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I ignore her. “Norrie!”
Cutter shoves at me, and I brace. I didn’t stand up to my brothers and train with Jace to be pushed around by this bully. I don’t budge. She kicks at my knee, and I buckle. She pushes me into the open doorway, and we fall through together in a tangle of arms and legs on the floor. The door thuds shut behind us, a deep sound as though coming from a door much heavier than the one I opened.
I scramble to my feet and pound on it. “Norrie!”
No answer.
“Guess her heart wasn’t in it,” Cutter says.
I check my pants, my shirt, my skin, searching for spiders, but they’re gone.
“Mine was scorpions,” Cutter says. “Yours?”
I don’t answer. No, I let my rage win out. “What the hell? You probably killed Mildrake, and you left Norrie curled in a ball. Who knows what will happen to her?”
“She wasn’t meant to be the queen.” Cutter grins a nasty, vicious smile. “Neither were you, monster fucker.”
Unleashing a little of my own monster, I go cold, refusing to react, channeling Atticus. “Where did you hear I was part of a demon deal?”
She laughs a bitter, ugly sound. “That should be the least of your worries right now.”
I step closer, crowding her. “Who told you?”
The confidence fades from her face, and she licks her lips. “The deformed gargoyle, the one without wings.”
“Truman?” Atticus’s friend?
“Yeah, I guess. Who bothers learning their names? He told Cutter about the twins’ deal with the demon prince. Said it would keep you out of the running for queen.”
I don’t know whether or not to believe her. What if she’s lying? What if she wants me to doubt our allies?
Cutter seems to steady herself. “Said he even had dark magic to do you in the same as another if it came to that.”
Dark magic? Truman killed Dyphena. He’d been the villain all along. He’s there now with Jace and Atticus. What if he goes after the twins while I’m trapped in here? “We need to finish this.”
She cuts a cruel look my direction. “Oh, it was finished before we started. You’ll never be enough to be queen. They won’t fear you. They’ll never accept you.”
Each word strikes a blow against the shields I’ve pieced together for so long to keep myself from suffering just what she promises—to not be enough, to never be wanted, to never be loved. One by one, I’ve painted a new mask on to be the perfect person everyone expected so they wouldn’t see those fears.
Today, it stops.
Today, I have my mates to fight for. “I’m more than enough, and they will love me as their queen.”
She curls her hands into fists. “Let’s see, shall we?”
“Bring it.”
36
ATTICUS
THE TOWER: WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE (OKAY, DRAMA KING)
Since Rosemarie and the other three candidates disappeared from the Bridge, I’ve fought not to claw at my chest to relieve the pressure there. I can’t focus, can’t stay still. Is she okay? Would I sense if she isn’t?
“Stop going worst case scenario,” Jace whispers, keeping his voice low despite the incessant chatter around us. “This was all your idea.”
Which means it’ll all be my fault if something goes wrong.
