“No,” I say.“But I need to be part of ending this.”
Silence follows.Heavy and dangerous.
Krishka watches me like I have become more interesting.Cruz watches Knox like he is preparing to tackle his brother through a wall.Knox watches me like I am standing too close to a cliff, and he has promised not to grab me unless I ask.
My chest aches.That’s the worst part.He is trying.I can see it.
The beast in him is not built for this.He wants blood and simple answers.Instead, he stands there, breathing hard, letting me speak.
It makes me want to touch him.That thought is so inconvenient, I nearly laugh.
The back door opens before anyone can say another word.Ari storms in first, all bright hair, yellow boots, and fury.Malichai follows behind her with the controlled expression of a man who knows the woman he loves is about to set something on fire and has decided to support her lifestyle.
Aldron comes last, and the room’s temperature drops with him.
His gaze lands on the envelope.“Moira was useful, then.”
Krishka snorts.“Useful is a generous word.”
Ari looks from the envelope to me.“Are you okay?”
“No.”Her face softens.
I point at her.“Don’t hug me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were thinking about it.”
“I think loudly.”
“Apparently, that’s contagious among magical women.”
Akasha enters from behind Aldron, Korvin at her back.“We do, yes.”
Wonderful.Everyone is here—exactly what a traumatized woman wants.An audience.
Aldron comes to the bar and lifts the envelope, studying the seal.For a second, the mask slips.He looks old.Not in the human way.Not wrinkled or weak.Old, like grief has been carved into his bones and polished by centuries.
“Lucius always did enjoy theatrics,” he says lowly.
“Tell us about the Marrow House,” Malichai says.
Aldron sets the invitation down.“It was a theater in the early nineteen hundreds.Burned down twice and rebuilt once.But it closed after a series of disappearances in the eighties.”
“Vampires?”Ari asks.
“Among other things.”
“Of course,” she mutters.
Aldron looks at me.“You shouldn’t go.”
Knox’s entire body tightens, as if he expects me to explode.I don’t.I am tired of exploding.Tired of pleading.Tired of making my pain loud enough for people to respect it.
So I look at Aldron.“But?”
His pale eyes narrow slightly.He hears the warning in my voice.
