Page 88 of Vicious Kings
Lovethatmental image.
"And Corvinus? Since you refuse to tell me anything helpful about Professor Mysterious."
"My brother is arrogant, entitled, and convinced that his title makes him untouchable." The bitterness in his voice is palpable. "He's also clever when he wants to be, which is unfortunately more often than I'd like. Right now, he sees you as a challenge. Something to be won, tamed, and added to his collection of pretty little things."
"I'm aware," I mutter. Corvinus basically said the same thing. He's honest, I'll give him that.
"But that's not what you really need to worry about." Caelyx leans forward, elbows on his knees. "What you need to worry about is Locke."
The name lands like a stone in still water.
"You don't need to know what he is, not yet," he goes on. "You just need to know he's the smartest of the three by a considerable margin. He's been protecting Corvinus since before your grandparents were born. He knows how hunters think, how they operate. And unlike my brother, he won't underestimate you just because you smell like an omega."
I bristle at the unwelcome reminder. "He already suspects me."
"Like I said before, suspicion isn't knowing," he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. "If he truly had evidence you're a threat to Corvinus, you'd be dead by now."
A shiver runs down my spine at the certainty in his words. Evidently, my new omega biology comes with a primal sense of fear and self-preservation they breed out of hunters.
Lovely. That's going to be fun to have to overcome at every corner.
"So what do I do?" I demand, frustration bleeding into my voice. "Corvinus won't leave me alone. Locke's watching everything I do. Tallon's being suspiciously nice. And you're…" I gesture at him, at this whole fucked up situation. "I don't even know what you are."
"Your ally." He says it simply, like it's fact instead of the most questionable alliance since someone decided trusting a Trojan horse was a good idea. "For now, at least. The enemy of my enemy and all that."
"You really want to kill your brother?" I ask, needing to be sure. If this guy gets a guilty conscience halfway through, I'm undoubtedly going to take the fall for it.
"I've wanted to kill my brother since the day he was born," Caelyx says with a rueful smile.
"So why haven't you?"
He doesn't respond immediately, but his gaze grows distant, as if he's looking into the past. "It's complicated."
"Let me guess. I don't need to know?"
"Now you're catching on."
I roll my eyes. "So you won't tell me shit, but I'm supposed to trust you."
"You don't really have much of a choice, do you?" he counters.
I chew the inside of my lip, because we both know the answer to that. "Then I guess we're allies. Until you get what you want."
"Until we both get what we want." He stands, moving toward a plant that looks like it's made of shadows. "But that requires you to trust me. At least enough to follow my instructions."
Trust. Right. Because that's worked out so well for me in the past.
But I can't kill Corvinus on my own, not with his triad and the entire university protecting him. And Caelyx is offering me exactly what I need. He's offering information, access, a way to actually complete the mission instead of just flailing around hoping to get lucky.
"What does that entail?" I ask warily.
He plucks a flower from the shadow plant, and it dissolves into smoke the moment it leaves the stem. "It entails you accepting my brother's offer."
The words feel like a gut punch. "To be his fuckingpet? Absolutely not."
"Listen to me." He turns back, and there's urgency in his voice now. "Corvinus won't give up. You've already seen that. He's going to keep pushing, keep cornering you, keep making it impossible to refuse."
"So your brilliant plan is for me to just give in?" The rage makes my voice shake. "To smile at the bastard who killed my mother while he parades me around like a trophy?"
