She probably is with her foster fathers right now. Maybe Ethan. Or maybe she’s searching for?—
I cut that thought off before it can fester and become a noxious weed that demands to be plucked. I don’t want to think about my older brother. About the way his eyes looked as his wolf took control.
I watched him look at Izzy and then retreat into the forest. That’s all I was capable of doing—watching.
I failed him, just like I failed my mate, just like I’m constantly failing my pack.
A noose of self-loathing wraps around my neck.
I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
“We need to look for Ethan too,” Reid says, a frown tugging at his lips. “And where did Christian go? I thought I saw?—”
I step forward before Reid can continue speaking. I don’t want to hear the evidence of my failures. Not now.
Shoving Emery aside with my shoulder, I lower to a crouch in front of a still-grinning Kain.
“You betrayed your own kind, Kain,” I whisper in a low, deadly voice. “And you hurt a lot of innocent people.”
His smile doesn’t fade.
But that’s okay. It doesn’t need to.
By the time I’m done with him, he’s going to forget what it feels like to smile.
“You’re going to tell me what you know.” With shaky hands, I reach into my pocket and grab a tiny, portable knife.
“What are you going to do?” Kain laughs, the noise mocking. “Torture me? You don’t have the guts.”
“Maybe I didn’t a few hours earlier.” A cold calmness descends over me. Icy, almost, with a sting that pinches my skin. “But I also didn’t think I was capable of killing someone, and look what I did?”
For a brief moment, I allow my mask to fall, allow Kain to see the monster leashed beneath the surface, once contained by lock and key. But those locks have rusted with time, and the key has been placed into the hole, just waiting to be twisted.
True fear flashes across Kain’s face.
“What are you going to do, man?” Emery asks.
He sounds a little shaken.
I know that I’ll lose my soul if I do this, but to be honest, I’m not quite sure I’ve ever had one to begin with. Isabella certainly doesn’t think so.
Without taking my eyes off of Kain, I lower the blade to his pinkie.
Then I begin to cut.
Seven
IZZY
“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” an annoyingly jubilant voice declares.
For a moment, I think it’s Lissa, waking me with a wide smile on her face due to her perpetually good mood.
But then I remember that Lissa hasn’t been in a good mood for months.
And that I’m no longer at home in bed.
I jerk upright, my heart battering my rib cage like a sledgehammer, and reach for the knife I always keep under my pillow. Of course, it’s not there—the witches removed all of my weapons when they kidnapped me—but the move is instinctual.
