Then I spot a curly head of hair from across the room, and my insides all turn to stone. Shoving to my feet far too abruptly, I meet my mother’s unimpressed stare with a curt bow.
“Excuse me for one moment.”
Without waiting to hear a word of complaint against my rudeness, I stride across the room and grab Reva’s arm as I pass by, steering the two of us toward the cloakroom close to the door.
How I wish I could just keep going, right the way out into the street.
“What are you doing here?” I hiss. “And how did you find me?”
Reva blows a curl from her face, glaring up at me. “Ifeltyou. Your anxiety, your regret. You’re not doing your usual job of masking the bond. I couldn’t seem to stay away.”
Closing my eyes for a moment, I huff out a pained sigh. The mate bond, of course. Another complication I hadn’t anticipated.
“You should have. You should have stayed far, far away.”
Reva’s brow creases. “What is happening, Jack? What the hell’s going on with you?”
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.” I keep my tone cold, channeling my dear mother as much as I can.
“Are you all right?” Reva continues, ignoring my words as though I never even spoke. “Because you don’t feel all right. It feels like—”
“Darling?”
Before Reva can say another word and I can soften toward her genuine concern, that voice has my hackles raising and my blood running cold.
“Just ordering some more drinks to toast us, darling.” I twist around to address my new fiancée, wanting to tear my own tongue out when I turn back to Reva and her expression creases into one of pure bafflement.
“A round of drinks for the entire table,” I say to Reva as though I’ve mistaken her for a staff member. “We’re celebrating our engagement.”
“Your en-gagement.” She says the word oddly, like she can’t quite force them out of her mouth.
That makes two of us. But I willingly got myself into this mess.
“You little fucker,” Torin growls into my ear. I can’t see him anywhere, but I can certainly feel his menacing presence.
Fuck.
Taking one for the team has never felt worse. Especially when I feel the bond in my chest lighting up. There’s so much confusion and hurt zipping through my veins right now, and only a fraction of it is my own.
What kind of man tells his mate that he’s engaged to another woman? Not only that, but a woman who has actively manipulated and tortured two of her other mates?
I’ve been trying to stifle the bond, smothering it until I can’t feel it any longer. It’s the only way I’ve been able to keep my sanity over the past few days, and there’s absolutely no way I can risk Araminta getting wind of it.
If I focus on it for too long, I’m going to vomit. It’s all the things I’m turning my back on by working with my family and by joining myself with the venomous sorceress.
I just have to keep reminding myself that it’s not forever. At least, I hope it isn’t. I just need to stick it out long enough that the rest of them are safe. Although I don’t know how I’m going to get myself out of the web I’ve willingly chosen to tangle myself up in.
Araminta takes a long look at Reva, who is blinking at me in confusion before she gives a brief nod and heads toward the bar.
I don’t like the way Araminta continues to watch Reva with a puzzled expression on her face that I don’t like at all. Stepping forward so that I’m blocking her view of Reva, I brush my hand over Araminta’s elbow, cringing as I make contact.
“Let’s head back to the table, darling,” I say. “My mother wants to get to know you better.”
Araminta gives me a long look. I can see her mind working as she’s trying to find an issue with my words, but I give her a goofy smile and she just nods briskly before turning on her heel.
Before I follow her, I shoot Reva one last look to check she’s safely out of the way, and a phantom hand claps me on the shoulder, stopping my progress forward.
“You should get out of the city while you still can,” Torin mutters in my ear. “You know how Finch feels about traitors.”
