“What are you thinking?” Alistair asks.
I shrug. “Teamwork. A strategy. I don’t know, exactly, but we need to think it through.”
Celine’s lips purse. “Lyklan said time is running out. We can’t waste what’s left creating an elaborate plan.”
“I’ll go with you,” Riven says.
“That wasn’t our agreement.”
Riven’s face glitches. “Our agreement is outdated.”
“Since when?” Her wings twitch in a clear warning.
He rolls his eyes. “You know exactly when.”
“Since you fucked me?” Celine snatches the gun from Ciprian, and I flinch as she stuffs it into her waistband. “Let me make something clear, Riven. Giving you access to my body doesn’t give you the right to control me.”
“I’m not trying to control?—”
“It changed nothing,”she snaps.
All expression leaves Riven’s face, transforming his features into lifeless amber. I shift my weight. If Celine had punched him, it would have hurt less.
“I understand,” he says quietly. “I will go with you, anyway.”
“Me, too.” Ciprian adjusts his grip on the box of weapons. “My nightmares will be useful. Don’t try to tell me they won’t.”
“No.” Celine’s fingers curl. “No, no, no. If you’re all going to argue with me, then Riven and I will go. He can disguise himself longer than you can hold a nightmare.”
Ciprian sets the box down. “That’s bullshit?—”
“Your family won’t survive another loss.” She softens her voice. “It was selfish of me to take you the first time, Ciprian, but I’ve learned from my mistakes.”
We’re losing her. I’ve got to think fast. “We’ll agree to the two of you going,” I say. “But only if you promise to get Malach and come right back. No side quests or assassinations.”
Celine opens her mouth, and I hold up my hands. “We’re bonded, baby. If you die, I probably will, too. Even if that wasn’t the case, I need you to live, and so do Alistair and Ciprian. Get Malach. Come home. Then we’ll figure out how to kill S’lach together. If Lyklan has flipped again, there’s a lot we’ve missed.”
The ribbon of light flutters inside my chest. She’s agitated, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m already burying every protective instinct I have by staying behind. I hold Celine’s stare and refuse to back down. She’ll have to ride this emotion out, and I’ll have to handle more time without her. It’s a compromise.
“Fine,” she says. “I won’t seek him out, but if he stumbles into my gun?—”
“Then empty the clip, baby.” I drag her into my arms. “You’re from the Fringes; you know better than to waste a good opportunity.”
She nods, and I soak up her warmth for as long as I can. Bythe time she pulls back, I’ve gotten a hold on the cold fear running through my veins.
This is almost over. My basilisk knows it. I know it. And from the expression on Celine’s face, she knows it, too. What I don’t know yet is how it ends. Because this isn’t a fairy tale, this is the real world. It drips poison and blood, and good guys rarely win.
I glance at Riven, the face-shifting assassin hired to kill us; then at Alistair, his eyes blood red, fangs hanging over his bottom lip; then at Ciprian, holding a flamethrower in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other.
Thank the gods none of us ever claimed to be the good guys.
Celine and Riven drive away in an enclave SUV, taillights glowing in the fading sun—completing step one of our makeshift plan.
The trip to Lyklan’s gateway location is only an hour away.
First thing in the morning, we’ll drive there with Idris so he can see it in person. That way, he’ll be able to portal us back and forth. Until she gets back, one of us will remain at the gateway, keeping watch and waiting.
Tonight, though, I’m meeting with Gideon and Sheena to form a bond-based backup plan.
