Chapter 3

In the end Kael hauled me back to that cold house of his.

He shoved my suitcase under the bed again and left for the war camp without a word.

I sat on the couch and stewed.

What was wrong with him? Possessiveness was one thing, but this was something else.

No. I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him to decide what happened to me.

The Temple was a dead end now, and my ID crystal was still in his pocket. At this point I couldn't even prove who I was, let alone buy passage out of the city.

So I'd find another way.

I changed into something plain, slipped out of the house, and went down to the black market in the south quarter.

It was the kind of place where nobody asked questions. Somewhere in there, I figured, was a mage willing to forge an ID crystal.

I'd barely stepped into one of the dim little taverns when someone blocked my path.

"A place like this isn't for a beautiful woman."

He was wearing silver mage's robes. Bright gold hair, a face too fine to belong to anyone ordinary, and a lazy smile at the corner of his mouth.

Half-elf. High-level mage, too.

I took a careful step back.

"Move."

He didn't. He leaned in closer instead, close enough that his nose nearly brushed my hair.

"That's a familiar smell. There's something in your soul that doesn't belong to this world."

A chill ran down my back. My head snapped up.

His smile widened.

"Let me introduce myself. I'm Elijah. I do a little work with rift magic."

Then he dropped his voice so only I could hear, and said half a sentence.

"The mitochondria is—"

My eyes went wide. It came out of me before I could stop it. "—the powerhouse of the cell!"

He was from home.

I almost burst into tears right there in the bar. Three years. Three years, and I'd finally met someone who spoke my language.

Elijah steered me to a booth in the back, ordered a glass of elven fruit wine, and pushed it across the table to me.

"I never thought I'd run into one of my own in this godforsaken world." He propped his chin on one hand and grinned at me.

"You fell in too? Can you get back?" I couldn't get the words out fast enough.

"Of course I can. Rift magic was always the point. I've been looking for the way home since I got here, and the gate is nearly finished. It just needs a little more power." He winked. "So? Want to come with me?"

"Yes." I didn't even have to think about it.

Anything to get away from Kael and his moods. Anything to get out of a world where I could die on any given Tuesday.

"Although I hear you're Alpha Kael's fiancée." There was a teasing edge in his voice. "Is he really going to let you walk?"

"Our mate bond's void. Match rating came back at zero." I waved it off like it was nothing.

Elijah's hand went still under his chin.

"Zero?"

"Zero."

"The Sacred Spring has never gotten a reading wrong." He said the number again slowly, and something moved behind his eyes that I couldn't read. "And it has certainly never returned a zero."

"Then go ask it."

"I will."

He reached over and caught my chin between his fingers, then wiped a drop of wine from the corner of my mouth with his thumb.

"But first. Since you're a free woman now, am I allowed to court you?"

I didn't get the chance to answer. Someone kicked in the front door of the bar.

The whole oak slab came apart.

Every voice in the room cut out at once, and everybody turned to look.

Kael was standing in the doorway.

He hadn't changed out of his battle leathers, and the smell of blood came in with him.

His eyes swept the room and locked on the two of us. More precisely, on the hand Elijah had under my chin.

His pupils narrowed into slits, and his fangs came down.

That was the first time I understood what a top-tier Alpha actually was.

He started walking toward us. With every step he took, the room got colder.

"Get your hand off her."

Elijah didn't let go. He slid his arm around my shoulders instead.

"Alpha Kael, what's all this anger for? Lia's single now. I'm courting her. Surely a drink isn't a crime."

"You're dead."

Kael didn't waste another word. He crossed the room in a blur and appeared right in front of us.

He threw a punch that cracked the air on its way.

A silver shield flared up in front of Elijah. The two forces met, and every table and chair in the bar turned to splinters.

The blast threw me back into the corner. I hit the wall hard.

Kael had Elijah by the throat, pinned against the wall, claws already through the fabric of his robes.

"You guard her this closely," Elijah said, choking, still wearing that punchable smile. "What are you going to do when someone takes her off you?"

"Elijah. I have no problem killing you right here." Kael's pupils thinned to nothing.

"Stop it!" I scrambled to my feet and shouted at him.

Kael froze.

He turned his head toward me, and the rage still hadn't left his eyes.

I hurried over and grabbed his arm.

"What is wrong with you? Let him go!"

Kael looked down at my hand on his sleeve. Then he looked at Elijah. Something crossed his face that looked a lot like pain.

He let go all at once, turned, and threw me over his shoulder.

"Kael! Put me down!" I beat on his back as hard as I could.

He didn't react at all. He just walked out of the bar.

"Lia! Pack your things! I'll come get you whenever you're ready to go home!" Elijah shouted after us.

Kael's stride broke for half a second. Then he walked faster.