening her life six months ago?” Kain shrugged. “For the record, that was a pretty asshole move.”

  “Perhaps. But, you forget that I could easily have taken your head and kept her for myself. I thought I was being incredibly considerate.”

  Kain just rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just try not to push our girl too much right now. She’s suffering enough with Bane being a complete idiot.”

  “And though his assassination would remove the problem, she seems fond enough of him that I’ve decided against it.”

  Kain gave Enzo a long look. “I never know if you’re joking or not…” He paused. “That’s another thing, did you ever think that a bit of sympathy might have gone a long way towards making our girl feel better about the death of her grandparents?”

  “Being an assassin tends to make one rather… ambivalent about death.”

  “Well Lilith’s not an assassin. She’s got a big heart and it’s bruised right now, reminding her of that loss by talking about inheritance is a pretty low thing to do.”

  “You will have to come for tea,” Enzo murmured distractedly.

  “I don’t drink that shit. And if you want to understand Lilith’s emotions, you’re better off dragging Jin to tea…”

  Ivory abruptly stopped sharing his vision with me, and for a few moments I had to stay in place, breathing deeply to get accustomed to seeing just one version of reality again. When the imp reappeared on my shoulder I stroked his head thoughtfully.

  “That was strange, but still amazing,” I told him. “What other tricks do you two have up your sleeves?”

  He didn’t answer me, instead curling up against my neck and closing his eyes. Down our bond I could feel his exhaustion, so whatever he’d done must have taken a lot out of him.

  Enzo took his sweet time getting back, but when he did he swiftly took us through the shadow realm and reappeared us in a deserted field. The air was warm, the sky bluer than it ever was in the UK and the sandy soil and strange plants told me we were no longer in England, but I didn’t get a chance to ask where we were before training began.

  Chapter 24

  January and February passed in a whirlwind of aching muscles and headache inducing mock exams that were almost enough to make me forget about Bane, my grandparents and my room being trashed. I healed Mrs Oxomoda but, rather than congratulating me and let me get on with the obscene amount of theory I had to cover for her subject, Rezinax just found more people with similar conditions for me to heal. Hadrian had moved us on to MMA, and his lessons made my muscles ache almost as much as Enzo’s weekly training sessions from hell did. Although my assassin mate still took me on trips all around the world, at least one day a week was dedicated to teaching me to wield that strange, two-bladed spear. Enzo made for a harsher taskmaster than the combat professor, because he knew he could heal any damage I did to either of us whilst I learnt.

  To my immense surprise, Professor Saxon had given me a solid B for my mock, and now treated me as ambivalently as the rest of the class. Daron and Rina theorised that it was because she was afraid of me now that she’d seen my power, but it didn’t make sense to me. However, I was forced to ignore her strange behaviour in favour of focusing on the immense workload I was getting from Maddox and Theology.

  So, when I fell into my room, exhausted on a dreary Tuesday evening, I was not in the mood to face the heavy legal envelope that had been slipped under my door. I tried to ignore it, but Onyx picked it up and struggled to bring it to me, his tiny wings beating furiously to heft the weight of it into the air.

  I sighed and grabbed it, dumping my bag on the bed and flipping the envelope over to read the return address stamped across the back.

  “What the hell does the department of familial affairs want with me?” I wondered aloud, slipping my finger under the seal and ripping it open. “Dear Miss Carazor, we are writing to inform you that, following the death of Lady Frea Carazor, your father has rejected his place as head of the Carazor family. As the last remaining descendant of the Carazor name we must now inform you that you have thirty days to accept or reject the position of head of the family.”

  I gripped the paper tightly, rereading the lines over and over again before moving on. “Should you reject the position the Carazor family line will be discontinued, and you will fall under the jurisdiction of your maternal line, becoming answerable to the current head, Lady Vendra Braxion. However, should you accept the position as head of the Carazor family you will be required to vote on behalf of your clan and be responsible for the upkeep and defence of the ancestral estate. A full list of responsibilities is included in the following pages…” I looked grimly at the thick stack of pages behind the letter. “We await your response within the next thirty days.”

  I looked up at Ivory and Onyx, both watching me seriously. “They can’t be serious.”

  I was saved from pondering it further when Lulu burst through my door, wide eyed. “Have you seen Nelly?” she demanded, slamming the door closed behind her and rushing over to my window to peer out between the curtains.

  “No, I haven’t… What’s going on?”

  She glanced back at the door. “I might have done something stupid…” Her voice was even, but with my empathy I could tell that Lulu was terrified.

  I frowned… “How stupid?”

  She peeked out of the window again. “I was thinking about what you told me… about how we could have mates just waiting for us among the unshown… I thought why not try and see if any of the ones in the school were mine. They’d never have to know, so I did what you did when you were searching for your Gluttony mate and used my terrakinesis to throw tiny stones at them because I knew you’d be pissed if they got hurt…”

  “You found your mate?!” I screeched.

  “I found my mates,” Lulu whispered like she was afraid that admitting it would draw them to her. “One was an unshown, but that buff combat professor was with him and he caught me. He yelled something about daring to assault his brother in front of him, but when he went to strike me back with PK it didn’t work, and he just stared at me.”

  “Hadrian? Hadrian and Dorian are your mates?”

  “Well I didn’t exactly get a chance to ask for their names.” She tossed her blonde hair out of her face and peeked out of the window again. “I raised an earth wall and ran. I was only curious! I never actually thought I’d find my mates, or I wouldn’t have… What if there are more of them?!”

  I smiled thinking of Lulu mated to the serious professor and his strange but sweet brother. “Dorian and Hadrian are good people. They’re both Knights, and they’ve both helped me before. Maybe you should give them a chance?”

  Lulu ducked down below the windowsill, eyes wide and staring at me. “They’re here!”

  “What do you want to do?” I approached the window, reaching Lulu just as she turned toward me again.

  “Can you just get rid of them… or apologise and say I’m ill or something?”

  I followed her gaze. “Isn’t that Nelly?” There was a third figure with them, blonde hair shining in the glow from the Tower. Lulu paled even further, and I grabbed her arm. “Come on, better to face it outside the tower where you can slam the door in their faces if you need to.”

  Lulu stared at me reluctantly. “But I’m a promiscuity, what if they don’t want me?”

  I raised my eyebrows as I tugged her out of the door and towards the doors. “Why would that matter? I’m sure Dorian’s thinking the same thing, he’s unshown which is worse.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being unshown!”

  I smiled as Lulu jumped to his defence. “I agree. But my point is, he’s probably feeling just as insecure as you.”

  We reached the front door just as Nelly swung it wide and I smirked as I gave Lulu a little shove forward. “Take care of her, she’s special to me.” I hit both brothers with a hard stare, making it clear that it was an order to my Knights and not a request.

  “Of course, Lady.” Hadrian bowed slightly to me, but his gaze was glued to Lulu who had adopted a deer-in-the-headlights look.

  “We would never upset your handmaiden,” Dorian added, extending his hand awkwardly. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Lucrecia.”

  I waited just long enough to see Lulu put her hand in his before grabbing Nelly and dragging her inside, closing the door on Lulu and her new mates.