Daughter of Kaos (The Daughter Trilogy Book 3) (11 page)

“Adisia! Fuck! I don’t know why I just did that! Oh, baby. I’m so sorry,” he pleads, and the

wind swirls around Nina in a constricting motion as the green surges to my eyes.

“What did you do to him?” I growl.

“Nothing, I swear! It was just a kiss,” she pleads while trying to pull the ocean to me, but my

winds keep it at bay.

She’s not as strong as I am, and Devin shakes his head in complete bewilderment and guilt as he

grips it like a terrified child. He seems distraught, rattled, and in shock.

It wasn’t him.

“Adisia!” Kry screams. “Stop it. You’ll kill her!”

“She did something to Devin. She made him kiss her,” I blare.

“She doesn’t have that power,” Hale chimes in with panic.

“Liar!” I scream, more tears dripping from my trembling eyes.

“No, he’s not lying. Adisia, she’s just a water nymph. They only have a link with the sea,” Persia

assures, making me fight the sickness rising to my throat once again.

“Then someone else in her lineage does,” I contest.

“Nymphs don’t have lineage like ours. They only bear descendents with their own kind. I

promise, Adisia, she didn’t force him,” Persia pleads.

I drop her to the ground, and she grabs her ribs. Devin rushes over to pull my face to his, but I

push him back.

“Find out what did it,” I grumble.

“Are you sure there were
evil
forces at play?” Jace suspiciously derives.

“Positive. I would never do this to her,” Devin swears, and Theia steps up to pull his palm in her

hand.

“Did you feel a possession?”

“I don’t think so,” he murmurs as his eyes plead with mine for forgiveness.

“You’d know it if you did,” I grumble.

“Baby, I swear this wasn’t me. You know I would never do this of my own free will. You’re

everything to me,” he pleads louder, and then he turns to Theia. “A fury. A fury could do this.”

“There’s not a stain from a fury,” Theia assesses. “Just open your memories to me, and let me see

for myself.”

“Do it,” Devin urges.

“I want to see them as you do,” I demand.

“Okay,” Theia says hesitantly, and I take her free hand as Devin stares at me anxiously.

“I swear, baby, I didn’t do this,” he promises as his mother starts massaging his palm with her

fingertips.

I ignore his pleading innocence, and I see the flash of memories that have been leading up to this

moment - subtle flirtation mixed with building sexual tension between the two of them.

He told her to wait for him before he went back with Kry. I see him talking to Kry and telling

him I’m too paranoid and clingy.

Tears overwhelm me, and I jerk free from Theia’s grasp when it all becomes too painful to view

any longer.

“I don’t know about you, but I didn’t see anything other than a jerk!” I cry to Theia.

She tightens her lips, unable to object. Devin throws himself at me, and his lips claim mine

before I can push him off. The shocking force from my hands doesn’t knock him off of me because

he’s immune, and it takes all my strength to force him off.

Suddenly electricity blasts between us as Jace offers a threatening warning.

“Stay out of this, Jace,” Devin warns. “She’s my damn wife.”

“That you just cheated on who knows how many times,” Jace retorts, and I turn to walk away

from the graveling son of a bitch who has broken my heart into more pieces than I’ll ever be able to

pick up.

“Adisia, please, I swear that’s the only time I kissed her, and I didn’t mean to do it then,” he

desperately begs.

“No. You’ve been cold for two days, and you made me feel like a crazy bitch for noticing. You

gave me every sign, and I fought to not pay attention to the obvious. Your very skilled mother can’t

even find any signs of interference!” I explode.

“Adisia,” he pleads while grabbing my hand. “I swear it wasn’t me. I don’t know what it was,

but-”

“But nothing, Devin. There’s no supernatural explanation for being a total jerk. Goodbye,” I sob,

and then I feel him hanging on as if he’s not going to let me leave.

“Let her go, Devin,” Kahl demands.

“No. I can’t let her leave me. She’ll never come back,” Devin cries, and now it’s getting harder

to break free.

My chest grows heavy from the panic attack, and Jace walks over to blindside Devin with a

punch. Kry rushes over, but I wave him off.

“He did it for me because I couldn’t,” I defend, making Kry look so torn as to what he should do.

“Adisia,” Devin begs, and it’s almost a prayer when he continues. “Please don’t leave me.”

“Restrain him. I’m taking my daughter with me,” Kahl asserts, and Theia seems as torn as Kry.

“Kahl, there may be an explanation,” she tries to insert.

“Then call me when you have it,” I sob violently.

“No,” Devin protests, and then he rushes to me.

Kahl throws up a flaming wall as a warning, and lightening threatens to strike as the skies open up

for Persia.

“Don’t start a fight here. Adisia just wants to leave right now, and that’s all we’re trying to do,”

Persia neutrally offers.

“Go,” Hale murmurs with a pained tone. “We’ll hold him.”

“No!” Devin yells, and the ocean tries to reach me before Lana pushes back on it.

Hale’s eyes offer an apology for having not found a way to help me sooner, and Devin screams as

his family and friends hold him back.

I cry harder as we flash to the car, and I can hardly breathe as Jace pulls me to his chest once

we’re safely out of reach.

The waves crash fiercely beside us, and I know they won’t be able to hold him for much longer.

He’s too strong, and he’ll only try not to hurt them for so long before he unleashes it all. My

world has just shattered into tiny fragments, and the pieces have been scattered into space.

There’s nothing but emptiness chipping away at the remaining fragments of hope barely

flickering before their inevitable expiration.

Chapter 5

The Tidal Storm

Devin

The dark room is only lit by the full moon casting its too chipper glow through the window. I’m

almost sick as I stare down at the papers she has sent me.

Something as seemingly harmless as another document to examine has shattered me today, for

these papers promise she’s done. They tell me she no longer wants to be my wife, and it’s almost

impossible not to fall apart in front of everyone.

This can’t be happening. This has to be some viciously terrible joke played on me by some son of

Loki. I can’t live without her, damn it.

“Devin?” Kry asks in a sigh as he walks into the room.

“What?” I growl as I push the papers into the drawer of my desk.

“Why are you sitting in the dark?”

“Because I fucking want to. What do you want?”

He frowns at my bitter attitude, but I can’t pretend to be happy right now. None of them have

helped me find her. Most of them want me to just let her go. It’s as if they think this was actually my

fault - as if I kissed Nina of my own free will.

“Devin, this isn’t healthy. You need to shave, shower, eat… act like a person again.”

“Find my wife, and I’ll do all of those things. Until she’s back, what’s the fucking use?”

He grumbles as he flops down in a chair, and then his arms cross over his chest.

“She’ll be at the wedding. What are you going to do?”

I almost get sick. The thought of finally seeing her has me excited and terrified at the same time.

I’ve been waiting a month on this wedding, and I’ve spared no expense to ensure I got a damn

invitation.

“Jake’s wedding is step one to getting her back. I’ll damn follow her home if I have to.
If
I can

kiss her, she won’t be able to resist. Aphrodite won’t let her stop.”

The door opens to my study to an unbidden guest. Camara walks in awkwardly as she stares at us

sitting in the dark. She shows up randomly all the time though.

“Um, I was just coming to see if you need anything from the store,” she hesitantly murmurs.

“Scotch, please,” I grumble.

She nods, but she doesn’t leave. Instead, she walks warily around the room.

“So, have you been out at all today?” she asks in her usual odd fashion.

“Of course not. Why?” I grouse.

“Just curious. Anything new going on?”

Does she know about the divorce papers? What is she probing for? She’s so fucking weird

lately. It’s as though she’s hiding a secret, but I don’t know what.

“Nothing spectacular. Anything else?”

“No. I’ll grab you some scotch. Get a shower. You look terrible,” she adds before walking out.

“That’s random,” Kry scoffs as the door shuts to the soundproofed room.

I shake my head while leaning back.

“She does that a lot. I think she just doesn’t know what to say, so she says whatever strange thing

comes to her usually unsocial mind.”

“So the wedding?” he prompts, returning to our interrupted subject.

“I’m in the wedding party now. Jake was pretty thrilled with the honeymoon I offered to pay for.

I just have to get her to fall back in love with me. It won’t be easy, but eternity isn’t worth living

without her.”

Kry sighs out in exasperation, but he doesn’t argue with me. He misses her just like the rest of

them do. But no one misses her as much as I do. It’s killing me to be without her for so fucking long.

He walks out to leave me alone in the dark, and then I grab my phone to call the man who rarely

has any good news to offer.

“Hello?” he asks warily, knowing I’ll bark at him if he still hasn’t gotten any closer to what I’m

paying him to find.

“Well? Have you found my girl?” I ask while pulling the annulment papers she sent out of my

desk drawer.

I shake my head as I push them through the paper shredder where they belong.

I’m not getting my marriage annulled as though it never happened. I’m not divorcing her either.

She can have me. That’s her only option.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Cole, but it’s damn near impossible. The bounty hunter she’s staying with knows

how to clean a fucking trail, and he knows how to lie low. Any chance you can give me some insight

on her mother’s properties.”

Stupid asshole.

“If I knew where her mother’s properties were, I wouldn’t be fucking paying you to find her. Just

do your damn job!” I yell before crunching the phone in my hand when my anger swells to be too

much.

“Fuck!” I blare while throwing the pieces across the room.

Everything on my desk is suddenly raked off as I lose my sanity and throw the whole damn thing

through the wall of the room. Gasps emerge throughout the house, and Ther walks up with a frown.

I have to find her before I go fucking crazier than I already have. I have to prove it wasn’t me. I

have to make her love me again.

I drop to the ground as the tears climb free, and Ther walks away to leave me alone in my pile of

grief, allowing me to try to hold onto some dignity.

I don’t care about my dignity though. I just want my wife back.

“Damn it, Devin. Why did
you have to pick a fight with Jace?” Hale gripes while following me

into the apartment.

“Why did
I
pick a fight? He did everything he could to provoke me. He couldn’t stop touching

her for five fucking seconds! She’s still my wife, Hale. She’s still
my
fucking wife!”

My tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back as I drop to the couch. Deacon keeps his lips

sealed as he proffers me a glass of scotch, and I shakily take it while trying to inhale its toxin.

“It’s been a week since the wedding fiasco, just drop it,” Camara says in my defense.

“He’s been hiding for a damn week,” Hale counters with exasperation.

“I haven’t been hiding; I’ve been trying to find my damn wife. I don’t know how in the fuck they

got away.”

The drink sloshes across my pants when my hands jerk to express my fury, and I roll my eyes at

the amber stain seeping into the fabric.

Gemma walks in, and I growl in distaste the second her eyes find mine.

“Don’t fucking speak to me,” I caution.

Her eyes water, but she drops her head before rebelling.

“It’s not my fault, Devin. Be mad at Nina or yourself. This had nothing to do with me.”

Fucking bitch. She’s probably loving this.

“I never want to see Nina again. I’ll kill her if I do.”

“Devin!” Ther gripes. “This wasn’t her fault. Both of you did this.”

The glass in my hand spirals through the air and shatters against the wall behind Ther’s head. The

pieces clank against the tile as they scatter to the floor, and Ther swallows hard.

“For the last fucking time, it wasn’t me! I would never have cheated on Adisia. Never! Do you

hear me?” I blare.

They all look away, unable to hide their betraying glares. They really do think it was me.

With exhausted defeat, Hale drops to the chair in front of me as I lower myself back down to my

own seat.

“We don’t know what to say around you right now. Look, Adisia just needs some time,” the

foolish sun releases.

“
Time
? She’s had too much
time
, and I know she’s only going to distance herself from me more