{???}

The monster hit Rayne in the throat, so she couldn’t scream. Couldn’t say no. Then he threw her onto his throne and climbed on top of her…

Kyle relived this memory often. It spun in an endless loop of horror and shame. Because it wasn’t the monster stripping off her clothes or settling between her legs that broke Kyle. It was her eyes. The look in Rayne’s bright blue eyes as she accepted her fate. She didn’t—

With a shout, he threw himself out of the tortured memory in his sleep. With the recent emergent issues, he quit smoking pot to clear his mind of the haze he preferred…

To…

Live…

Where the fuck was he? A small red waterfall splashed into a basin below a rock bridge that spanned the colossal cavern. Purple-leafed, orange-blossomed flowers lined the cave walls. It smelled fresh and alive. He awoke on said bridge that combined two tunnels. Naturally formed with no balustrade.

Shit. Kyle recalled all his trauma before remembering the giant fireball that blew out of the arsenal to claim him. How the hell did he survive?

“Don’t move.”

“Fuck me! T.a.o.?!” Hers was the last voice he heard before he lost consciousness. Kyle ignored her order and spun on her. He intended to cuss her out. To ask her why all the crazy threats and bombing people. But his words drifted into space the longer he looked at her.

The tiny black wraith of a First Wave Progeny wore a crazy black leather catsuit with cutouts and perforations. Gold lined every hole. Ribbons of it adorned her long black hair. Spiked gauntlets made from the stuff. As a blacksmith who specialized in gold weaponry for the war, Kyle admired the sleekness of it. Cute outfit on such a tiny person.

Her expression was anything but cute. With her eyes locked in Atramentous form, the solid mauve color glowed around the black slit of a pupil in the center. It glowed in terror.

Kyle took a friendly step toward her. “T.a.o., tell me what’s wrong. What happened? You’ve helped Tameka and Sagan. You helped on Volcano Day. They told me. What has Celindria—”

“Don’t,” she snarled and trained the small nacre tranq gun on him.

How many times would he see one of those pointed at him in one lifetime? “Okay. What do you want from me?”

“We’re recruiting you.”

He glanced from T.a.o. to the utterly psychotic bitch who stepped out of the tunnel.

Internally. Holy shit.

Externally. “Celindria.”

Truly beautiful. Long black locs to her waist with gold beads and ribbon intertwined. Skin the same shade as a dark calla lily. Dressed in all white linen that covered any indecency while enhancing her curves. But her eyes always arrested Kyle. The same bright blue as Rayne’s. She gracefully picked her way on bare feet across the grotto to him. “Story Taker is an interesting moniker for a memory-reader.” Melodic and rich. Seductive without trying.

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Why were crazy women always so hot? Or the hottest women always so crazy? He ran a hand through his tangled hair to give it something to do. Damn, he wished he had a joint. “If you’re coming to me for help—with T.a.o. under your control—then you lost Devis somehow.”

Her eyes hardened into sapphires.

“How are you controlling her? And how does this contribute to Imminent’s aims? What are you doing, Celindria?”

The celestial statue remained silent so long, Kyle wondered if she astrally projected somewhere. When he opened his mouth to ask, she cut him off, “Submit your blood and spy for us.”

“You already have spies.” This entire scenario gave him flashbacks to Colita.

Her lips quirked into a smile that gave nothing away.

“If I agree to your terms, I’ll use it to the Progeny’s advantage. I’ll learn how you’re controlling T.a.o. and set her free. Give me too much time, and I’ll tear Imminent down by the foundation. Do you understand me? I will never submit to betraying her again.” In his fury, Kyle worked his way across the bridge and got in Celindria’s face, only an inch lower than his own.

Beyond the First Progeny, T.a.o.’s solid-colored eyes flared in warning.

The crazy woman’s smile never wavered. She never flinched. Nor took a step back. Breaking eye contact to breeze around him, she continued pitching her scheme, “Well, if you can accomplish all that, then we’re evenly matched and you’ve nothing to fear from my proposal. You’ve much to gain.”

Kyle hated her at his back. He whirled and found Celindria teasing a bloom. Expecting the poor thing to wilt at the toxicity of her touch, he stepped between them with a cutting glance at the enemy. “What do you expect from me?”

“Agree to my terms, or we return you to your people after carefully planting evidence pointing to your complicity in the attacks.”

Fuck. He wanted to argue that his friends would never believe her. To rail against her heinous schemes. But Kyle knew better. They’d believe it and lock him up next to Korac in Gait. Then he’d have to endure listening to Sagan and the Icarean General make up for lost time.

“What do you gain from my submission?”

Celindria spared a glance over her shoulder to the stone-still other First Wave Progeny posed on the bridge. When she looked back at Kyle, her eyes sparkled. “Have you heard of Elden’s Tenements?”

Kyle rolled his eyes. The Icari placed a lot of faith in Elden’s writings, but sometimes their recital of it made him itchy. “Nox went on about the Tenements of Vengeance to Rayne once. I never read them.”

“I want you to sign the Tenements of Volition.”

He recoiled slightly. “Volition? My will?” Shooting a terrified glance at T.a.o., he tried to suppress any outward signs of disgust. “You want me to sign over my will to you? Under what circumstances would I ever agree—”

“We’ll activate the sleeper with only one objective.”

No. “Rayne,” he breathed. Who the fuck was the sleeper?

Shaking her head, her locs swaying softly, Celindria waved a hand at him. “No. But I enjoy your flare for the dramatic. Rayne is quite safe. However, your sister is not.”

Without thinking, he gripped the First Progeny by the collar of her linen halter and lifted her bodily off the ground. She made no move to defend herself. “Do not. Fuck. With my family.” He spat the words in her face.

In a flash, T.a.o. snatched him and disappeared, releasing Celindria. She Seamswalked them to the highest point in the cavern and held him over the edge of a shelf. The shallow basin below would only grow redder with the addition of his blood.

“You’ve no wings. You’ll die,” Celindria reminded him, as if he would ever forget.

The other Progeny received their wing upgrades while Rayne refused him a pair. Not for forty-eight more years as penance for his betrayal. And here was her ancestor, threatening death by fall to betray them. They’d hurt his sister and further damage his reputation.

He put everything he felt into a single sigh. “I fold.”

As Celindria beamed like an angelic maniac, two things crossed his mind. What were the Tenements of Volition? And would Rayne find it in herself to forgive him for a second betrayal? Would she trust him to act in Earth’s best interests, the Shadow’s best interests, and hers?

No matter the cost to Kyle.