Her eyes hardened as she sneered. “Genevieve Mercier. You?”
I considered the kill list I had memorized in my mind. It would satisfy Carlyle most if I started crossing names off the top. I stated the temple’s top-priority kill. “Mathias.”
“Oh, but he is running the whole competition. His death would be the only one capable of throwing everything into chaos immediately,” she mused, quirking her pale lips. “Is there not anyone else you could start with?”
With relief, I changed my mind in an instant to the vampiress I really wanted to see die first. “Lorelei, then.”
“Perfect. Let’s take out our marks as quickly and discreetly as possible.” She beamed, flashing her fangs. After we discussed a few details, she asked, “With that out of the way…how’ve you been?”
We both relaxed as the conversation turned into easier waters. Though we had many years to catch up on, we began to chip away at it. I told her of my time at the temple, while she shared what it’d been like to hide her identity for so long. She’d survived for over a decade with a charade that resembled what I’d been doing as Ilyana. And she’d never been caught, something I respected.
“Say, do you still have Eva’s locket?” she asked.
“I do. I haven’t changed the images inside of it. Did you want to see it?” The precious silver necklace had been around my neck when I’d fled from the mansion. Though I didn’t wear it anymore, I always kept it close.
Her smile pinched with old grief. “If it wouldn’t be a bother, I’d love to see her again.”
Since it was back in my quarters, we both applied ourillusions and set off that way together. I startled Finn for the second time this evening when he answered the door and recoiled when he saw Razira next to me.
“I’m just showing her something,”I explained to Zane, who stood from the couch with a question on his lips. I signed the words at the same time.
Do you want us to give you two a moment?Finn suggested.
“Good idea.” I’d explain what’d happened to them later. For now, the locket was a piece of history between Razira, me, and my mother’s memory.
My mates left, and I went searching. “Make yourself comfortable. I just have to find where I put it…” I knew it was around here somewhere, but at some point, Finn had decided to help me and arranged all my things. Which meant, of course, I’d misplaced several of them from my usual system of organization.
The back of my neck heated as I rummaged, embarrassed that I didn’t know exactly where it was. I’d wanted the locket hidden in a place where curious servants wouldn’t find it. I eventually found it at the bottom of a shelf, hidden under a fold of a burgundy shift. I lifted the old heart-shaped pendant and opened it on my palm.
Two portraits sat within the keepsake, painted in tiny, exquisite detail. On one side, my mother as I remembered her, the rosy-lipped brunette who’d caught the eye of a vampire prince. And beside her, the other portrait showed Razira as she’d once been. My heart twisted in grief for both women hidden in this locket.
Razira waited next to my wardrobe with her hands folded patiently over her middle. Years of blending into vampire society had left her witheffortless poise. She took the locket eagerly. Her fingers pressed to her mouth as she studied the images within. Joy and sorrow flickered across her face in equal measure.
Her thumb coasted over one of the portraits as a few tears dripped down her cheeks. For a while, I was the one who held her as she wept over the past.
Chapter 24
Sidney
The locket sat heavy in my palm, a small anchor of silver and grief.
Razira’s tears dried, leaving behind the banked, predatory heat I remembered from our training. “We begin at sunset. Lorelei and Genevieve first. Their deaths will be a puncture wound, impossible to ignore,” she said. And I stood straighter from muscle memory, remembering a time when her authority was everything.
After Razira slipped back to her quarters, the room felt colder. Nibs bolted out of my dress pocket and went to snuggle inside a shoe.
Finn and Zane returned a moment later, and once I dropped into an overstuffed chair, I told them everything.
Zane stiffened as I shared how she’d figured out my identity. “Should we be concerned?”
“No, she’s the woman who taught me how to kill.”
Finn signed,Is she with us?
“We can trust her. She wants what I want. Revenge.” I flexed my tingling fingers.
Zane eyed me uncertainly. Finn shifted, lips quirked tothe side. They knew different versions of Razira than I did. She had layers now. The beautiful, polished vampiress, a candidate for the throne. The scarred, angry version of herself lurking underneath that facade, with lethality honed to a cutting edge.
Maybe I was the only one who remembered her as she was. But I could change that.
