Page 58 of Heir of Broken Souls

“Delilah,” Knox whispers. “Don’t push it.”

Soothing emotions flowing down the bridge, love and tenderness. The temperature dips, the result of his air magic trying to cool my heated flames. But I’ve been waiting for an explanation, and I want it.

Angel, don’t do this.

“I’m not asking her, I’m asking you,” Axel snaps at me.

A niggling part of me knows I should stop. I should turn to Axel and explain, but I can’t see past the red haze clouding my vision. I can’t forget that all of this could have been avoided if she had just opened her mouth.

So, in turn, I open mine.

“Naia knew what Hazel was planning that night. She knew and never said a word.”

The forest grows quiet. Birds stop chirping, the river stops flowing. Even the trees seem to hold their breath as the storm that is Axel begins to churn.

Now my gaze isn’t the only one filled with hatred.

It was selfish of me, I’m self-aware enough to know that…but I just couldn’t pretend that everything is fine.

Nothing is fine about our lives.

It’s fallen to shambles.

Axel trembles. His face turns ashen, his fists clench at his sides, and as he slowly lifts his head to mine, I see the betrayal in his gaze. Maybe because I kept this from him, but right now, his wrath turns toward the pod. Before I can blink he’s lunging across the meadow.

Fangs extended, a roar tears from his chest and blades appear in his outstretched hands. He dives right for Naia, such intense hatred in his eyes that if looks could kill she’d be dead already.

Before Axel can strike, shadows wrap around his body and hurl him backwards into the far end of the meadow.

Knox heaves beside me, his eyes locked on his second, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

You, I will deal with at home, he growls down the bridge. “And you!” he bellows at his second, but his anger dissipates as quickly as it came.

A sob fills the meadow as Axel doesn’t rise.

Knox stops breathing as the quiet, muffled sounds of Axel’s heartbreak reach our ears. The anger that was fueling me just moments ago vanishes. Axel’s shoulders shake relentlessly as his sobs rise in volume.

“I suggest you have his mate take him home,” Naia says, uncharacteristically soft. I don’t have a moment to process that she knows they’re mates before she suddenly adds, “And make sure you keep him away from the bottle. There’s only so many times one can dance with death.”

Elysia doesn’t need to hear anymore. In the next moment she’s beside him, gently lifting him to a seated position. The sight of his tear-stained face has me turning away.

I did that.

My selfishness did that to him.

Knox won’t even look at me.

All my life I have carried the guilt of others. Now holding my own, I realize how heavy and uncomfortable it really is.

The fated mates teleport away, taking with them the sound of Axel’s inner torture.

“I can’t believe I did that,” I whisper.

“Grief is a very powerful thing. It can change a person at their core.” Naia’s face turns solemn. “You know that already and yet you still allow your anger to consume you.” She moves forward a fraction, her stare turning grave. “Axel isn’t the only one who will die if his grief continues to overpower him.”

Knox sucks in a sharp breath and places his hand on my lower back. As if he must touch me, to prove to himself I’m alive and standing, no matter how angry he must be feeling right now.

“Tell me why,” I plead.