Lover Avenged(220)

“Threatening a symphath? Careful, I bite.”

The lazy smile tacked onto the words made Ehlena’s heart flicker with fear, reminding her that what was staring across the room at her was nothing she was used to dealing with, and not because of the whole symphath thing: Those cold gunmetal gray eyes of Xhex’s had looked down on a lot of dead people-because she had killed them.

But Ehlena wasn’t backing off.

“You won’t hurt me,” she said with utter conviction.

Xhex bared long white fangs, a hiss coming up and out of her throat. “Won’t I.”

“No…” Ehlena shook her head, an image of Rehvenge’s face as he held her Keds in his hand coming to mind. Knowing what he’d done to keep his mother and his sister safe…made her believe what she had seen in him at that moment. “He would have told you not to touch me. He would have protected me on his way out. That’s why he did what he did at ZeroSum.”

Rehvenge hadn’t been all good. Not by a long shot. But she had looked into his eyes and smelled his bonding scent and felt his kind hands on her body. And at ZeroSum, she had seen the pain in him and heard the strain and desperation in his voice. Whereas before she had assumed all that was either for show or out of disappointment that his cover was blown, now she had a different picture of it.

She knew him, goddamn it. Even after all the shit he had left out, even after the lies of omission, she knew him.

Ehlena lifted her chin and stared across the study at a trained killer. “I want to know everything, and you are going to tell me.”



Xhex spoke for a half hour straight, and she was surprised by how good it felt. Surprised also by how much she approved of Rehv’s choice of female. The entire time she was rolling out the horrors, Ehlena sat on one of the silk sofas all calm and steady-even though there were a lot of bombs.

“So the female who came to my door,” Ehlena said, “that’s the one who’s blackmailing him?”

“Yes. It’s his half sister. She’s married to his uncle.”

“God, how much money did she take him for over the past twenty years? No wonder he needed to keep the club open.”

“It wasn’t just money she was after.” Xhex looked straight into Ehlena’s face. “She made a whore out of him.”

Ehlena’s cheeks drained of color. “What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean.” Xhex cursed and started to pace again, going around the fringes of the gorgeous room for the hundredth time. “Look…twenty-five years ago I fucked up, and to protect me, Rehv struck a deal with the princess. Every month he went up north and paid her the money…and had sex with her. He hated it and despised her. Plus, she made him sick, literally-she poisoned him when he did what he had to, which was why he needed that antivenin. But, you know…even though it cost him a lot, he kept on making that trip so she wouldn’t blow our covers. He’s been paying for my mistake month after month, year after year.”

Ehlena shook her head slowly. “Good…his half sister…”

“Don’t you dare harsh on him for that. There are very few symphaths left anymore, so inbreeding happens a lot, but more than that, he didn’t have a choice, because I put him in the position of being trapped. If you think for one second he would have volunteered for that shit you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Ehlena raised a hand up as if to calm things down. “I understand. I just…I feel badly for you and for him.”

“Don’t waste that on me.”

“Don’t tell me how to feel.”

Xhex had to laugh. “You know, under different circumstances, I could like you.”

“Funny, I feel the same way.” The female smiled, but it was the sad kind. “The princess has him, then?”

“Yes.” Xhex turned away from the couch, because she wasn’t sharing what was no doubt in her eyes. “The princess was the one who blew his cover, not Montrag.”

“But Montrag was going to come forward with that affidavit, wasn’t he? Which was why you killed him.”

“That was only part of what he was going to do. The rest of his plans are not my story to tell, but let’s just say Rehv wasn’t even the bigger part of it.”

Ehlena frowned and leaned back in the cushions. She’d been fiddling with her ponytail, and wisps had come free of the scrunchie she pulled it back in-so that as she sat on the silk couch in front of a lamp, she had a halo around her.

“Must the world always be so harsh, I wonder,” she murmured.

“In my experience, yup.”