Page 68 of Maksym

“Accurate, in his own grotesque way,” Taras said.

Maksym did not react.

“I looked for the building he described with such contempt,” I said. “Rundown to humans. Something else to monsters. He said the wards made it forgettable unless you had the right blood or the right invitation. I did not have either.”

“You had me,” Maksym said softly.

The words entered the room and changed nothing visible, yet my skin reacted beneath the sleeves of my sea-foam dress.

I looked at him.

At the man I had been trying to reach without knowing his face. At the creature Lucian hated enough to make him useful. At the vampire king who had turned me into one of the things I feared and then knelt before my knees as if my survival deserved ceremony.

“There was nothing that would stop me from getting to the man that Lucian seemed to hate most in the world. The man now seated next to me. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all. I didn’t know there was cosmic bullshit waiting for me.”

For one second, no one spoke.

Then Remy laughed again. Not at me. I would have known the difference. At the absurdity.

Taras lowered his head. His mouth had gone tight again, but this time not with rage.

Maksym stared at me. He looked at me as if I had crawled out of hell an avenging angel.

Remy’s laughter faded into a smile. She held Maksym’s gaze across the room, and all the mirth softened into something older, something that made the air around her seem charged.

“The Goddess chose well,” she said.

Maksym’s jaw tightened slightly. He did not look away from me.

I wanted to tell them the Goddess could have chosen a less theatrical delivery system.

But Maksym’s eyes held mine, and the words died before they reached my tongue.

“I have lost two years,” I said. “I am disinclined to waste additional time for atmosphere.”

Then, out of the blue, Maksym delivered words that took my breath.

“He knows you escaped.”

“How do you know this for certain?”

“Because before we started this meeting with you, we met with the man himself.”

I pushed away from the table. “And you waited until now to share this piece of information? What the hell, Maksym?”

He kneeled in front of me again.

“You needed to tell your story first. It was important that you remembered that you got away on your own and are the one standing.”

“Fine. Tell me. Why did he want to meet with you?”

He stood and leaned against the table.

“He needed to inform me that his blood donor had run away.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

“Remy had him spelled. He couldn’t lie about the fact that he had no idea where you were. He’s had witches scrying for your whereabouts. They traced you to near Amethyst, then they lost you.”