Leaving his chair, the Unseelie moved next to Kalen on the sofa, sitting beside him. Turning slightly to face him, Malik set his glass of Cognac on the coffee table and laid a palm on Kalen’s thigh. The touch was surprisingly warm. Normally he would flinch, demanding the offender remove his hand as he’d done with Aric. But suddenly he was caught in the other male’s gaze. The warmth extended through his limbs, like sweet honey, fostering a sense of peace. Of belonging. Companionship.

All the things he’d longed for these many cold years.

“I don’t know why Ida made some of the choices she did, boy. I don’t know why she lied to you.”

Christ. It was true. His beloved grandmother had lied about something huge—the both of them being Fae.

“Maybe she wanted to protect me from something. . . .”

“Perhaps. But did she keep you safe?”

“No,” he whispered, staring into the brown liquor in his hand.

“No,” Malik repeated. “She didn’t. All she managed was to keep you away from me, the one who could have taken you in after she passed on. Who could have fed and sheltered you. Cared for you. Instructed you properly in the arts—”

“The dark arts. She wanted to keep me from the dark arts, she said.”

“Foolish boy. I know you feel compelled to defend your beloved grandmother.” Again the squeeze. The sense of belonging. “There are no dark arts, merely dark uses. And we’ve already established that no one is innocent, no matter which side you’re on.”

“Maybe.” Another thought occurred to him. “Why don’t I have wings, like Sariel, if I’m Fae?”

Malik shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps you took after your mother.”

Kalen got the distinct feeling he wasn’t telling the whole truth. “Hmm. You say my grandmother was Fae, but she looked like any old woman to me.”

“Glamour. If she’d dropped it, I doubt she’d have appeared to be many years older than you are now.”

“Then how could she die? Aren’t Fae immortal?”

“Up to a point, we are. I’m guessing her life force was tied to the amulet. When she gave it to you, she accepted her death. She could also have been ill from using her glamour too long, living as a human who ages and gets sick. It’s all speculation. Who knows?”

“I gave the amulet away. Will I die now?”

“No,” Malik said firmly. “You won’t. If your life force was in fact tied to the pendant, it isn’t any longer. The link was severed the night you disobeyed your grandmother by taking it off.”

He’d always had the sense that he’d made a dire mistake when he’d first taken off the pendant. Not the night he and Mackenzie made love in the hotel room, but years before. He’d been barely eighteen and had slept with a much older woman who’d admired the pendant. And like an idiot, he’d ignored his grandmother’s warning. He’d set in motion something terrible and irrevocable that night.

“What?” He stared at Malik, stunned. “You were watching then, too?”

“I was.” His lips turned up. “You were a young man trying to impress that older woman you fucked, letting her try the thing on. As soon as it left your hand, I made certain to sever its hold on you forever. It will protect the wearer now, as your grandmother said, but without draining the person’s life force if removed or given away.”

“So, a few weeks ago you forced me to give away the amulet to my . . . my friend Mackenzie. But you did so knowing I wouldn’t be harmed by removing it.”

Except by Malik himself, of course.

“As I told you, I knew one day you would belong to me.” He paused. “I would have saved you from that harsh life years ago, when you first removed the pendant, but I didn’t act quickly enough.”

Kalen narrowed his eyes. “I thought you said you didn’t rescue me because I wasn’t ready.”

“You weren’t. But I would have anyway.” He sighed. “There. Now you have a confession of one of my failings.”

He wasn’t so sure. Was Malik lying, or telling the truth about his part in everything? Or confusing him with half-lies, half-truths? God, if that was the case, Malik was succeeding.

That missing piece of the puzzle, the part of the story Malik wasn’t yet telling him, nagged at him like a sore tooth. But he knew nothing would be gained on that score tonight even if he pushed. Instead, he brought the topic back to the original purpose of the visit.

“You wanted to show me something. To prove that you understand me and will stick beside me.”

“Indeed.” Malik paused, studying him intently.

He gave a humorless laugh. “Pardon me if I don’t believe your bullshit.”

“Why do you assume it’s bullshit, as you say?”

“Really?” He gaped at the Unseelie, incredulous. “You kill people.”

“So do you, and so does your whole team for that matter,” Malik pointed out. “I suppose that makes you all evil to a man.”

“Well, no, of course not! You’re the bad guy!”

“Me? Why?”

“Are you serious? Man, you keep shifters and humans in cages so the scientists who’re working for you—or for Kerrigan—can figure out how to splice their DNA and create super-shifter soldiers!”

“I don’t keep my test subjects in cages. They’re strictly volunteers.”

“I can’t believe you said that with a straight face.” He shook his head, pushed angrily to his feet and paced a few feet away to put distance between them. “I saw with my own eyes two of our team members being held in cages. They’d been tortured and experimented on, one of them for months!”

Malik stood, looking troubled. “Ah. You’re referring to Orson Chappell’s and Dr. Gene Bowman’s unfortunate decisions. They became a bit fanatical in their approach.”

“You don’t say,” Kalen mocked. “And you didn’t seduce or coerce them into performing the heinous shit they did in the name of science, I’m sure.”

“I didn’t, not that I expect you to believe me.”

“I don’t. You had to know what was going on.”

“Whether you believe me or not doesn’t change anything. And it certainly doesn’t change my goal, which I must say is a worthy one.”

“To create this perfect breed of super-shifters.”

“Yes.” The Unseelie’s eyes lit with excitement. “What if we could perfect a soldier whose supernatural abilities far exceed any of the humans’ weapons in existence? What if humans were no longer the top of the pyramid of intelligent life on earth? Can you imagine being a part of implementing the greatest fundamental change to civilization in the history of the universe? The soldiers would work for you and me, and the planet would belong to the Fae, shifters, vampires, and every other creature who’s had to live in the shadows for centuries. Like you and I have been forced to live.”

“That’ll never happen. Powerful men in history have tried shit along those lines and ended up with their heads on pikes.”

“Men have tried. Never an Unseelie king.”

Tired, he rubbed his eyes. “Show-and-tell time, Malik. Let’s see what you’ve got or I’m leaving.”

“I was getting to that before our little debate about what constitutes evil. And I happen to know that a bit of sacrifice is necessary for the greater good.” He held up a hand before Kalen could voice further argument. “We’ll put the super-shifter issue to rest for the evening. Follow me.”

“Where to now?” he muttered.

But the other male didn’t answer. Kalen followed the Unseelie through the house, turning over in his mind all the stuff Malik had told him. He still couldn’t grasp, well, any of it.

Jesus fuck, he was Fae. Like Sariel, Malik’s half Seelie–half Unseelie son and the Pack’s good friend. Maybe he could trust the guy to answer some questions for him discreetly. Once Sariel recovered and got over the fact that Kalen had been seduced into letting the witch loose, who then almost killed Sariel on his daddy’s orders. Yeah, the Fae prince would be happy to have a heart-to-heart with Kalen, become best buddies.