“It’s possible,” Orpheus said from his spot near the windows. “I didn’t really feel the soul mate pull with Skyla until my daemon started to fade. That pull definitely strengthened the weaker my daemon became.”
Nick rolled his eyes and rested his hands against his hips. They were all certifiable. That was the only explanation. He scowled at Isadora, then turned his glare on his brother. “Don’t tell me you’re buying in to this too. This is your fucking soul mate we’re talking about. The one you told me to stay the hell away from.”
Demetrius’s jaw ticked, but the bastard still didn’t answer. Just stared at Nick with those hard, cold eyes.
“Look.” Callia stepped forward, clearly sensing the tension in the room. “We don’t know anything yet. It’s all just speculation. But I can tell you her vitals are much improved since you got here. Isa”—she turned toward her sister—“how do you feel?”
Isadora let out a breath. She bit her lip as she looked toward Nick, then glanced at her mate near the desk. She turned back toward her sister. “Better. A little stronger. But maybe that’s just a coincidence.”
“See?” Nick said, holding his arms out wide. “Finally, someone with a little sense.”
Callia tucked a lock of auburn hair behind her ear and frowned. “I’m sorry, but Isadora’s pulse regulating when she touched you was not a coincidence.” She turned toward her sister. “We’ll figure this out, don’t worry. Now that Nick’s here, it should buy us some time.”
Oh no. He wasn’t staying. He looked back over the faces in the room. They didn’t actually expect him to remain in this realm, did they?
Footsteps reverberated from the corridor before he could ask, and his attention shifted that direction, his pulse skipping with the hope of seeing Cynna, back to keep him centered.
Except the female who stepped into the room wasn’t the one he desperately needed. It was Casey, her brown hair shimmering under the chandelier above, her violet eyes sparkling as her gaze caught on Nick. “Someone told me we had a visitor.”
Nick fought back the darkness pushing him to run. Casey crossed the floor, rose up on her toes, and wrapped her arms around Nick’s shoulders. But this time—unlike when Isadora had hugged him—he didn’t flinch. Because Casey was not, and never had been, any kind of threat to his sanity.
“I knew you’d come back,” she said softly, lowering to her feet and smiling up at him. “You’re like a bad penny. You always turn up.”
Nick nodded toward her rounded belly. “You’ve obviously been busy while I’ve been gone. How long?”
Casey cast a warm look toward Theron, who was talking quietly with the queen and Callia. The guardian caught her eye, sent her a worried half grin, then went back to his conversation.
Casey turned back to Nick. “Two more months.”
“And how’s the hero with it all?”
“A bear. Worried. Constantly.” Casey grinned. “Not a whole lot different than usual.”
Nick huffed.
Casey hooked her arm in his and drew him toward a couch in the sitting area of Isadora’s palatial office. “The bigger question is, how are you?”
She was the first person who’d asked. The first one who even seemed to care. But then, being a half-breed—one of his people—maybe she was the only one who could.
Cynna cared. His mind flashed to the way Cynna had grabbed him and kissed him when he’d given her the chance to run in the tunnels. Then how she’d known he was spiraling out of control and gently taken him upstairs, cut his hair, and dragged him back from the edge of something he was sure he wouldn’t have been able to pull himself free from without her.
“Nick?”
He looked to his right, where Casey was sitting next to him on the couch, one hand resting on the swell of her belly while she eyed him with curiosity. Dammit, he didn’t even remember sitting. “What?”
“I asked how you were doing. After everything you’ve been through—”
“I’m fine,” he said quickly, not wanting to delve into what he’d been through. Not with her. “I’m always fine.”
She frowned like she didn’t believe him. “You’re not happy about being here, are you?”
He leaned forward, rested his forearms on his knees, and worked not to scowl again. The fine hairs along his back bristled. “Let’s just say this isn’t my favorite place in the world.”
“I know. But I’m glad you’re here, even if you aren’t. Isadora needs you right now.”
He turned to face Casey, his eyes hardening as a whisper of animosity—no, a hell of a lot more than a whisper—whipped through him. “She never needed me before. Don’t tell me you’re buying into all this bullshit too.”