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“That’s it,” Corvus crooned. “Good girl.”
The phantom touch of rough fingers brushed over the no doubt purpling skin on my neck, making me shudder. “Just picture him flayed and cockless,” Rook whispered in my ear, and I leaned into his touch, but it wasn’t there anymore.
And neither was he.
They were gone.
They were never here.
“…think they ruined my plans…” Drake was saying to himself, and I turned my attention back to him, squinting to try to see what he was doing on the monitors like Grey told me.
LikeItold me, I corrected myself.
Not real.
Not real.Get it together Ava Jade.
“Ha!They might’ve made it more difficult but this changes nothing.”
A phone rang somewhere, the echo of the factory setting ringtone bouncing all around the small room. Drake opened a drawer and pulled out an ancient flip phone, answering it.
“Go.”
A pause.
“Fuck.”
He brought the phone away from his ear and squeezed it between his hands, closing his eyes, a muscle flexing hard in his jaw as he contained himself before putting it back to his ear. “Shut the fuck up, Maverick. No. Don’t do anything. You fucking sit there and you wait for my instructions. Head for the warehouse. There’s something I need to take care of, and then I’ll meet you there.”
Drake hung up before Maverick could’ve possibly given him a response, muttering to himself some more. And I thoughtIwas crazy.
“What was that you were saying about them not ruining your plans?”
He stiffened but didn’t come at me this time.
Honestly? A little disappointing.
I watched Drake open up a program with what looked like about a hundred different tiny video cameras on it. He clicked on several of them and they flew over to the next monitor, opening live camera feeds in small boxes. A door. A cityscape I recognized to be Thorn Valley. Where was this?
Whatwas this?
“In about ten minutes, there’ll be one less of them for me to worry about. One less of them in the way of me claiming what rightfully belongs to me. Thorn Valley should bemineby right.”
Drake moved away from the monitors, giving me a clear and unobstructed view of the almost motionless footage. The only reason I knew it was live was because there were clouds moving in the sky.
He came around the chair, putting himself behind me. He bent his head to my eye level, pressing his cheek to mine, making my stomach turn as he pointed directly toward the image of the city skyline. “You see that, Angel? We’re about to find out if Crows can fly.”
Barely three secondsafter I entered the lobby of the Vandermark, my phone rang with an unknown caller.
“Where are you?” I growled down the line, making the early morning hotel guests give me a wider berth as I turned in a slow circle, searching for his rat face among the ridiculously opulent Christmas decor. A rendition of Jingle Bells played over the sound system, a stark contrast to the black aura surrounding me.
“Go to the elevator.”
“Fuck that. Where. Are. You?”
“Excuse me, sir, can I help—”
I spun on my heel, glaring down at the bellhop twiddling his thumbs nervously until he fell silent and stepped away. “Apologies, Mr. James. I didn’t recognize you.”
