Asylum (Causal Enchantment #2)(4)
The accusation pierced my heart as surely as if he had stabbed me. “No, that’s not true,” I began, but I faltered, the guilt of my betrayal a weight on my shoulders. I loved my sister. I ached to see her. But Evangeline . . . She may as well be my own flesh and blood, for what she had come to mean to me. I had watched her grow from a tiny, soft baby into a beautiful, gentle woman. I would carve a path of destruction through anyone who wished her harm. I would protect her until my very last second of existence.
“How long have you known?” Mortimer hissed.
Always. The moment the Fates answered my Causal Enchantment, I knew each and every step that needed to take place. But I didn’t answer Mortimer. Instead I locked eyes with Viggo, relishing the moment as recognition passed across those callous, two-thousand-year-old eyes. Recognition that he had been played a fool. I didn’t need to answer. I just smiled.
Viggo’s eyes narrowed to slits. His lips pursed into a tight smile that evolved into a grimace as he stared intently at me. I knew he was visually tearing out my throat, weighing the value of the desire, deciding if it was worth keeping me here. And he could easily dispose of me if he wanted to; without my magic, I was no match for the ancient demon’s strength. In the end, he only sighed. “Well played, witch.” His lips parted into a wicked smile. “Now it’s my turn.”
He flew toward Caden with superhuman speed. A gasp caught in my throat, his intentions immediately clear to me.
Caden met him face-on, as if expecting the threat. Of equal height, they stood chest to chest, regarding each other as predators would before a battle. “What will happen, do you think, when Evangeline finds out her precious Caden is dead?” Viggo purred, shifting his weight, preparing to pounce.
No, you mustn’t harm him. He is Evangeline’s life. It will kill her. I haphazardly pushed Mortimer out of my way as I edged forward, terrified that my sudden movement would serve as a catalyst.
Caden’s head tilted back, his Adam’s apple protruding sharply as he broke out in boisterous laughter.
It stayed Viggo’s hands. He cocked his head to the left and said curiously, “Is that amusing? Your death, after all of this, is amusing?”
Mortimer suddenly appeared next to Viggo—as an ally, or as someone with a vested interest, I wasn’t sure. Either way, the two of them against Caden would be disastrous. I needed to stop this from happening. My heels scraped over the cobblestones as I shifted closer, the thirty feet between us feeling like a thousand.
“Yeah, actually, it is,” Caden answered levelly, those beautiful, piercing jade eyes sizing up both Viggo and Mortimer, undaunted. They were physically the same size, though Caden appeared ten years younger in human years. “We used the human to get here and now you’re threatening me because of it? I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t do.”
My feet froze. His words . . . the human. So impersonal. So cold. So . . . treacherous. Wariness crept into me.
“It worked! And now we’re here!” Amelie suddenly squeaked, cutting into their exchange with an excited lilt in her voice. She skipped forward and placed her hand on Mortimer’s chest, not intimidated by his ominous, towering presence. “You must be Mortimer, right? So tall and handsome! I’m Amelie. I think we could be good friends, don’t you?” She flashed a brilliantly adorable smile—so adorable that it completely disarmed Mortimer. He faltered, blinking several times, and eventually allowed a subdued grin.
The smile didn’t work on Viggo. “So you’re saying you don’t care for Evangeline?” he asked lightly, though I knew his mood was anything but light.
“I’m saying we did what we needed to do to get here,” Caden answered, shrugging. Something in his tone . . . he sounded . . . bored? Detached? It sparked a wave of rage within me.
Viggo’s left eyebrow arched. “I don’t know if I believe you.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you believe,” Caden answered with a sneer, his chest puffing out aggressively, “except for one thing. Believe this: if any of you so much as look at us the wrong way—” those mesmerizing, blue-green eyes shifted to me “—any of you . . . you will die.”
Viggo’s responding chuckle would have sent a chill through any sane person’s soul. “I’m not so sure you should be throwing threats around, given your youthfulness and lack of human blood.”
Another smug grin stretched across Caden’s face. “Youthfulness?”
“Why, yes! Seven hundred, is it? Give or take? A baby, next to some of us.”
“You assume what we told the human was true.” All four of them chuckled now, the young, blonde Bishop in the back throwing his arm lazily over Fiona’s shoulders. “How much of what you know about me do you think is real?” Caden continued.
This can’t be happening. I was so sure of his feelings. How could anyone not fall in love with her? Panic twisted my stomach. My worst nightmare was coming true. Could they really have lied to Evangeline about everything? Yes! Of course! Why wouldn’t they? Or . . . they could be lying to Viggo, distancing themselves from his target. Either was possible. But now they were toying with my trust.
Ruse or not, Caden’s ploy was working. Viggo’s lips compressed as he realized he could very well be picking a battle with a vampire twice his age, with three more flanking him.