Mated To My Mate's Worst Enemy (ARIA) novel Chapter 650

Chapter 650

KAEL

"Please," Ivory said, and the tone of it was the specific Ivory tone of someone who found their opponent's approach insufficient. "You have sent sixty-nine — now seventy — separate attacks on me. Should I give you examples of things you haven't tried yet? I'm certain that between the two of us we could come up with the ideal torture method. I've been on the receiving end of most of them. I have extensive notes."

Jordan said, very quietly, to no one in particular: "She's unbelievable."

"She really is," Nina said.

I was looking at the communicator.

At the audio feed.

At the sound of Ivory in a room with Hale and whoever else was in that room, doing the thing she'd always done, which was take whatever was in front of her and refuse to let it be bigger than she was.

"Even now," Hale said, "you'd rather die than betray Kael."

A pause.

"What can I say," Ivory said. "The sex was good. Trust me — if Kael sleeps with you, you wouldn't want to leave either."

The room.

I looked at the table.

The table was very interesting.

Solander, from my peripheral vision, was looking at a point approximately six inches above the surface of the war room table with the specific expression of a man who was managing his response to something.

Ian, beside the door, had turned to look at the wall.

Nina's hand was over her mouth.

Jordan was looking at the ceiling.

*She just—* Khris started.

*Yes,* I said.

*In front of Hale,* Khris said.

*Yes,* I said.

*She said—*

*I heard what she said,* I said.

*She used it,* Khris said. *As cover. As—she made it sound like—she's telling them there's nothing to leverage because the relationship already—*

*I know what she's doing,* I said. *She's communicating that the leverage they think they have doesn't work the way they think it works. She's removing a tool from Hale's arsenal.*

*By telling them we had sex,* Khris said.

*By making them think the relationship is already what it would be,* I said. *Which removes the possibility of using me against her.*

*Kael,* Khris said.

*Yes,* I said.

*Did you—*

*Not now,* I said.

*Later,* he said.

*Later,* I said.

Cassium's voice.

The specific quality of it — I'd heard Cassium's name for years, had the intelligence files on him, had been building the picture of who this man was through Jordan's documentation and Ivory's healer network information and the Convention letter. Hearing his voice now was—

"She's not taking this seriously," Cassium said.

"Oh, the daughter-fucker," Ivory said, and the room went completely still at the casual deployment of the title. "You know, I never did get your kink. And I have done significantly kinkier things, so that's saying something. Do you salivate over your other daughters as well? Clara's step-sisters. You have a daughter aged three. Another aged five." A pause. "How do I know you're not into them?"

"How the hell do you know about them," Cassium said, and his voice had lost the diplomatic quality and was operating at something considerably rawer.

"I am genuinely offended," Ivory said, "that you thought you kept this from me."

"Who knows about this," Cassium said. "Who have you told—"

"Well," Ivory said, "I know. So does my team. And I have all the evidence necessary to prosecute you in front of the Supreme Council." A pause. "Let's see who gets the execution sentence first. You or me. I feel like this is an interesting competition."

"We need to kill her," Cassium said.

"No," Hale said.

"I won't let her expose me—"

"No," Hale said. "I have plans for her. She's not—"

A sound.

Something different.

A movement that the audio captured without giving a clear picture of what it was, and then a specific sound that was a dagger in motion and something stopping it, and then—

"Impossible," Cassium said.

"It always chooses when to save me," Ivory said. "Selective motherfucker. It forgot to help when I was being slapped and electrocuted, but apparently daggers are where it draws the line."

"That is the magic of the ghost council," Hale said, and his voice had changed — the calculation in it that was Hale's specific quality, the intelligence running in real time. "Are you an immortal? Is that why you can't die?"

"What? No," Ivory said. "Do I look a hundred? Damn. Okay, fine, I have a terrible back pain but that's a recent development and I can still absolutely rock a maid's outfit. The back is manageable."

"Answer the question," Hale said.

"Could you get me an outfit?" Ivory said. "I'll strip for you. Would that be more useful than the torture? I'm flexible on methodology."

"I don't have time for this."

A pause.

Then a sound from Ivory that was — a yawn.

She yawned.

In a room where Hale was conducting her interrogation, Ivory produced a yawn.

Nina made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and something else.

"Oh, this is so yesterday," Ivory said. "Darling, I lived with Kael. I have been in the direct vicinity of Kael the Deranged when he was in the specific state that makes other Alphas emigrate. Compared to that, your anger is a chihuahua. A very committed chihuahua. But still."

Khris said: *She's comparing Hale to a chihuahua.*

*Yes,* I said.

*Using me as the comparison point,* he said.

*Yes,* I said.

*That's—*

*I know,* I said.

*I'm not sure if I'm flattered or concerned,* he said.

*Both,* I said. *Both is the right answer.*

The audio changed.

Something in the quality of the room on the other end.

Cassium's voice, and the specific register of it was different from the anger that had been present — something lower, something that had made a calculation.

"Hale said he wants you alive," Cassium said. "He never said he wanted you unused."

Ivory's voice went very quiet.

"You better not be trying to do what I think you're trying to do," she said.

The quiet was not the calm version. It was the specific quality of someone who'd registered a threat at a level that was different from the previous threats and was recalibrating for it.

"The rest never got to complete it," Cassium said. "Why don't I—"

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