“You really should adjust your wards after you let a kidnapping victim go,” she says.

“Clearly, I should have just killed Clover.”

“That would have worked, too. This is a convenient meat suit, but it’s already wearing thin, she’s a weak one. I promise if you make it easy, I won’t hurt your dear cousin. I’ll try to make it painless for you. It’s not your fault.”

“What’s not my fault?”

“That you were the one he cared about.”

“What are you talking about, Dax?”

“Wrong Daddy.” The knife gets closer to Stevie’s throat, and I have no idea what to do.

“Let Stevie go,” I ask.

“You’ll let me in?” She pushes the blade down, a rivulet of blood dripping down the column of Stevie’s throat.

“I’ll let you in,” I say.

“Blair, no!”

It happens so quick, but in slow motion at the same time. I watch as the inky, smoky, blackness pulls from Clover’s mouth as it shoves itself through my own lips. The sensation is painful and completely foreign.

Mara shoves herself into every crevice of my being. It’s like we’re sharing the same body with two minds, but she’s completely in control. I can’t move my limbs, I can’t blink, I can’t speak. I’m just a passenger in my own body. The worst part is there’s no escaping.

29. Dax

Chapter 29

Distraught is really the only way I can describe how I’m feeling. Blair’s betrayal stings, but the more I think about it the less it surprises me. I don’t doubt her feelings for me, but the lengths she went to hide what she did is concerning. It’s obvious her initial intention was to hurt Ryan, my son. The person I can’t forget about in this equation. I wonder when it changed for her. When I wasn’t meant for revenge anymore. Her reaction in the shower wasn’t about me having a son, it’s that she already knew and was trying, in her own way, to make things right. I didn’t want to let her go, I shouldn’t have let her go. She needs to be safe right now with Mara on the loose. I can only hope that she was smart enough to go straight home and not do anything stupid.

Then there’s the fact that I’m sitting in front of my son, about to tell him everything that I am, about how I feel about him, and now I need to add a conversation about Blair into the mix. I’m going to need copious amounts of whiskey to get through this.