Free Betrayal (The Forever Series) by Eve Newton Page A

adjusts his clothing. “I am feeling rather hard done by with all these new charges you are stacking up.” He says it lightly, but I know he still isn’t happy about Cade.
    “I know, baby,” I say, giving him a hug. “I will make it up to you now that you are home. You are never to leave for as long as that ever again.”
    “I won’t,” he promises me and we are both happy again to be back together. “But, you do owe me an explanation,” he says.
    I Shift back to Liv before I forget and exit here looking like Elizabeth. Cole and CK would not be amused.
    “I know,” I say. “It just happened. Literally. Cole suggested it yesterday and bam! There was a handfast at Cassis.”
    He is looking at me in shock. “Cole suggested it?” he chokes out.
    “Yeah,” I say, nodding. “I was surprised too. Well floored actually, but he wants me all the time and so does CK, so he came up with this.” I note at this point I am talking to myself as he has gone completely zombie on me. He is gazing over my right shoulder with dead eyes.
    “How could you?” he asks sadly. “How could you do this to me?”
    “What?” I ask in confusion and then turn around as I realize he isn’t even speaking to me. He is looking at Cole who had quietly pushed the door open and is standing in the doorway looking uncertain and more than a little confused.
    “Devon,” he says as he comes closer, with a look of sadness now. He clearly has some idea what is going now whereas I have none.
    Devon shakes his head at him and turns his back. I look at Cole questioningly and he whispers to me to leave them alone. I go, under protest, and with a burning curiosity as to Devon’s actions and I enter the library. I sigh as I see the damage caused by my parents’ argument. Broken lamps, turned over tables, even a smashed window that I never even heard break. Must have been during Sebastian and CK’s tussle. Then I shudder as I remember what else they got up to in here. I don’t actually want to touch anything. I am about to leave and find Esther to come and scrub this room top to bottom when I feel a pop behind me. Ah crap. I really don’t need her here at the moment.
    I turn around ready with a sarcastic comment, but I stop dead, my mouth hanging open.
    “Thought I might surprise you,” she says, her light Italian accent catching me off guard. “It has taken me some time to master this to get here.”
    I stare at Empress Aefre and quick as lightning I am in front of her, grabbing her by the arm. “What are you doing here?” I hiss at her. “You need to leave, right now!”
    She pulls her arm out of my grip and says, “Oh, I am not going anywhere, Liv. I have some things to say to you, and you will listen.”
    “Hm, I’m sure you do,” I say with more than a bit of arrogance. “As it turns out, I have a few words of my own for you.”
    We stare at each other for a few moments before I say, “I can look past the Cole and Devon thing, but you had no right to sleep with Sebastian. Do you know what a problem you caused me?”
    She shrugs, unconcerned, and replies, “You had no right to go anywhere near either of my men, nor did you have the right to forgive Constantine for his actions and to top it all off the worst part is you giving Cassis your blessing on her marriage to that…to that man!” She stamps her foot and I can see a tantrum about to go down. I don’t have time for this. She has to leave, if anyone comes in here and she spills the Other World beans, I am dead.
    “Look,” I say quietly. “I understand you are mad at me for what I did. They thought I was you, I tried to resist, but it was hard. Constantine was so upset that you wouldn’t forgive him it broke my heart. I shouldn’t have said what I did to him and I apologize. As for Cassis, I certainly had no intention of letting her marry that bastard had I been forced to stay in your World. I loathe that man more than anything in either of our Worlds so rest assured,