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Topknot bends at the knees, crouching with a hand up in surrender, laying his sword on the floor. “Just wait,” he says.That voice…It’s too similar, rolling over my skin like honey. “Just let me,” he says, lifting his hand to his face and yanking the mustache from his lip. My eyebrows scrunch as the disguise shimmers away, leaving behind Kai in a hideous wig.
“What the fuck?” I whisper under my breath.
“It’s me, Alice,” he says, slowly standing up. “Please tell me you didn’t just kill Finn.”
My eyes pop wide. Fuck! That was Finn?
Jumping into action, I yank the ground apart with my magic, and Finn gasps, desperate to fill his lungs with air.
“Fuck me!” he coughs, pushing up from where I just buried him alive. “I need a drink.”
I toss him the bottle that’s clipped around my sword belt and give him an awkward smile. He side-eyes me before taking a sip, then spitting the liquid across the floor.
“What the…Are you trying to poison me?” He turns to narrow his eyes, aiming a glare straight toward my heartstrings.
“It’s water, Finn.”
“My comment stands,” he says, tossing it back and dusting the cement powder from his clothes.
15
Alice
“What are you doing here?” The question sounds harsher out in the open than it did in my mind, but fuck it. No going back now.
“We sabotaged the hunting party, but we didn’t know there were two. The other must’ve gotten to Luri before we could,” Finn answers.
I watch Kai, who has barely lifted his head or said a word. Does he feel bad for branding me? He should. It slowed me down. I could’ve easily gotten to her before the hunting parties were even organized. All he had to do was trust me. It’s either that, or he’s still processing the fact I almost shoved my knife into his skull.
It’s much easier to fight someone you don’t have an emotional attachment to. There’s no fear of making a mistake and accidentally hurting them. No fear of going too hard. It showed what I couldn’t during our spar in the woods. As if sensing my prying eyes, he glimpses up, keeping his head hung and peering through his dark lashes.
“For heaven’s sake,” I say, grabbing onto the topknot of his wig and retching it off. “Lose the wig.” Snapping at him won’t make matters any better, but my arm is still sore. Excuse me for holding a freakin’ grudge. “You too,” I say and Finn jerks it off his head, but the caterpillar uni brow stays put, giving him a different face. “They’re already going to recognize me. There’s no reason to be incognito.”
“I’m sorry,” Kai says, worrying his bottom lip. “I was wrong to do what I did…”
I hold my hand up, cutting him off. “I’m not getting into that right now. It’s going to take the three of us to get Luri to the prison world, and we can’t do that successfully if we’re fighting. But wewilltalk about it. Later.”
It’s not a total lie… The few times I’ve fought in the conclaves, Finn and I stayed outside. I’m going to need their help to find her and there’s no getting around it. Kai gives a curt nod, tucking his head to his chest in a sharp movement and casting his eyes around the hall.
“My guess, if they have her here, she’s in the basement. There are cells there for those awaiting execution,” Finn says, finally standing and coming to join us in the huddle. “Can you talk to her?”
“She’s poisoned,” I say, trying to ignore the jerk of their heads the moment the P-word leaves my lips. “She had to cut the bond, otherwise I would’ve never made it out of the forest.”
“Poisoned with what?” Kai’s voice wraps around me, making my heart flutter. I fucking hate it. I should hatehimfor what he did. But a part of me is relieved he came to help, even with the weight of the crown and kingdom breathing down his neck.
Ever since shit went south with the High King, Kai follows his father’s orders to the T. He doesn’t stray from a letter. But tonight he did, and I can’t help but be proud of that. I get that he doesn’t want to make a mistake again, but the reality of the situation is that they’re going to happen. He needs to be able to make decisions for himself, based on his morals–not Lucifer’s. Eventually, there isn’t going to be a Devil on his shoulder, pointing him in the right direction. Kai will have to trust his gut and make peace with how the chips fall.
“I don’t know what kind of poison, but she’s hurt. Either a sword or I heard one of the men I killed by the portal say something about arrows.”
“How long?” Kai flexes his jaw, and I meet those amber eyes that make my pulse throb. Only now, it spins swirls of confusion through every fiber of my being. This was supposed to be our reunion, after months of being apart. Instead, I’ve spent the majority of the night wanting to tear his throat out. This is nothing like how I envisioned today to go.
“At least an hour since I spoke to her last. But it’s not like I have a watch, so… I could be wrong.” Shrugging my shoulders, I drop my gaze to the hole in the floor. It’s way too goddamn hard not to stare at him. I’ve missed the way I feel when he looks at me, the way his hands feel against my skin. I barely got a taste of what we used to be before he turned into a grade-A possessive cuntpocket.
There’s no way Luri killed those villagers in cold blood. She doesn’t hunt for sport. She had to have a good reason. I know it. Power surges beneath my skin, rippling through my blood until it feels like I’ll boil over. My fists clench, nails biting into my palms until crescent marks leach blood.Dammit… Not now!I grind my teeth, trying to smother out the emotions rampaging through me.
“Alice,” Finn’s voice flutters through my ears as I squeeze my eyes closed.
“I’m fine. I just… need a moment.”
