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A tear rolled down her cheek.Mycheek. “To distract him.”
“From what?” My voice was low, nightmarish with power. “Tell me details of your mission.”
She swallowed hard, the words burning in her throat to be set free. “To distract him while Sursea incapacitated you and took you to the vampire court.”
“WHY?” I was shaking with fury now. They’d dared to come here, to separate us again.
“I don’t know! I was only told to entertain the king until you’d been secured.”
In a move so swift that no mortal could ever hope to achieve, Wrath was suddenly behind the vampire who wore my face. His expression was the coldest I’d ever seen.
Here was justice in its purest form. It was not kind or merciful. Good or evil. It was just, harsh. Like nature. Wrath gripped her head and twisted, the sickening pop indicating she would not live to cast another illusion. Wrath wasn’t done yet. Instead of letting her body drop to the floor, he twisted harder, tearing her head clean from her shoulders with his bare hands.
I swallowed hard as my face slowly melted back into her own. There was no blood, given that she was already dead. No gore. But the sudden end… the finality of her true death… caused me to shudder. Blade stared coldly at the scene, though I noticed one hand had curled at his side.
Wrath said he had the opportunity to leave this circle unscathed. And while the vampire would be set free, he certainly wasn’t leaving without suffering a loss. It just hadn’t come in the form he’d expected. Fool that he was to attempt to trick the devil.
My husband handed the severed head to Blade. “Take this back to your prince. If he ever attempts to steal my wife using parlor tricks or any other means again, my queen and I will eliminate every last vampire from this realm.”
Blade took the head, his jaw clenched tight. “That was his betrothed.”
“Then he should have taken more care to protect her from his enemies.” Wrath stepped over the body, placing himself closer to the vampire emissary. It was a subtle maneuver that also blocked me from any attempted retribution. “Instead, he sent her here to fuck me while you used the witch to kidnap my wife. Did you truly think that illusion would work? That I would be so easily manipulated by subpar magic? That I would for one second mistake her for my wife?” The demon leaned in. “You saw a smalltasteof what my queen is capable of. If I don’t kill you first, she will. Now get the fuck out of my circle. And don’t come back unless you mean to start a war.”
SIXTEEN
“I didn’t wantto think Vittoria was serious about the vampires,” I said as Wrath entered the kitchen on silent feet. Daybreak was fast approaching, but I couldn’t sleep. “Or that they would use her information to scheme up another problem on their own.”
I went back to chopping herbs while he headed for the icebox. Fragrant parsley and dill filled the air, the scent fresh and welcome after the last few horrendous hours.
My sister and Nonna Maria in the Shadow Realm. The vampires.
It had been another emotionally taxing night, and no matter how exhausted my body was, sleeping felt like an impossible task. Too many thoughts and worries were racing through my mind. Each time I thought I knew where to start detangling this mess, a new thread knotted itself together. There was still the murder or fabrication of Vesta’s murder to figure out, the rest of my curse to break, and our marriage ceremony to perform to seal our vows.
A ceremony Wrath hadn’t mentioned or pushed for, even after the vampires had tried to wrench us apart. If we completed the bond, I imagined any future kidnapping attempts would end. Something Wrath had undoubtedly considered, and yet no arrangements were being made. I wanted to believe it was so I could continue investigating Vesta’s murder without officially becoming a member of House Wrath, but doubt crept in.
I thought of what my sister had said about Wrath being unable to give me his heart. If his curse was to lose everything he loved and I was still here…
I swallowed hard and chopped the herbs with more vigor than needed. I had to prioritize my goals, and being upset over Wrath ought to be last. What I needed to focus on first was finding proof that Vesta was alive. Then I could figure out a way to save Vittoria from the blood retribution, and then remove my spell-lock.
“Are you all right?” the demon asked, watching with a quirked brow as my knife attacked the cutting board. “Is this because of the First Witch?”
I lifted a shoulder noncommittally. After Blade was escorted from the castle, Wrath had Sursea taken to an underground chamber that would keep her frozen and I’d sneaked away to the kitchen. I needed to create. To do something familiar and calming, something that reminded me I was more than a spell-locked goddess whose twin was potentially murdering members of rival demon courts or setting them free, whose family might be the true villains of a very complicated, nightmarish fairy tale, whose husband might not truly ever love me freely, and whose list of enemies and complications seemed to grow with each passing day.
I hated to think anything could get worse from here.
“What do you think their prince wanted with me?”
“Drink?”
I jerked my attention to his. At first I thought he’d meant the vampire wished to drink me. Wrath held up a bottle of sparkling demonberry wine, smiling. I nodded, and he poured me a glass before grabbing a bottle of the pale purple liquor he preferred and serving himself a generous amount.
He sipped it, then leaned against the counter, watching me rinse cannellini beans with quiet fascination, intrigued when I started to mash them in a bowl until they were smooth enough to spread. I wasn’t sure what I was making yet, either, but I had an idea of what I’d like it to taste like. Hopefully, it would be good.
“To answer your question,” he said, “I suspect he wants you for your power, given the tumultuous state of his court. Royal vampires have the ability to place someone under their thrall. All the prince would have to do is give you a bit of his blood, and you’d essentially do anything to please him, hoping for more.”
I minced two large cloves of garlic, then zested a lemon before cutting it into quarters to squeeze over the mashed beans. “They could have accepted Vittoria’s alliance. Your brother did mention that she’d sought them out, too. She’s also fully restored. I’m still only a shadow witch. They knew it would anger you, so it was a rather large, desperate risk. I don’t see the value in what they tried to accomplish when they had someone willing to stand beside them.”
“Your sister rules over death. They are undead. On a whim, she could decide she no longer wants to play nicely with them and they would cease. Choosing to steal you was the best option. Despite the risk, if they’d succeeded, it would have solved many of their problems. You’re also not in possession of your full power, which would have made you easier for their prince to manipulate. The plan was decent enough. But they didn’t plan on one thing.”
