Page 143 of Stormhold

“I’ve always wondered what happened to that girl,” Arkane admitted, while his fingers traced the AS initials on the knife. “I remember that night; it was right before Father declared war on the Covent. Right before they hurt Mother.”

“Without you, I never would’ve found myself,” I whispered. It was true. I would’ve been a shell of a girl if I hadn’t gone to the Valerian mountain.

Arkane said nothing, but his arms around me tightened as he held me close.

Maybe in the end, it did make sense after all.

CHAPTER 39

ARKANE

Getting married to Bella was the best fucking decision of my life. I never knew marriage and love could be this… peaceful? Ah, no, blissful was the right word.

It’d only been two weeks since our wedding, and I can’t imagine a life without her. My brothers claimed it was the honeymoon phase, but I had a feeling it was a lot more than that. I think I was starting to understand the feelings of love she spoke fondly of.

“Ark,” my wife’s voice called out, and my eyes lifted to see her leaning against the doorframe of my study. She looked too fucking gorgeous, dressed in a simple dark gray midi dress in the style she liked, wearing a smile she reserved just for me. A far better sight than the walls of my boring office I’d been staring at all day, thinking and thinking.

“I might have a Valerian job tonight,” she announced.

I sighed. I wouldn’t mind under other circumstances, but there was a restless energy in the city. The White Hand, by now, would’ve known that I made Bella my wife. And possibly that she gave me the codes. And with Killian’s warning, I didn’t want to take a risk of her being out there in the open.

The White Hand knew I would happily give away my life and my city for her, so her life was at much a risk as mine. I had no clue what he was planning, but I could tell he was choking on low time. He had three days to either take my life or get the codes. And he hadn’t tried both; we’ve had several break-in attempts here at the mansion, and even had a close call during our honeymoon, which Bella didn’t know about. Thankfully, Mikhail quietly dealt with it. If not for him, I would’ve died a long time ago.

It felt like we were sitting on a grenade, waiting for one wrong misfire, but the White Hand was smart. He was thinking of something incredible, or else he would’ve simply walked into my house and killed me by now. It meant he valued his life more than power. And was willing to hide the rest of his life to save his ass.

“I wouldn’t advise going out for some time,” I told her when she made her way toward me.

“Why?” She frowned.

“Killian warned that something would go down when we least expect it,” I said, just as she landed on my lap and I pulled her in, breathing in her sweet vanilla scent.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, softly weaving her fingers through my hair.

“I didn’t want to ruin our mood,” I mumbled against her chest.

“It’s kind of inevitable,” she said. “Heath Glen did promise to kill me.”

I stiffened at the mention of that fucker’s name. I didn’t like her saying it. I should’ve killed him when I had the chance because the next time I see him, I had no clue what kind of monster I would become. Bella opened up to me about what that fucker actually did to her, and even though she seemed fine about it now, I wasn’t.

“He won’t live long,” I promised.

“His life is mine to take. You agreed, remember?” she said firmly.

I sighed. “Fine,” I mumbled. Doesn’t mean I still can’t beat every inch of him.

“Anything about the White Hand?”

I shook my head. “Nothing.”

She frowned. “Even the Alacteon has no idea?”

“No, he’s good.” No money trail. Comms trail or even fucking paper trail. It was like he didn’t even exist. Who the fuck was he? And how the fuck did Kenny ever get into his head to the point where he was willing to betray his own family?

We stayed like that till Mikhail burst into the office, looking like he hadn’t slept for three days straight, but the look in his eyes screamed he had something important.

“What is it?” I asked, already on alert as Bella straightened in my lap.

“I think I found the link,” he said, coming over to us with his laptop. “We found these letters in Kenny’s house. It’s a unique cipher code; I believe that’s how he first made contact with the White Hand.”