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“I am a coldhearted evil bastard. There is no denying it.”
“So what gives you the right to sentence me to death when my alleged sins don’t come close to yours? Yet you think you deserve happiness and to spend eternity with Mia. Meanwhile, I’m just too evil to live? The truth is, you’re not in a position to judge anyone.”
“Ah,” he smirked, “you think this is about fairness and what a person deserves. I bet you even believe in justice and divine intervention.”
“I don’t know what I believe,” I said. “I just try to be the absolute best person I can be.”
“Well, I know better. And I know that if I want something, I must be willing to fight for it or I must have the power to take it. Neither have anything to do with deserving or fairness.”
“I don’t agree.” I folded my arms over my chest.
“So I should simply let you live—agree to disagree sort of thing?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because no one takes what is mine and lives,” he snarled.
“Wow. Look who sounds just like Hagne. Maybe she’s actually living inside you.”
King lunged from his seat, wrapping his large hands around my neck. I felt his fingers pressing into my windpipe, bending the fragile tendons and bones. I let out a croak, clawing at his hands, my legs kicking behind him.
“Get off her.” Ansin appeared, pulling King away.
I was seeing splotches and stars, so I didn’t get a clear look at what happened next, but the grunts and growls were clear as a bell. The two were fighting.
I drew a long breath and staggered to my feet, my vision clearing. King had Ansin pinned to the floor between the seats. Ansin was struggling to remove King’s hands from his neck.
“Stop,” I croaked. “Please stop!”
Of course, they couldn’t hear me. I had to come up with something that would make King listen. I didn’t want him to hurt Ansin. In fact, if I had to choose between them right now, I wouldn’t pick King.
“Okay! Okay!” I yelled with a raspy voice. “I’m Hagne. I’m her. And you can kill me. Just leave Ansin alone.”
With his black hair disheveled and wild from the tussle, King turned his head, a look of fury in his gray eyes.
“Just kill me instead, King,” I repeated.
King’s grip loosened. I’d gotten his attention.
Ansin slid back, away from King, rubbing his neck.
“I’m okay with it,” I said. “Punish me. Rip off my head. Do whatever you want to get your stupid revenge. Just promise you’ll find our son.”
“Jeni, no,” Ansin grumbled.
“It’s fine, Ansin. You need your shot at bringing back your people. That can’t happen if you’re dead. And Draco needs to be found. I don’t matter in any of this.”
“You matter to me.” Ansin blinked rapidly, like he realized he’d said something out loud by mistake. He looked at King. “She matters because she owes me a debt.”
“I do not give a fuck.” King got to his feet and stepped toward me.
“Yeah, I got that.” But I gave a fuck. I understood how much Ansin wanted to keep his promise to his mother. I understood why he was in such a hurry to leave something of himself behind.
King stepped toward me. I could feel the intense hatred radiating off him. He truly believed I was Hagne. He believed my confession.
I closed my eyes, preparing for what was about to happen.
“Do you see that?” King said.
I opened my eyes.
Ansin was nodding with a confused expression—gaping mouth, wide eyes, brows furrowed.
I followed the direction of King’s gaze down to my chest. A dark hole had opened up, but that wasn’t the half of it. I watched as shimmery pieces of light were pulled from King and Ansin, flowing into the gaping hole.
“Shit!” I stumbled back, falling into a seat, pressing my hands over the spot, but all I felt was me. Skin. Warmth. Bones underneath.
I looked down again, and the hole was gone. “What was that?” I gasped.
“Fuck if I know,” King said.
Ansin, on the other hand, eyed me suspiciously for a moment before throwing a wall up to mask his thoughts.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Neither King nor Ansin would get near me after…after whateverthehell that was. They both kept their distance even when we disembarked the plane in LA.
When we walked up to the waiting limo, King hesitated before getting inside.
“What?” I said.
“Perhaps it is best you take another car.”
Here we go again. King never told me what the hell was going on.
“Ugh! You know what?” I threw my hands in the air. “I give up. This whole cat and mouse and ‘keep Jeni in the dark’ game is getting old, guys.” I turned and started heading toward the airport’s exit, which for a person on foot was a chain-link fence with a one-way turnstile.
If I was going to find Draco, it wasn’t going to happen with these two…supernatural dickheads who claimed to be dying and would rather hold all the cards close to their chests than lay them out so we might help each other.
