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I splayed my fingers over my chest, feeling my racing heart beneath my palm. “Tell me it isn’t true,” I asked, ignoring Sebastian.
Gwen laughed. “Do you want me to write it down for you?”
“Enough,” Sebastian warned.
“What, am I upsetting your latest mortal girl? Gods know you’ll have another in a week, when you get bored. I don’t know why you like them so much.” She looked me up and down, venom in her eyes. “We sangaree have much more stamina.”
“Leave, now, before I make you.” He let out a low growl, and Gwen took Astor’s arm. He mouthed “sorry” before following her, leaving me staring after them.
“That didn’t happen.”
Sebastian glanced at Erianna. “It makes sense now.”
“What does?” My fingers trembled as I brought them to my forehead. “Astor, they must have.” I stumbled for the right words. “They’ve brainwashed him.”
“I’m getting you out of here.” Sebastian took me in his arms before we could check any of the other cubicles.
“No, I can’t go. I need to…” What? Speak to Astor? Pass out?
“It’s not up for discussion.” He lifted me, speeding us out of there.
Erianna followed us, one hand on her blade.
Shock frayed my thoughts as I struggled to make sense of everything.“I didn’t mean for you to get tied up in any of this,”Astor had said.
“He’s meant to be dead,” I said, the words feeling wrong as they left my dry lips. “I guess in a way, he is.”
Finally, we reached the black door and emerged into the crisp, cold night, and Sebastian’s wings folded out. “We need to get you back to the house. I didn’t think she’d be here.”
Erianna nodded in agreement.
“What?”
Erianna spoke. “The woman he was with, Gwendolyn, she’s Velda’s daughter.”
My mind whirled as I tried to remember where I’d heard her name.
“She’s the head of Nightshade,” Erianna clarified, filling in the blanks. “They’re the ones trying to find and kill you, and your dead ex-boyfriend is tied up with them. He must have been the one who told them how to get into the guild.”
Sebastian agreed. “That explains how they got inside and how they knew about Olivia and her mom.”
His words burrowed deep, and the floor felt as if it crumbled out from under my feet. I loved Astor; he was meant to be my forever until he killed himself… supposedly. I touched the white-gold band of my promise ring, and my next breath hitched. We had talked about one day starting a family. He was my best friend, my lover, my first everything, and now he was my first, and only, heartbreak.
They continued to talk as if my world hadn’t just imploded. I looked up at the night sky; stars winked at me, clouds wisped against the navy blue, and I screamed before I could stop myself.
EIGHT
Erianna woke me at noon. I had barely opened my eyes when she thrust a hot mug of coffee into my hands. “What the—”
“I’ve been told mortals require coffee.”
Careful not to spill the contents, I sat upright slowly, pushing back against the bed's headboard. “You don’t meet many mortals, do you?”
“You don’t like coffee.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have presumed.”
“No, I do.” I took a sip, finding relief as the hot liquid melted away the coarseness from all my screaming.
It had taken both Sebastian and Erianna to pull me away while I cry-screamed in front of the entire square of vampires. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but discovering the depths of Astor’s betrayal triggered something deep, surfacing all the pain I'd kept buried from the past few weeks.
