Raziel sighed. “Of course.”
Nadi’s hand went to the knives at her belt before she could stop herself. The last time she’d seen Azazel, he’d been at Lana’s wedding. At Lana’s side. In Lana’s bed, for all she knew—the pretty boy-toy that the Nostrom sister kept around for entertainment and occasional scheming.
But he didn’t look like a toy now. He looked exhausted. Hollow-cheeked and pale, with dark circles under his orange eyes that suggested he hadn’t slept properly in days. Maybe weeks.
“Well,” Azazel said, stopping on the bottom step. His voice carried that familiar sardonic edge, but there was something brittle underneath it. “The prodigal Serpent returns.”
“What is he doing here?” Nadi demanded, not bothering to hide the hostility in her voice. “He’s Lana’s creature.”
A muscle twitched in Azazel’s jaw. “IwasLana’s creature. Past tense. A distinction I’d appreciate you noting, given that I’ve spent the last month risking my neck to undermine everything she’s built.”
“He’s telling the truth.” Raziel put his hand on Nadi’s shoulder. “Azazel has been feeding me information on Lana’s side of the family for years. Long before any of this started.”
Nadi stared at him. Then at Azazel. Then Ivan. Then back to Raziel.
“Years?”
“Three years, give or take.” Azazel descended the final step and moved to stand beside Ivan with a casualness that spoke of long familiarity. “Lana never suspected. She saw what she wanted to see—a handsome distraction, too pretty to be dangerous.” His lips twisted. “Her mistake.”
Something clicked in Nadi’s mind. All those times when Raziel had seemed to know what Lana was planning before she did it. All those little advantages he’d had in their deadly sibling chess game. She’d assumed he had his own spies in Lana’s operation.
She’d never guessed it was Azazel. “Now I feel stupid for not seeing it.”
“Eh, don’t feel bad.” Azazel sank down onto the sofa. “I’m a professional liar. You’re just a professional killer. We all have our specialties.”
That almost made her feel better. Almost.
Raziel went to the fireplace, leaning against the mantel. “I didn’t expect to find you two playing house in my hideout while the city burned.”
“It was the only place we could think of that Mael didn’t know about,” Ivan said. “After everything went to shit at the wedding, after they took you—” He stopped, jaw tight. “I got Aza out. We came here. Waited.”
“Waited for what?”
Ivan met Raziel’s eyes. “For you to come back. Or for things to get bad enough that we had to make a move on our own.”
The silence that followed was heavy with everything unspoken. Nadi found herself studying the two men—the massive, stoic bodyguard and the slim, sharp-featured vampire—and seeing something she’d missed before. A partnership that ran deeper than mere conspiracy.
Interesting.
Raziel seemed to reach the same conclusion, but he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he moved to the window and peered through a crack in the shutters at the city beyond. “Tell me what happened.”
Ivan and Azazel exchanged a look. It was Azazel who spoke first.
“Mael and Lana announced that you and Nadi had attempted to assassinate the family during the wedding. That you’d killed Volencia”—a slight pause—“which, to be fair, was technically true.”
“And people believed it?”
“The people who mattered believed it. Or pretended to.” Azazel’s orange eyes glittered with bitter humor. “The Rosovsthrew their full support behind Mael and Lana. With Braen dead and Zabriel married into the Nostroms, it was a unified front. The other vampire families fell in line within days. Those who didn’t…” He made a cutting gesture across his throat.
“And the humans?”
Ivan’s face darkened. “They claim you killed the mayor.”
Raziel laughed. “We didn’t.”
“Yeah.Weknow that. The humans don’t.” Azazel shook his head.
Ivan kept talking. “There were riots, the first few days, when people realized what was happening. But pretty soon? Any semblance of hope that humans were in charge—that we had any say in how the city was run—just…vanished overnight. Mael declared martial law. Vampires came in from the outer territories. Started the patrols, the chain gangs, the—” He stopped, swallowing hard.
