072 | DAYLIGHT

I leapt to my feet. “Try,” I snarled, “and I will kill you, Cendres.” My hand reached uselessly for a knife that wasn’t there, but I shoved my fingers under my cloak and clenched my hand into a fist, making a lump beneath the fabric to create the illusion of a weapon there.

He held both of his hands up, palms facing forward. “I have no intention of doing as he says. You can trust me. Why would I come all this way to patch up Ares’s wounds if I was just going to kill him anyway?”

I huffed. “I guess.” Lowering myself back to the ground, I kept my narrowed eyes on the Gamma the whole way down. I still half expected him to shift and rip Ares’s head clean from his shoulders, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt. For now, at least.

“I know he wants me dead,” I said flatly. “Me. But not Ares.”

“Like I said – I look at Naz, and I don’t even see my mate looking back at me anymore. He’s gone. Losing his parents last year changed him, but not… Not like this.”

The memory of the matching