Chapter 164

Theodore’s POV

I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little extra spring in my step as I stepped into our room at Marcy’s place, freshly showered after training all morning with Bennett. Closing the door behind me, I dropped my towel and winked at my wife across the room.

“Well, well, well,” she mocked, “look who’s all cocky and in a good mood now that he correctly splintered once.”

I crossed the room to wrap her in a naked hug, even though she was still in her sweaty clothes waiting for her turn in the shower. “You could have showered with me, you know.”

She smacked my chest playfully. “Not in my cousin’s house, you rake.”

I laughed but was unfortunately pulled away from my beautiful wife by a rare notification on my phone. I dressed myself as I checked the newest text, which was from Dahlia.

Aside from keeping Eva from calling you every two seconds, all is well in Midnight. Take the time you need to finalize your divorce.

My heart sank at the reminder of the divorce I had promised Eva in exchange for this time away in Henosis. Yet another thing Violet and I would have to do on our “vacation”.

“You’re getting very good at controlling your magic, alari,” I called to my wife as I pulled up another text I’d missed in the shower. “You’ll be splintering better than me in a day or two!” I wasn’t patronizing her; I just knew my strengths as well as hers.

I frowned as I pulled up a picture from Bennett.

“What is it?” Violet asked. I turned the screen to face her.

“Awww,” she cooed. “Why are you scowling at an adorable picture of my baby cousin?”

“Isn’t Dahlia technically your second cousin? Or is it cousin once removed?”

“Cousin once removed.” She threw her dirty sock at me. “Don’t avoid the question.”

“I wasn’t scowling at your baby cousin once removed,” I corrected as I slid the phone into the back pocket of my jeans. “I was scowling at Bennett bragging that he gets to hang out with an adorable infant while I have to go research answers that probably don’t exist and fall further into existential dread as our life crumbles before our eyes.”

Violet raised both eyebrows. “The cockiness of your first splinter decimated by the picture of an infant. Impressive.”

I knew she was teasing me, but I just sat on the bed feeling defeated. In a moment, she was sitting next to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “I’m feeling discouraged, too,” she admitted.

“Yeah?”

She nodded her head against my chest where she was leaning. “Maybe we’re pushing ourselves too hard. What if we took the rest of the day off?”

I was surprised at how good that sounded. “We haven’t even been looking for a week yet. We can’t just give up.”

“We’re not giving up.” She turned her head to kiss my chest. “We’re clearing our heads to come back to the research with fresh eyes.”

I wasn’t sure what to say as a tension I hadn’t realized existed slowly untwisted in my chest.

“What if we call Lillith and see if she’s available today? I’d love to learn more about your mom with you. If you want.”

I pulled my mate into my lap and kissed her. “That sounds like exactly what I need.”

Violet kissed me back. “Good. I’ve been meaning to ask though: why didn’t you want to meet Lillith originally?”

I sighed at my mate’s question. It was a fair one, though I wasn’t sure I had an answer. “I was mad and scared,” I started.

“Scared of our situation, how direly we need the answers we came here to get. Scared of missing more with you: more checkups of the baby, more opportunities to hold your hair back when you get sick. I missed the first two months of your pregnancy before I even found out about it.”

“Technically, neither of us knew about it for the first month,” she corrected. She was trying to make me feel better, but it wasn’t really helping. She didn’t say anything else, allowing me the space to share.

“I was mad at whoever it was who supposedly knew my mother, supposedly cared for her. Where were they when my mom was in trouble? Where were they when I was left alone with an unforgiving father and a brother who hated me?”

Violet rubbed my back in soothing circles.

“I was afraid it was a trick: another spy to report back to Owen. Then I would find out that after all the hopes and wishing, there would be no one left who knew my mother after all, and I would be plunged back into an all-consuming loneliness that hurts to drown in the second time more than the first.”

I swallowed, my breathing heavy, as I looked into Violet’s eyes. They were full of sorrow and understanding and rage.

I was so in love with her that sometimes her existence felt unreal.

Violet stood then, back straight and eyes full of determination. “Owen will pay. For all of it.”

If anything was going to warm my icy heart, it was her ruthlessness.

With the beginnings of a smirk tugging at the corner of my lips, I pulled her to stand between my spread legs, resting my hands firmly on her ass. “Can we really just take time off? What if one day of research makes the difference in the end?”

Violet leaned down, her strong hands cupping my face as she stared into my eyes. “What if one day of rest makes the difference in the end?”

I realized then her true point: we’d never know either way. All we could do was our best with the information we had.

She leaned the rest of the way to kiss my nose. “Besides, we have a list of possible ways to undo the bond. If nothing else, we can try each of them just in case one works.”

She avoided eye contact with me a little too much as she said it, and I thought back to the list, wondering what part of her suggestion she was wary about.

“I would have no problem killing my brother, or even Eva, just to see if it does the trick,” I assured her.

She looked at me then, mouth twisted to the side, and I knew that wasn’t it. I tried to remember the rest of the possible solutions, and…

Realization washed over me. My wife noticed.

“I won’t ask it of you,” she asserted. “But I also won’t punish you if you want to try it.”

A kiss between the fake mates. She was talking about me kissing Eva.

An involuntary shudder rippled through me. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Violet.

“You don’t have to decide now, doher. Please just know that I love you, and I’m on your team. No matter what.”

I pulled her back into my lap, and she let me. I kissed the top of her head then grumbled into it. “If I’m kissing Eva, it will only be after the other possible way of undoing the mate bond: eating nothing but onions for a week straight.”

Violet laughed into my neck, the sound and feel reminding me of exactly what it was we were fighting for.