Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 624

Chapter 624

ARIA

"You're talking about me like I'm not right there," Kael said.

"We're talking about you like you're someone whose behavior we've been watching for fifteen years and have just witnessed a significant new data point from," Jordan said. "Those aren't the same thing."

"The significant new data point being that I sided with my mate," Kael said.

"The significant new data point," Jordan said, "is that when the room contained both Aria and Ivory as options, you sided with Aria. That's—Kael, that's the window."

The room went quiet.

Kael looked at Jordan.

Jordan looked back with the specific expression of someone who'd said a true thing and was letting it land.

"The book," Kael said.

"Yes," Jordan said.

"You're quoting the book at me," Kael said.

"I'm applying the metaphor that exists for exactly this situation," Jordan said. "You went through the window."

"I agreed with my mate," Kael said. "That's not—"

"In a room where the other option was Ivory," Jordan said. "Yes. It is."

Kael looked at the table.

At the structural map.

At the clipboard pieces.

At the door.

"She's furious," he said.

"Yes," Jordan said.

"But you went through the window," Jordan said.

"The window," Nina said, and her voice had arrived somewhere warm. "Kael."

"Don't," he said.

"Kael," she said.

"I know," he said.

"Do you," she said.

"I know," he said again, and the quality of the repetition was different from the first one — the specific quality of someone who did know, who'd arrived at knowing and was sitting with the weight of it.

Silver was warm in my chest.

Not saying anything. Just warm.

I looked at the door Ivory had walked out of.

At the clipboard.

At the map on the table with the root notation in the attachment point that I'd been feeling through the bond and that Silver had been feeling and that the analysis said cost Ivory's life and that might — might — have a gap in it.

Three days.

"I need to go," I said.

Everyone looked at me.

"The preparation," I said. "I need to work on the architectural understanding." I stood up. "Three days isn't much time."

"Do you need—" Kael started.

"I'm fine," I said. "I just need the time."

He looked at me with the expression that had been developing since the heart-to-heart conversation — the one that was paying attention in a different way from before, the less managed version.

"Okay," he said.

I left.

In the corridor outside the meeting room, I stood for a moment with Silver very focused and very present.

*Three days,* Silver said.

*Three days,* I said.

*Can you find the alternative in three days,* she said.

*I don't know,* I said.

*Honest,* she said.

*Yes,* I said. *Honest.*

*What do you need,* she said.

*Access to the root,* I said. *Real access. Not just feeling it through the bond at a distance. I need Kael to let me actually work with the architecture — not to sever, just to examine.* I paused. *And I need Ivory to not be in the room when I do it.*

*She's going to be watching,* Silver said.

*Yes,* I said. *Which means I need a time when she's occupied elsewhere.*

*That's going to be difficult,* Silver said.

*Everything about this is difficult,* I said.

*Yes,* Silver said. *But you're the Luna of Shadowmere.*

*Apparently,* I said.

*Not apparently,* Silver said. *Actually. And actually means you figure out the difficult thing.*

I stood in the corridor and thought about Ivory walking out of the room with the link sealed and the clipboard broken and the fury contained in the specific way that made it more rather than less formidable.

The corridor outside the meeting room was empty when I left.

Killian appeared at my elbow — he'd been doing this, the quiet materialization from slightly unexpected directions, the rogue wolf's specific relationship with arrival.

"She went to the clinic," he said.

"But alive," he said.

"Alive and furious," I said. "Which is significantly better than the alternative."

He looked at the clinic corridor.

"Yes," he said. "It is."

"Killian," I said.

He looked at me.

"She gave you the pages," I said. "She said she could be wrong. She wanted someone to check the work." I held his gaze. "This is checking the work. Whatever she feels about the method — this is what she asked for when she handed them to you."

He held my gaze.

"She wanted to be wrong," I said. "The part of her that wanted to live wanted to be wrong. We're just helping that part."

He was quiet for a moment.

Then: "Go," he said. "Before she finishes being monumentally furious and starts being calm and operational about it. Calm and operational Ivory is harder to reach."

"I know," I said.

I walked toward the clinic.

Silver was very present in my chest — not the watching quality, the other one. The quality she had when something mattered and she was fully there for it.

*You can do this,* she said.

*I hope so,* I said.

*The gap is real,* she said. *The alternative exists. She just has to look for it.*

*She has to want to look,* I said.

*She wants to live,* Silver said. *Under everything she's decided, she wants to live. That's what Ivy told you on the path — he smells like Kael, he looks like Kael, she is drawn to him because the bond is there and the bond knows. She wants things. She stopped letting herself want them, but the wanting is there.*

*Yes,* I said.

*Use that,* Silver said. *Not manipulatively. Just — let it be true. Let her want what she wants.*

*Okay,* I said.

*Aria,* Silver said.

*Yes,* I said.

*She saved you,* Silver said. *At the trial. She bet her life on your innocence when she had no reason to be certain of it. She saved this pack from the curse. She saved Killian from the death eater. She has been saving everyone around her for four years.*

*Yes,* I said.

*It's her turn,* Silver said.

*Yes,* I said.

*Go save her,* Silver said.

A/n: is it just me or do you also like Aria and Killian duo? And can we give a round of applause for Kael. He chose his mate, I thought it would never happen, and I loved making Ivory so furious. And her 'i'm fine... Chef's kiss. Have any of you guys watched interview with the vampire when Lestat was telling Louis he was fine with Louis f****** whoever he wanted and he was like I'M FINE, HE WAS SO NOT FINE. Anyone... No? Oh alright You guys have been hounding for the necklace, that necklace doesn't belong to Aria, the necklace is from shadowmere she is not, which is why I had to pause on that arc because you people were ready with pitch forks and mob to hunt me down, so either I find a way to use it where it doesn't end up with me being internet lynched or ill throw away the necklace into the trash and I really loved that arc though cause the plot twist were insane but alas, it is what it is.