The words tore free of me before common sense—or self-preservation—could intervene.
Owen hissed my name.I barely heard it.
“You are a pretty thing,” Garrat said, taking one step.Then another.Each one deliberate.Measured.Until we were a breath apart and I could see the fine lines at the corners of his eyes, the glint of something feral beneath the beauty.
I was dimly aware of his hand lifting toward me.
“You touch her, you die,” Owen said, his voice tight with fury.Thunder rumbled overhead.
Garrat glanced aside, amused.“So fiercely protective.These druids always are.”
“What do you want?”I demanded, forcing the words past the pressure in my chest.
“Step away from the girl,” Voss snapped.His gun never wavered.
“Now why would I do that?”Garrat’s smile sharpened.“I’ve been looking for you, Piper.And I finally have what I came for.”
My stomach dropped.“What?”
“The truth you’ve been searching for.”His gaze burned into mine, dark and satisfied.“About who you are.”
“Don’t,” Owen warned.“Don’t listen to him.”
But I couldn’t look away.
Garrat’s smile widened.
“You are Alice’s daughter.”
The words didn’t stun me.They landed, hard and cold.
Silence crashed down around us.I couldn’t move.Couldn’t breathe.
Owen’s grip tightened on my arm.Even Voss faltered, his gun lowering a fraction.I felt Tani’s presence behind me, sharp and suddenly still.
“No,” I whispered.
“Oh, yes.Quite true.”Garrat laughed, deep and delighted.“She never told you?How delicious.”
“I don’t believe you!”
I hadn’t meant to shout it, but the words ripped from my lungs as I stumbled backward.
The trance I’d been in snapped.
Revulsion surged where that pang of lonely fear had been.I could finally see him for what he was.
A predator.
A monster.
“Believe it,” Garrat said softly.
I didn’t want to.My mind rebelled, grasping for anything solid—but memories rose unbidden.
Alice’s house filled with photos of me.
Alice in the front row of every recital.
