Page 38 of Heir of Broken Souls

Her face…the complexion. Where have I seen it?

“Do we know you?” Harlow says dryly.

But Harlow might as well have not even spoken. The woman takes a tentative step toward Axel.

She parts her lips, but gets no further. Axel roars in fury, grabbing his sword on the ground and lunging for the mystery woman, knocking the breath from her lungs as he pins her to the ground. Axel lifts his sword high and brings it down with a mighty cry.

Chapter15

Knox

In a shocked daze I throw out a pocket of air magic, stopping the blade within a fraction above the girl’s heart. She lies as still as a statue, shock marring her features.

Until her chest heaves, and she grimaces with disgust. “How lovely, I was given a murderer.”

Axel snarls, barring his canines. “You weren’tgivenanything.”

The malice in his words is what jolts me from my frozen stupor. Rushing for Axel, Lenox meets me there as we peel him off the poor, battered woman. Surprisingly, Axel fights against our hold, thrashing wildly like an animal.

“Let me go!” he barks.

Tightening my grasp, my gaze slides to Lenox, but he looks just as confused. Harlow stalks over, followed closely by Delilah.

“Axel,” I hiss in his ear, the reprimand doing nothing. I’m forced to shake his arm as he continues to buck. “What are you doing?”

“She’s faking it,” he spits.

Harlow cocks her head, studying the Fae as she slowly peels herself off the ground and rises. Her nightgown is splattered in blood, but something tells me it isn’t her own.

“Faking what?”

A cold dark fury passes over Axel’s face. “A mating bond.”

The confession snaps my gaze away from the woman and toward my friend. My heart lurches. “You just attacked your mate?”

“She’s not my mate,” he snarls through gritted teeth.

Harlow narrows her eyes. “You’re a fool.”

“No, weallare. Besides Knox and Delilah, the last mating bond was Ace’s, and we all know that wasn’t real,” Lenox says matter-of-factly, clicking the pieces together. Likethathelps the situation. The withering glare I send his way says just that.

“Who’s Hazel?” the woman asks as she warily studies Axel.

“As if you don’t know,” he scoffs.

At the violence in his words, I drop my hold on him and grip the front of his leathers and shake him. “Enough! You of all people are not in your bloody right mind to be throwing around accusations!” I push Axel toward the house. “Go clean yourself up. I’ll deal with this.”

“No.”

The word rumbles through my mind. Shadows spread throughout my courtyard, my power rippling in the air around us so thickly thunder cracks above our heads and lightning strikes.

“No?” I ask darkly.

My eyes promise violence and at the sight of it, Axel finally sees sense. He swallows thickly and bows his head. “That was anorder,” I growl. “Lenox, escort Axel inside?—”

Axel stiffens. “I don’t need an escort.”

“Yes, you do.”