Kesh looked distinctly uncomfortable, and it suddenly dawned on her that despite how mistrustful he might be of her, she likely still reeked of fear. Undoubtedly, that scent was wreaking havoc on his instincts. But like his brother, he was fighting to control himself.

“Why doesn’t it affect him?” Selma lowered her voice a tad and glanced at Kirigan. “My scent?”

Kesh growled as he gave his father’s back a dirty look. “Who the fuck knows?”

“It does, in a way.” Kirigan turned back to them without looking up from the leather-bound book he was leafing through. “But your pheromones work by upsetting our ability to calm our nervous systems, and I have lost the ability to feel much of anything. Therefore, the added aggravation of a frightened Breeder isn’t too difficult to ignore.”

Selma kept quiet, though she had a hard time believing he was telling the full truth. The way he clung to his liquor-filled glass suggested he was more likely trying to desperately numb feelings too painful for him to cope with—and she’d seen a glimpse of what lay beneath his dead gaze.

Agony. Madness. Despair. It was more likely he could ignore her scent’s effect because he was drowning in a nightmare much worse than what her scent could compete with.

Despite her fear of him, and despite what Kain had told her he’d done to his mate and her human family, she pitied him.

“I first came across a reference to what you just showed us many years ago,” he continued as if he hadn’t just threatened her with killing her unborn child to make the light inside of her burst out against her will. “This text mentions ‘the powerful light within the Seers.’ I am old enough to remember when your kind was something other than our mates and mothers. Did you know we weren’t always able to mate with the women who see us for what we truly are?”

Selma nodded, errantly wondering exactly how old the being in front of her was. As far as she understood, her kind had been known as Breeders for centuries.

He smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. “Then you also know we have the gods to thank for that—and the traitor queen, of course, may she burn in the fiery pits of the Earth. What I don’t understand is how you can access it when there have been no other incidents as far as we know.”

Love. Bealtih had claimed the key to unlocking the lost power was love. Though Selma highly doubted no woman had ever loved her demon captor, at least after some time. Stockholm Syndrome was a thing, after all.

Maybe it was because of Kain. If no other demon had ever loved his mate so unconditionally that they were willing to give them up, perhaps he was the reason for her newfound strength.