“Because you came alone,” he replied. “And because despite your training, I know you are no killer of innocents. I’m the one you and the Order want. I mean to go with you peacefully. All I ask is that my crew goes free and Mira goes home safely, taking no blame for anything that happened to Jeremy Ackmeyer or for her time spent with me.”
Nathan’s cool stare pierced him even deeper now. “She doesn’t know you’re surrendering.” Not a question; a cold, accurate statement of fact. “Why would you do this to her?”
“I’ve hurt her enough. I want this—all of it—over.”
Nathan’s brows lowered into a scowl. “You care for her, that’s obvious enough, even to me. I know she cares for you. Why not run somewhere together? After all, you’ve lived a lie this long. Why throw yourself on the sword now?”
The irony of it made Kellan exhale a sharp breath through his nostrils. “Because I have no fucking choice.”
Nathan cocked his head, studying him. “What is this—some eleventh-hour attack of conscience? Too late for that. If it’s a sudden resurrection of your honor after such a long absence, I promise you, it’s wasted. This thing has gone too far. It’s gone too public now. There won’t be any clemency for you—for Bowman. There can’t be.”
Kellan nodded. “I know that. This will only end one way for me. I’ve seen that for myself.”
“You’ve seen it.” Something cold and suspicious flickered in Nathan’s steady gaze now. His voice, which had been carefully schooled and quiet, now notched a bit louder. “You mean Mira’s shown something to you. A vision?” A curse, ripe and violent, erupted from between his old friend’s lips. “You’ve used her ability, knowing what that costs her?”
“Jesus, no. I never would’ve done that,” Kellan said. “Not intentionally—”
“Fuck you and your intentions,” Nathan growled now. He stalked forward, dangerous in his outrage. “Did you use her? Did you use her gift for your own selfish gain?”
“Kellan . . . ?”
Ah, Christ.
Mira’s worried voice sounded from behind him in the dark of the bedroom. He wasn’t ready for her to walk into his conversation with Nathan yet. He wasn’t ready for her to learn that he’d brought Nathan to them as a means of surrendering without bloodshed or casualties. Everything was happening too fast, a snowball picking up speed as it careened down the side of a mountain.
“It’s okay,” he told her, sending the reassurance over his shoulder as he heard her start to get up. “Mira, stay. I’ll be right there and we can talk.”
She kept moving, fabric rustling as she pulled a sheet from the bed and wrapped herself inside it. Her bare feet padded softly, carefully, on the wide pine floor as she made her way toward the open French doors. “Who are you talking to out there? Kellan, what’s going on?”
And then a misstep. A halting, hitching movement that made Kellan’s heart sink like a stone.
He pivoted and flashed to her side, catching her before she could fall. Her small cry of distress went through him, as sharp and unforgiving as an arrow. “Shh,” he soothed her. “Shh, I’ve got you, Mira. It’s okay now.”
A low growl at Kellan’s back made his neck prickle with warning. “Holy hell. It’s even worse than I imagined.”
“Nathan?” Mira asked, her pale, cloudy eyes searching in the darkness. “Kellan . . . what’s Nathan doing here? Tell me what’s happening. Kellan . . . ?”
“You goddamn bastard.” The Hunter’s voice was pure menace, all of it locked on Kellan. “You’ve fucking blinded her.”
22
“NATHAN, NO!” ALTHOUGH MIRA COULDN’T SEE THE BREED warrior move, she felt the crushing impact of his body as Nathan launched himself at Kellan. In her veins, she felt the echo of each punishing blow of the fists that came down onto Kellan’s head and torso.
But the physical pain she experienced through her blood bond was nothing compared with the agony of knowing the two men she cared for so deeply—her two best friends, who’d been as close as brothers to each other at one time—were now engaged in a brutal fight because of her.
And fight was not the right term for what was taking place in front of her. Even though her vision was nothing but blackness and shadows, she could tell that Kellan wasn’t even attempting to strike back at Nathan. He fended off the incoming fists, dodged when he could, but threw no punches of his own. He wouldn’t fight his friend. Kellan had too much honor for that, despite what Nathan must think of him now.