“Err,” Devon says, ready to man up and tell him what the issue is here.
“Tell me now,” he growls, clenching his fists at his sides. He has had no violence in his life for weeks now and he can feel the strain it is having on him. No sex, no feeding, no blood on his hands, and no wife to make him feel better is making him a very, very dangerous creature to be around.
“It appears that when I tried to break the bond between Xane and Aefre, I somehow inadvertently transferred the bond to the boy,” Remiel says as calmly as if he were stating the weather report.
Constantine closes his eyes as that news sinks in. Yet another man that wants her? It just cannot be happening. “You had better be fucking joking,” he says with his eyes still closed as if he will wake up from this nightmare.
“He isn’t,” Xane says and his tone of voice makes Constantine open his eyes. The Demon is as furious as he has ever seen him.
“I see,” Constantine says. “Well, fix it.”
“I can’t,” Xanthe says quietly. “He has to be willing and he isn’t.”
Constantine lets out a long-suffering sigh and gives Remiel a contemptuous look. “Why can’t you fix it if you did it?”
Remiel shifts his posture slightly. It is subtle, but Constantine noticed it immediately and it makes him think that whatever he is about to say isn’t going to be the truth.
“Firstly, I didn’t know until an hour or so ago and secondly, I don’t know where he is.” It is Remiel’s turn to give Xanthe a dark look that she flinches from briefly before she brings up her game face again.
“I will not bring my son here to die,” she says imperiously.
“Die?” Constantine asks. “We are merely asking him to help reach Aefre.” Actually, that is not his plan. It is Remiel’s. He doesn’t know why all of a sudden, he is so interested to see if it will work. He slides his suspicious gaze over to Remiel, but he is looking innocently away and that just convinces him that the infuriating beast is trying to buddy up with him.
“Oh, he will die,” Xane growls, looking on the verge of Shifting, “if he doesn’t give up his claim on her.”
“Hmm,” Constantine says. “I am sure that if you bring him here, I can convince him to be willing.”
The threat lingers in the air like a noxious gas and Xanthe gives him a steely gaze.
“There is nothing you can do to him that I haven’t already tried. He is resolute, even more so after his bond to her brought him back,” Xanthe says.
“Back from where?” Devon asks the question that is on everyone’s minds.
“He was unconscious, deeply so, and when Xerxei needed him, it woke him up, so he was there for her. He will not give up his claim to her,” Xanthe says.
“And when did she need him?” Constantine croaks out. His wife has been keeping secrets from him again and it is shoving him ever closer to the precipice of his darkness. He doesn’t know how much longer he can do this.
“When Tiamat tried to enter her body so that She could gain access to the Fae Kingdoms,” Xane says to his utmost surprise. Aefre never uttered a word about this to him.
“What?” Devon barks.
Well, at least he isn’t the only one who was left out.
“She did what?” Devon yells and storms over to the French doors. “I am ending this right now!”
“No!” Constantine yells and jumps for
ward, knowing what is on Devon’s mind. “You go out there and tell Her what I think you are going to tell Her; you will be risking my child. I will not under any circumstances let you out of this room,” he adds with finality and a tight grip on Devon’s arm that he sinks his claws into once he remembers the boy’s new power.
Devon grimaces as the pain of his claws sears up his arm, but he stands his ground. “Enough is enough. She is fighting for something that isn’t even Hers.”
“What do you say?” Xane asks Remiel, who looks mildly startled to be asked his opinion for once.
“I tend to agree that She must be told. She will never stop fighting, especially now that we have taken away Her leverage,” he says.
Constantine gives him a querying gaze and then his eyes land on Cole, who is slumped on the sofa, completely knocked out. He hadn’t even noticed him lying there in all the activity since he arrived back here against his will.
“That man is not welcome here,” he says. “He abandoned Aefre, he doesn’t get a pass.” He knows this will be the only thing that will register with the men in this room. His own steaming jealousy over the man that almost took her away from him will just be scorned.