Tomorrow.The word slides beneath my skin and opens something cold.
I nod once because nodding is easier than throwing up.“And the invitation?”
Krishka’s gaze flicks to Knox, but he doesn’t move.
“It belonged to Moira Vale,” she says.“A banshee.She was invited to entertain.”
“Entertain how?”
Cruz grimaces.“Banshees hear death before it happens.”
“Oh.”My mouth tastes like metal.“That kind of party.”
No one laughs, and that makes it worse.
I set the towel down on the bar with careful fingers.“What else?”
Knox’s eyes lock on mine.There it is.The hesitation.The beast in him wanting to wrap the truth in softer words, maybe hide the sharpest pieces behind his back.
I lift my chin, and his nostrils flare before he tells me.
“They know you escaped.They want you back because you heard something you were not supposed to survive knowing.”
My breath catches.Not because I am surprised.Because some part of me already knew.
My dreams knew.My body knew.The memories scratching beneath my skull knew.I heard things when they thought I was too weak to understand.Names.Places.Bits of business were discussed over my head like I was furniture.
Like I was food.
“What did I hear?”I ask.
“We don’t know yet,” Krishka says.“Moira said Lucius is building something beneath the city.A court.Old blood families.Exiles.Creatures who oppose Malichai’s rule.”
Ari is not here, but I imagine her face when she hears that.Bright, fierce, and fucking furious.I have only known her for a short while, but it doesn’t take long to understand that Ari loves hard enough to become dangerous.
Good.I like women who know how to become dangerous.
“Crimson Door is part of it?”I ask.
Krishka nods.“A feeding ground.Recruitment.Blackmail.Pleasure.Punishment.All the dirty sins and secrets in one place.”
My skin crawls.The words are too close to memory.I look down at my hands.They are steady, and that feels wrong.I want to shake.I want to cry.I want to crawl out of my body and leave it behind for someone else to deal with.
Instead, I am steady.Maybe there’s something broken inside me after all.
“They’ll be expecting monsters,” I say.
Knox goes still.
Cruz mutters, “Here we go.”
I ignore him.“They’ll expect Aldron.Malichai.Witches.Shifters.Big scary men with fangs and claws and horns.”
“Briana,” Knox says.
“No.”I look at him.“They won’t expect me.”
His eyes darken.“Absolutely not.”
