The Messenger’s eyes settled on the wall of vines at Thanatos’s back and slowly widened, his step faltering as he walked towards it. Shock rolled across his features and he blinked rapidly, his gaze locked on the wall, as if Thanatos didn’t exist.
Thanatos stepped into the path of his gaze and the male dared to frown at him, revealing an emotion he shouldn’t possess—anger.
“What do you want?” Thanatos growled, his own anger getting the better of him as his mind whispered that he knew what this male wanted.
Who this male wanted.
The Messenger merely shifted his gaze to the right, ignoring the threat standing right before him. This wouldn’t do. Thanatos stepped forwards, intent on reminding the male who he was dealing with and putting him in his place.
He tensed when he sensed Calindria emerge from behind the wall, glanced at her as she stood just feet from him, her blue eyes locked on the Messenger, recognition dawning in them. Damn it. He had wanted to drive the male away before she could wake. His blood heated to boiling point as he looked back at the male and found him gazing at Calindria with a possessive light in his mismatched eyes.
The fact that the male dared to look at her while she was so skimpily dressed was enough to have Thanatos sinking into a rage. The fact the male looked as if he wanted her for himself propelled him past rage and into something far darker and far more dangerous.
Thanatos stretched his wings out, not to intimidate the Messenger but to cover Calindria, stopping the male from seeing her curves. She frowned at him and he cursed as she stepped around his left wing.
“I know the way home, my lady.” The Messenger kept his eyes fixed on her as he pressed his hand to the chest of his black tunic and bowed his head, ignoring Thanatos. “If you would come with me, I can lead you there.”
“I know you.” She sounded far too happy about that. “Gods, it has been so long. Do you still work for my family?”
Thanatos snarled, “No, he does not. He left the family.”
“I left it to search for you, my lady.” The Messenger almost spoke right over him, earning himself another growl from Thanatos. “I have been searching for you for six centuries. I knew you were not dead.”
Calindria gave Thanatos a pointed look. He scowled at her.
“Everyone believed you were dead. This male speaks lies.” He gripped his sword in both hands and stared the Messenger down. “None of his kind are to be trusted. They were involved in what happened with the gates, employed by Eris to work against your family.”
The Messenger was quick to shake his head. “No. I swear my loyalty is, and always has been, to you, my lady.”
Calindria looked between Thanatos and the Messenger, and he had the sinking feeling he had to do something and do it fast, or she was going to punish him by leaving with the male.
He couldn’t let that happen.
“Look at him, Calindria.” He lowered his sword and furled his wings. “Look at him and tell me he does not want you for himself.”
She frowned at him. “Messengers do not feel emotions like that. They do not have needs like that.”
The Messenger slid him a sly look, but the second she looked at him again, he schooled his features, his eyes emptying of emotion, and bowed his head. “I live only to serve you, my lady.”
Thanatos bared his teeth at him.
The bastard was lying. He knew it. Panic gripped him, the thought of Calindria going with this male swift to unleash that feeling inside him and he couldn’t stop himself from reacting. He lunged for her and grabbed her arm, desperate to stop her and make her listen to him.
Cold swept through him as she turned a black look on him, as he realised he held her wrist in a bruising grip, one that had pain shining in her eyes.
He shook his head and released her, but he knew it was too late.
Rather than making her stay, his rash actions had done the opposite.
She was going to leave him.
He was damned if he was going to let that happen.
Chapter 20
Calindria rubbed at her right wrist, massaging the pain away. Deep in her heart she knew Thanatos hadn’t meant to hurt her, but then she had the feeling he never did. He never meant to hurt her, he just kept doing it. His gaze seared the side of her face as she looked at the Messenger, as she fought a war with herself, torn between remaining with Thanatos and listening to the darker side of her blood.
That darkness demanded she punish him for what he had done, wounded him just as he had wounded her. She didn’t want to listen to it, but it lured and coaxed, tempted her into doing as it wished, promised satisfaction if she did. She wanted him to feel as hurt as she did, didn’t she?
No. That wasn’t like her. It might have been back when she was in the cage, when the thought of getting revenge on those who had hurt her had pleased her and had given her the strength to keep going. She wasn’t like that now.
Yet, she couldn’t silence the darkness as it murmured temptation to her, filling her with a need to listen to it, to seek revenge.
The Messenger held his hand out to her, and she felt as if he was the embodiment of her darkness as he said, “Come, my lady. I know a short route to the edge of this realm. You could be home in less than a day.”
“Home,” she murmured, that word triggering an ache in her, a yearning to see it again, one she hadn’t felt before.
She knew why she was feeling it now. It wasn’t the thought of seeing her brothers and her father that had her desperate to go there. It was the thought of seeing her mother, of sinking into her arms and unburdening her heart, telling her about Thanatos and hearing what her mother thought. Her mother had always guided her with a gentle hand, unlike her brothers and her father. If anyone could help her with her problems, could show her the right path to take with Thanatos, it would be her mother.
She looked at Thanatos. “Come with us.”
For a heartbeat, he looked as if he might agree, but then he scowled at the Messenger. “I go nowhere with a traitor. This male is not to be trusted.”
In his eyes, no one was to be trusted. She took that back. He had trusted her, even though it had been difficult for him. That past he still refused to tell her about made it impossible for him to trust people, but he had managed it with her.
“I am going with him.” She hated the way Thanatos looked at her as if she had just betrayed him, hated herself for tossing that ultimatum out there, trying to force him to do as she wanted.
She regretted it too.
Because his silver eyes shone with hurt.
There was anger in them too, fire that was quick to burn that hurt to ashes. Sorrow swept through her on the heels of regret and she wanted to take back what she had said, wanted to talk to him and make things right again, only she couldn’t find her voice as he turned his cheek to her and glowered at the Messenger.
Shutting her out.
Maybe what they needed was some time apart from each other.
She glanced at the Messenger, into his heterochromatic eyes, and saw the truth in them. He knew a shorter route to the edge of this realm. Her gaze strayed back to Thanatos. She felt sure that he would follow her if she left, that she would be able to lead him out of this realm too, freeing them both.
He would hate her for it, but if it meant he could be free of this wretched realm, could return to his castle and his life there, it would be worth the pain she was about to cause them both.