“Now, poppets.” He grins down at us, his fangs glinting. “This is where the real fun begins.”
2
My world rips apart. An earthquake, one that shreds the fabric of my mind until I wail in abject horror. Everything returns with a snapping, stinging pain. My friends, the lab, the White House, Juno, Valen.Valen.
I gasp, my eyes opening as I come back to myself. “You …” My voice is weak, brittle, broken into pieces like every other part of me. “You lied to me. Y-youcompelledme.” I stare up at him, his face bloody, his eyes stormy.
“I did what I had to do.” He strokes my hair.
I shove away from him, my stomach wrenching, my heart beating so fast I have to roll to my stomach and get to my knees.
“Breathe, Georgia.” He smooths his palm down my back.
“Get off!” I list sideways and land against Juno’s cell, the bars bruising my ribs. “Don’t touch me.” All those moments of him sneering at me, taunting me, all those moments when he was just as vicious as if I were no one to him. Worse than no one, hisenemy. He lied to me. Again and again. He’s not who I thought he was. Not in the beginning and not in the end.
I dry heave.
He reaches for me. “Georgia?—”
“She said back the fuck off!” Juno snarls from her cage and swipes out with one hand, scratching his cheek.
He stills.
I sit, my back to the bars, and look at him. My entire body is shaking, my teeth chattering. Shock is a mild word for what I’m experiencing, for the sheer tsunami of memories and agony washing over me.
Valen. On his knees, so much pain in his eyes. Does it match the pain in me? How could it?
“You’ve l-l-lied to m-me for m-m-m-months.” My words are broken and stuttered, matching the shattered wreckage of my mind. I’m caving in on myself.
“I had no choice.” His voice is deep and stony, his face healing before my eyes. The gouges knitting together, the broken jaw already straightened out to angular perfection. If only I could heal so quickly. Instead, I feel like I’m bleeding out from a thousand cuts.
“Gregor would have killed you if he found out what you know. It was my only chance at saving you.” He has the audacity to sound gentle, apologetic even. “I had no time, no other option.”
I press my palms to my temples. All the memories crammed inside, each one of them clamoring for my attention all at once. It’s like I might burst, like I could pop free of my skin and every bit of who I am would ooze away. Packed too tightly.
My stomach roils, and I dry heave again, head between my knees.
“Let me?—”
“Give her a minute,” Juno snaps.
I clench my eyes shut as images surface and sink. The scientists I worked with in Atlanta. My friends. Wyatt, Gretchen, Evie, Aang—I suck in a breath when I see his face. Because Iknow he’s dead. Iremember. I felt his soft hair, unknowingly ran my fingers across his severed head after Theo killed him.
“Theo.” I swallow hard. “I killed him.”
“You did?” Juno sounds surprised. “How?”
“Don’t speak of it,” Valen warns.
“My sister can tell me whatever she wants!” Juno spits back.
“Don’t think for one second you deserve to breathe the same air as her.” Valen’s voice is almost a growl as he glares at Juno.
“And you do?” Juno fires back.
“You betrayed her,” he seethes. “I should’ve killed you. Turning you was a mistake.”
“Youbetrayed her too!” Juno crows. “You’re not better than me. A liar. A user. Worse, worse than I ever was.”
