Kyros’s brothers. Gerome was playful. Rory, vain. I wasn’t sure about Lionel yet, but I had a feeling Neelan was rebellious.
Shaking my head, I pushed down the bedcovers and immediately yanked them back up, eyes flying to the present company.
“Your clothes were sullied. We removed them so Kyros’s bed was not sullied also.” Safina’s smirk showed all teeth.
“Right.” Kyros’s siblings had it out for naked Basi.
I held up the covers with one hand and ran my fingertips over the bandages covering my torso.
“Was it bad?” I asked.
Lalitta’s smile faded. “For Kyros to heal you instead of fuck you during the thrall, it would have to be.”
Uhm. Profanity sat weird on her. Like a primary school teacher swearing.
“I wondered about that,” I admitted, recalling how furious I was when he wouldn’t touch me.
Safina inclined her head. “Your survival comes first. The wound was dire.”
They could say that again.
I didn’t feel so good.
I lowered the covers, registering Kyros’s Level 65 lair for the first time. They’d brought me up to his room. Why?
My stomach churned, and I eased back onto the pillows, closing my eyes. “Tell me, please. What happened? And how long ago?”
Safina replied, “Two days—”
Francesca cut in. “Fyrlia Indebted swarmed your convoy. They’d planned it well. The freeway turn-off was the weakest point of your route. One of your guards managed to get between the truck and SUV or your injuries would have been much worse.”
Someone got out of the SUV in that split second? Fuck. Were they okay? Was it Laurel?
“By the time our perimeter guard reached the scene, the youngest of the royal brothers was running with you,” Francesca continued.
Callum was one of the royals? And the youngest sibling. Shitty fucker, killing him would come back to bite me in the ass.
Francesca toyed with her auburn hair, to all appearances just sharing some casual gossip with friends. “Our Indebted forced the Fyrlia scum back while your personal guards took off in pursuit. Callum managed to lay a false track that misled them. Meanwhile, Kyros exploded out of this tower like Hurricane Testosterone—”
My mouth fell open. “That’s right. He can sense my location!”
The four sisters fell quiet.
I remember, you bastards.
Hurt swirled in me. That’s why Kyros wanted to exchange blood again? Not because I was a distraction to playing the game. He just wanted to know where I was all the time.
I tried not to let panic take over. “He’ll always be able to feel my location?”
“It saved your life,” Deirdre stated in a bored tone.
My life wouldn’t have been in danger if Clan Fyrlia didn’t think I was Kyros’s favourite blood bag! How the fuck could I leave now? Kyros would know where I was. He could find me.
I couldn’t ever escape.
I’d resigned myself to living this life for now but always expected to run away one day.
Kyros had torn my freedom from me forever. He’d lied directly to my face.
“So anyway,” Francesca drawled. “We all followed Kyros. Your Indebted caught the right track, and we all arrived a few minutes behind Kyros. We handled the outside force while he went in. And then we stormed the basement to pull you both apart because you’re like fucking animals going at it all the time.” Her angelic face twisted into a dark scowl.
“They were still in the thrall, Franny,” Lalitta said.
My heart skipped a beat. “I drank his blood again.”
Safina stood, picking up my glass and holding it to my lips.
I swallowed again.
“You’re currently on day three of your third thrall,” she said.
Dread punched me hard.
Lying flat again, I stared at the shiny white panels of the ceiling without really seeing them. Three blood exchanges.
We hadn’t had time to see if the urges between us had dissipated after the second compulsion. I didn’t agree to a third blood exchange—this changed the entire risk I’d been willing to make. If the second exchange could increase the tension between us by 10 percent, what did the third exchange do? And what other power did it give Kyros over me?
Except the third exchange wasn’t my fault and it wasn’t his either.
It happened, and now there was one more thing to deal with on top of my injuries and his fucking lie.
“What about the others who were in the basement with me?” I asked.
Deirdre sat on the bed where Safina had been. “The Fyrlia royals? They ran while their Indebted held us back. It’s usually how things go when they pull shit like that.”
“The ten of them lived?” I asked, astonished.
Deirdre grinned ferally.