Page 47

The sound she made when she crumpled to the floor is one I’ll never forget.

I rub my temples and inhale shakily.

“Zephyra tracked me down a few days ago. She knew I was still looking for the Venatrix. Somehow, she knew I’d met you. She said she would tell me where it was if I’d do something for her. I didn’t ask questions. I didn’t ask who you were or why she wanted you. I just said yes.”

Nova combs her fingers through her hair and shakes her head. Sympathy is etched on her face, but somehow that makes me feel worse.

I don’t deserve sympathy.

I betrayed her.

I let Kaitlin down.

I let Nova down.

I let everyone down.

She crouches in front of me and squeezes my arm. “It’s okay.”

“That wasn’t it.” I meet her eyes. “I was supposed to just bring you here, then go on my way. That was the original deal. But when I got here, she said she wanted more. She wanted me to—” The words solidify on my tongue. “She wanted me to help make Kole choose her.”

Kole steps closer to Nova and crouches beside her. She’s tied the blanket around herself like a dress, but her shoulders are bare and he rests a large, heavy palm on one of them.

“Choose her?” he asks, nodding. “I knew that was part of her game. I just didn’t know you were in on it.”

I nod slowly.

“The mirrors — that was what you were doing?”

“I drank the same potion as you,” I say, turning to Nova. “I wasn’t faking that. But, yes. I was there because Zephyra ordered it.”

She closes her eyes and her cheeks flush. But then she inhales deeply and returns her gaze to mine. “I understand,” she says. “If someone took one of my mates, and I had the chance to avenge them, I’d—”

A smile curls my upper lip. I reach for her hand and squeeze it. “You’re about to tell me you’d do the same,” I whisper. “But you wouldn’t. Your heart is too pure for that.”

“Hers might be,” Kole says gruffly. “but mine isn’t.” He reaches for my hand and jerks me to my feet. “If someone took Nova from me, I’d go to hell and back to get vengeance on their soul.”

His tone sends a violent shiver down my spine. He could end me right here, right now if he wanted to – magick or no magick. But he doesn’t. He just nods at me and shakes my hand. “I get it. No hard feelings.”

“No hard feelings?”

Kole shakes his head.

“Not if you agree to help us get the fuck out of here.”

22

ZEPHYRA

I can’t say I’m sad that Evan is gone. He wasn’t the best of the students I’ve turned, and he certainly won’t be the last. But I’m sad I didn’t get to see his death up close.

Watching it from behind the falling mirrors lacked immediacy.

I didn’t get to truly appreciate the look in his eyes when he realized his life was about to be over. I couldn’t smell the smoldering of his flesh as she heated his body to boiling point.

And I couldn’t ask him what it felt like to taste her.

From the look on his face, and the multiplication of the veins on his neck and at the corners of his eyes, I’d say it was pretty fucking mind-blowing.