Defying the Rogue Alpha

Ava stared at him, fire in her eyes. "Then how is it that Herod is hanging from the ropes you sent him, very dead? Did he just trip, tie a perfect noose, and hung himself for dramatic effect?"

Lucas released her hand as if it had burned him, his brow furrowed, the pieces clearly not adding up in his mind. "Okay, first of all, I don’t give a damn that Herod is dead, good riddance to royal trash but what exactly are you accusing me of here? That I forced him to kill himself?"

He scoffed, the disbelief evident in his voice. "Sweetheart, I don’t need powers to get things done around here, and I sure as hell didn’t make Herod do anything. I could’ve marched in there and ended it myself."

"Then make it make sense, Lucas!" Ava snapped. "Make it make sense how that rope left your hand and wound up ending his life!"

Lucas took a step back, visibly grinding his teeth. His arms folded across his chest, the gesture stiff and defensive. "I’m not going to talk to you when you’re like this," he said. "You either calm down, or we have no conversation."

"Oh, don’t you dare pull the emotional maturity card right now!" Ava shouted, throwing her hands in the air as sparks of silver danced across her skin. "I didn’t come here for a conversation."

Lucas blinked. "Then what the hell did you come here for? To accuse me of something I didn’t do and fry me in front of everyone?"

Ava took a deep breath. "Do you know why I didn’t want you sentencing Herod?" she asked. "It was never about him. It was about you."

Lucas’s posture softened. The shield of indignation cracked a little. "What do you mean?"

"We both have these powers, Lucas." Ava’s eyes locked onto his. "Powers strong enough to crush minds, bend will, silence anyone. Do you know what that kind of temptation feels like?"

He looked away now, jaw tight.