knows just how to play Archer without me even telling her. I’m going to take that to the next level. She’s a tool. But if you use her too hard, she’ll break. She’ll get us what we need. Afterward, you can use her however you want. She won’t even feel a thing.”
I was already on the move. My heart thundered inside my chest as J.C.’s words cut through me. I had to get to Phaedra. I had to get her out.
12
Phaedra
I hadn’t meant to fall asleep. But the moment Archer left, the adrenaline from the danger on the dancefloor waned, leaving me exhausted.
There was something else. Something I couldn’t tell Archer. Could barely bring myself to admit. It was getting harder to keep my magic cloaked around J.C. It drained me. Depleted me. I’d never stayed away from coven lands for this long, and it was starting to show.
I might have slept for hours, days. But a pulse not my own thundered through me. Archer’s rage bubbled over. I stumbled out of bed and managed to slip my arms into a robe just before he burst through the door.
“Tell me the truth,” he said, eyes wild, claws out.
“What?”
“Tell me what you know about my father!”
I shook my head to clear it. “Your father? Who’s your father?”
I’d never asked him. Hell, after all these weeks and as much time as we spent together, I didn’t even know his last name. The truth of that burned through me. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew. He didn’t have one.
“Archer,” I said. I tied the robe’s sash around me and went to him. His ragged breathing made his chest rise. I put a hand against his heart. Hard as granite, towering over me, Archer’s silvery-blue wolf eyes glinted in the dark.
“What happened?” I asked. “Did you talk to J.C.? What was he thinking tonight?”
Archer took my hand. His skin burned, making a new heat rise within me. An old desire. I felt it flare within him. My pulse. His. They began to beat as one.
Slowly, carefully, he took my hand off his chest. “I can’t…” he gasped.
“Can’t what? Tell me what happened.”
He stormed past me. The edges of dawn began to break through the window at his back. His whole body shook with a low, rumbling growl. Archer gripped the edge of the couch; the fabric split from the pressure.
“They’re here,” he finally said.
“The Ring.”
He flicked his eyes to me. “Yes.”
I sank slowly into the chair nearest the couch. “How many of them?” Though maybe it didn’t matter.
“Two at least. Full-blooded fae. They’re going to take the Taurus away from J.C.”
“He’s not going to like that,” I said. “He’ll fight for it.”
“He’ll lose,” Archer said. Then he punched a fist into the couch.
“What else?” I asked. “What about your father?”
He snarled.
“Archer. I swear to you, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I felt his doubt. I felt his conflict. It made his anger rise again. His wolf boiled beneath the surface.
I went to him. Archer stood stock still as I placed my hands back on his chest. Raw need poured through me. I wanted to take his pain into me. I wanted to take all of him into me.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“You know who I am,” I answered and hated myself for the lie. He knew only what I chose to tell him.
“J.C. wants something from me,” he said. “He knows something about me.”
I closed my eyes and felt his heartbeat. It held Archer’s truth within it. My eyes snapped open, and I realized it also held my own.
“Why are you really working for J.C.?” I asked, then answered my own question. “You said he wants something from you. That’s not it. Or it’s not all of it. It’s you who wants something from him. I told you. I came here to find out what happened to a member of my coven. And I’m staying here because I think maybe I can put a stop to what J.C.’s doing. I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t know you before I came here. I don’t know who your father is. But J.C. does, doesn’t he? Is that what this is about for you?”
Pain etched deep lines in his face. I wanted to take it into me. I wanted to ease it with my body. My soul. I knew I could.
Pieces of what Archer had told me floated around in my mind. His mother was a water mage. He’d been raised