Err, I don't think so. I stick out my hand and slap my palm on it to prevent him from closing it.
"Go home, Aefre," he growls at me.
"No! We need to settle this," I growl back.
"There is nothing we have to talk about."
"Want to bet?" I shout at him and, bringing both my hands forward, I blast him back from the door so that I can enter.
Eh, manners are overrated.
Xane gets to his feet with a vicious roar and Shifts to his Demonic self. I admit, I step back a fraction as he is so much taller and wider than when I last saw him this way. He lumbers towards me, but I shake my head at him with a small smile.
"Do you really want to play that game with me?" I ask, crossing my arms. He may be over ten feet tall with an equal wingspan, but my Dragon is thirty feet tall and could stomp him out of existence.
He glowers at me, his red eyes gleaming as the tips of his wings scrape the ceiling. Finally, he Shifts back and gives me a small, tight smile. "Not really. It took a fucking big spell to get this house up and running in less than a day."
"Thought as much," I murmur.
"What do you want, Aefre?" he asks with a sigh.
"To talk, to clear things up. You broke up with me, stripped me of my title here in the Underworld, and then told me to fuck off out of your domain. It kinda hurt," I say with a pout.
"Well, I was hurting about the baby. You were cold, Aefre. Really cold. I didn't deserve that," he says.
Taken aback, I just stare at him. "I'm sorry, Xane. I know how much you were hurting, believe me. Things were bad then, still are. I am still struggling to come to terms with what Sebastian did and that my father could be involved in it all. Not to mention, our bond had been ripped away and I was trying to figure out how I felt about you."
"And?" he asks.
I shrug. "I am still attracted to you. I was anyway, but the Blood Magick Ritual changed how I felt about you. It manipulated me. Both of us, I think," I say cautiously.
"Yes, my mother was nothing if not manipulative," he says bitterly, but I can see the resigned look in his eye. "We were never truly meant to be together. I can see that now. It is time to move on."
I search his eyes as he does to me.
I eventually nod, biting the inside of my cheek. "About CeeCee?" I ask tentatively.
"She lives. She is under house arrest for the rest of her days. But my mother, in her own twisted way, made me remember that even though Demons will always be ruled by a male, the family is a matriarchal society. I couldn't allow that child to grow up without her."
Relief floods me and I give him a smile. "Thank you," I whisper.
He nods back stiffly and says, "You should go now."
"Goodbye, Xane," I say and, on impulse, give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and then Astral back to Ponte and the coming meeting.
Chapter 13
Ponte, Italy, November 2014 - Aefre
“Well?” CK barks at me as I land in the Entrance Hall.
“Well, what?” I ask innocently.
“Is he coming back here?” he asks bluntly.
“No, it’s over. Happy?” I snarl at him, still hurt by the sudden disappearance of him from my life. He taught me so much about my Powers and who I really am. I will miss him, sorely. But I know this is for the best. Trying to scrap together the remnant of our relationship without the Demon Mark will just be a disaster and we will both end up worse off.
“Delighted,” he snarls back, not for a second giving me a chance to grieve or giving me compassion he thinks I don’t deserve.