Sins of Mine - Mary E. Twomey Page 0,58

silently, so as not to irk Sloan further. “Jen used regular fae thread. Shifter thread is different. It can hold between our transitions. If I’m stitched up in my animal form and then shift back into a man, the fae thread tears. It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt. Didn’t even bleed much, I don’t think. A fair amount healed enough in my sleep.”

Sloan pulls out his phone and punches in a few numbers. He waits for the reply before looking up at us with a glower. “Well, I guess underwear is better than nothing. Jennifer is just finishing up her breakfast. She’ll be up in a few to look at your leg, Grayson.”

“Cheers, Sloan. And I really didn’t mean to transition in my sleep.”

Sloan holds up his hand. “Save it. I don’t want to talk about that. What I want to talk about is what happened while I was out. Jennifer’s given me the bits she knows, but I’d like the full story from you three directly.” He sits back down in his seat, folding his fingers and resting them on his lap. “Now.”

The only apology or warning I give Gray and Paxton is a sheepish, “I don’t hide anything from Sloan, guys.”

“Then neither do we.” Paxton moves to sit beside me after I plop down next to Gray on the edge of the bed. My prince’s hand slides over my back, which I can tell Sloan is barely tolerating. Both men are in their underwear, though Paxton had the forethought to grab up an undershirt from the drawer and shove it over his head.

I start at the beginning of my part of things. How I shaved my head, sent the video to Regis and assumed Sloan dead. “When I told Father that you were taken, he sent a car for me, telling me I would need a new guard.” My head bows. “It was horrible. You were dead barely a day, and he was already replacing you.”

Sloan’s lips firm up, but he doesn’t sound angry. “He was right to assign a new guard to you. I couldn’t look after you, and that’s not safe.”

“If only that was what he was actually doing.” I make to run my hand through my hair, but my fingers land on air. My missing elbow-length locks are a phantom limb, still calling out to me, even though it’s all gone. “When he picked me up, Uncle Antoni was with him, along with both their guards, so I figured we were going to pick up my new guard. I didn’t ask questions. Maybe I should have.”

“Your father doesn’t like questions,” Sloan reminds me. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

If only.

“Daddy didn’t take me to meet a new guard. He took me to the family cabin, cussing me out the whole time for shaving my head.” I swallow hard. “There was a whole guilt trip about the family needing me, and me not coming through for him.” My eyes focus on my hands. My fingernails are rough and splintered. “He lost his temper and locked me in my closet. Said he was going to keep me in there until my hair grew back.”

Sloan is so still, he could pass for a statue.

By some feat of superhuman strength, I manage to lift my chin. “I don’t think he meant it. He was counting on being able to talk me into giving him more power. Apparently, the strand of hair I’d given him wasn’t enough. He wanted more, which I guess is no great surprise.”

Sloan is silent still, but Gray lets his frustration show. “He’s a power junkie. A bloody addict, and nothing more. You did the right thing, shaving your head. Cut him off at the source.”

My head bobs. “Dad just wanted to scare me, keeping me in the dark like that. Let me know he was still in control.” My shoulder bumps to Paxton’s, and then to Gray’s. “If these two hadn’t shown up, I would still be in there.”

Then Paxton tells his part of the story, which involved them going into the palace and busting out Sloan with Cassia doing most of the heavy lifting. Then comes the harrowing part of them using Charlotte’s locating ability to track me down and break me out.

Paxton gets to the part where his father shows up, and then stops before he can get much farther.

I open my mouth to take full blame for both murders, but Gray jumps in before I can. “I wrestled the gun away from the king