94. Aurelia

Chapter 94

Aurelia

T he serpents of my father's guard stream into the hall and Minnie screams my name. As her panic squeezes my heart, I quickly place a shield of protection around the incoming assailants.

Never in my life did I think I'd be protecting my father's men from Minnie. Not after she'd saved my life from the bullets of these very beasts. Not after everything. There is only confusion and fear on her tiny, round face, and that expression is mirrored in every face around the hall.

Xander had always been right. I'd been raised a serpent and was showing that tonight. I am a conniving, manipulative, cruel beast who'd betray her friends. Her mates.

But I had made a vow.

Marduk and Yeti haul Minnie back from trying to get to me.

"Keep her safe. Get them all out of here," I project to the tiger.

Marduk, his brows creased as his clever mind figures this out, nods at me and angles to get her, Connor, Stacey and the others out.

Lyle and Savage viciously yank at their protections but fail to remove them. I won't turn to look at them. Won't see the betrayal and hurt on their faces. The rage. Gods, they are strong, but against their regina…

Once everyone has been shoved back from the dance floor and away from me, guns angled at them, one of the serpent generals swaggers in. At seven feet tall and with this skeleton mask and shadows roiling around his frame, Ghoul is one of the most dangerous beasts this hall has ever seen.

But what I'm not prepared for is the way a sallow-skinned Damien Agnis stumbles in after him, rubbing his hands together, his eyes darting around excitedly. He wears his usual white suit and glasses, but his fiery hair is lacklustre today. Something in my healing powers tells me that the phoenix lord has been unwell.

"She is there!" Damien shouts unnecessarily, pointing at me. "That is Aurelia Boneweaver."

"I see her," Ghoul deadpans. "Bring her forward."

I'm not naive. My fifth mate is not on my side. He never has been. And right now, I don't need him to be. The end of a gun prods at my spine, and reluctantly, I step forward. All eyes press upon me, and I catch Raquel's gun metal grey eyes, staring hard at me from the corner. I curse. Marduk must not have been able to reach her in time.

"Do nothing," I warn my wolf-friend.

"Oh, Aurelia. Scythe's going to be so mad," they reply.

"I hope so."

A sudden look of horrific realisation passes over Raquel's features.

Not being able to see Ghoul's face behind his mask makes it difficult to gauge anything of what he's thinking, but Damien's face is pale and sweaty, like he's unfathomably excited.

I should have known he'd be involved in this.

My mates are frantically tapping on my telepathic shields, but I cannot let them in now. I'm so close.

"Do you have something to say?" To my surprise, Ghoul's deep voice extends not to me, but to someone behind me.

I turn around, a bit of relief washing through my veins, to see Xander, straightening the bottom of his suit and striding towards me, gold pocket chain glinting under the hall lights.

We stand in the middle of the circle of onlookers now, and the expression on the dragon's face is something I've never seen before. His usual barely repressed molten fury has turned…cold. He's almost like Scythe in the way his face is devoid of emotion. Completely and utterly blank. And his normally glowing white eyes… I've never seen them this shade of harsh black. Something flickers at the edges of him. A spot of grey.

I stare in a mixture of awe and horror as a memory of an eerily similar moment comes back to me. Of Titus and Minnie in the middle of an audience just like this one.

Xander leans down so that only I can hear what he says.

"I hate you," he hisses. "I hate you for existing. I hate you for breathing. I hate you for what you turned me into."

He makes a movement so quick that I barely register the pain.

Crimson drips freely. I stare at my forearm, stricken into silence as a deep scratch on my skin bleeds.

Everything around me seems to darken.

Xander straightens and says loudly, "I formally reject you as my mate."

My very being is rendered still. Frozen in time and space as something pure and crucial inside of me tears in two. I cast my memory back to the night I had spoken to him in the TV room and Savage had almost caught us.

"I know you don't like me," I'd said, sticking my chin up in the air. "I know you'd prefer me dead. Now, I'm giving you that opportunity."

He'd narrowed his eyes at me, those glowing orbs becoming slits. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if you want me gone, now is your chance. I'm going to give myself up to my father. Ghoul has agreed but we need a beast facilitating things here."

His eyes had flickered black then, the lack of colour sending my blood pressure skyrocketing. "You don't even know what you're saying."

"Oh but I do." My voice had turned into ice and I showed him just how serious I was. "You'll get what you've always wanted. And so will I. Will you do it?"

Those blackened eyes flickered again and before he said. "So be it."

Now, under the ancient chandelier of the Animus dining room, surrounded by my mates and friends, Xander leans towards me and says viciously, "You had your plans and I had mine ."

As if under water, my head slowly looks back up to see his face. His neck. And the place where our mating mark had been is now utterly and completely bare.