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Antonio scratched the back of his head. “I was confused at first. If I didn’t understand the thoughts running through myownmind there was no way I could’ve articulated them well enough to share them with you.”
A shrug. “Fair enough.”
“I like her, Lance. I like her a lot. She’s so much better than Giselle.”
“Fuck Giselle,” Lance blurted out, surprising Antonio. “She thought she was too good for us. Hell, she might’ve been.” He scratched at the golden brown strands of his hair. “Doesn’t matter. You know what does matter? This fey. She’s different.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Antonio was more than just a little aware of how different Giselle and Sophia were from one another. “Her name is Sophia.”
“Sophia,” Lance said in a hushed tone, nodding to himself. “So how are we getting you both through this tournament alive? I’ll be damned if I watch another mate of yours die.”
“If she dies, this time I’ll follow.”
For a brief moment, Lance gave Antonio the same pitying looking he had seen every day of his life over the last two hundred years. But then Lance’s expression grew fierce. “Well then, let’s make sure she doesn’t die. Tell me what I have to do.”
Antonio grinned. Lance’s eagerness to help him out was another reminder that Antonio had always been surrounded by friends who loved him. He never truly lost everything, not like Sophia did.
“We’re getting her out of this tournament.”
“Is that possible? And if it is, is she in agreement with it? You know this tournament is voluntary, don’t you? She must’ve had a good reason to put her life on the line like this.”
Lance wasn’t wrong. “If I find out how to get her out of this, I won’t hesitate to take her out. I willnotstand by and watch her die.”
“Will she forgive you?”
Antonio looked at his phone, his eyes glossing over the number he needed to call to help find Sophia’s parents. “No, not at first. But she will when I give her what she wants.”
“And what’s that?”
“She believes her parents are alive and enslaved by Artem’s vampires, but she doesn’t know where they are. I believe she intended to use The Heart of Aphrodite to find them.”
Recognition lit Lance’s features. “Ah, you’re going to see if Darius knows where they might be.” Antonio nodded, that wasexactly what he planned to do. “It’s a shame the Voivod didn’t crumble when we got rid of their leader.”
“Agreed.” Several weeks ago Artem was cursed by a sorceress from the Payne Clan. She inflicted him with unceasing and excruciating pain, locking him away somewhere no one would find him. Yet, despite losing their leader, the Voivod didn’t fall. Gods, how Antonio wished they had.
“If you find an out for her, are you taking the out too?”
“No. I have to save Giselle.”
Lance frowned. “I’m going to have to advise against that. For obvious reasons. Like Sophia hating you for not only taking her out of this tournament but for deciding to win The Heart of Aphrodite for yourself, using youronewish to save a woman from your past insteadof using it to save Sophia’s parents.”
Antonio ran a palm over his face. Lance made his plan sound terrible. It couldn’t be as bad as Lance made it sound… could it be?
No, Antonio’s plan was a solid one. Saving Sophia’s parents was totally feasible and didn’t require a wish for it to be possible. However, reviving a woman from the past wouldonlybe possible with a wish. “If not for my actions, Giselle would be alive today. I owe her a second chance.”
“You don’t know that.”
“If she wasn’t running from me she wouldn’t have had any reason to ask those witches for help. They wouldn’t have poisoned her.” Giselle’s death was no one’s fault but his own.
Lance scratched the stubble under his chin. “Why does Giselle’s death bother you so much more than the others? I mean, you tooka lotof lives. Immortal and mortal alike.”
And all innocent.Tension built within Antonio as he fought against the vile memories that threatened to surface. “Don’t go there.”
Lance defensively waved his hands in the air. “Sorry. Sour topic, I know.”
“Giselle’s death bothers me more because I knew her. I mourned her. And though I’ve chosen Sophia, I can’t say with absolute certainty that I’m completely over Giselle.” A werewolf didn’t simplyforgetabout his mate. That went against their nature.
Lance looked disappointed. “I think you’re making a mistake. One you won’t be able to take back. Giselle dug her own grave, you didn’t dig it for her.” With a frown he turned and walked off.
