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I hadn’t told Rafe, because if I did, I was pretty sure he’d feel he had to tell his father, and I wasn’t going to put the Krals in the position of offering her safe conduct so she could be killed.
Rafe sensed my turmoil, even if he didn’t know the real reason for it. He pressed a kiss to my sternum.
“You’ve got this, babe. And I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
My heart squeezed. By the Dark Lady, I loved this man. His cockiness, his smiles, the way he’d go to the wall for his brothers.
The way he’d go to the wall for me.
I lifted my arm from my face. “I love you, so much.”
“Right back at you, sweetheart.” He rolled on top of me and gave me a slow, achingly sweet kiss.
And when we made love, it was even sweeter.
Afterward, he settled next to me, his head on my breast. I played with his curly dark hair, full of an aching sort of love.
Tomorrow, I told myself, it would be over. One way or another.
* * *
The Hotel Garnet was an exclusive vampire hotel in Greenwich Village. Karoly had ordered the restaurant to be closed so we could meet in private.
Rafe and I entered through a brick courtyard filled with potted topiaries. Overhead, swags of tiny fairy lights lit the way to the restaurant door.
My heels clicked against the bricks. I flashed back to my meeting in the hotel with Rafe two years ago.
My first strike for freedom, and it had been a spectacular failure.
This time is different. This time, Victorine doesn’t have all the power.
But my stomach was balled up so tight it felt like it was pressing on my lungs.
I smoothed my hands down the new dress I’d bought at a boutique near Rafe’s penthouse. A bright, spring-green dress splashed with sunflowers that Rafe had insisted I buy it when I’d fingered it longingly before turning to the black dresses.
Beneath the pleated skirt, a silver dagger was strapped to my thigh.
I drew back my shoulders, took a breath.
Strong, in control.
The fine hairs on my nape stirred, and Victorine appeared from the shadows in a wave of Opium. She was dressed in a short sheath in her signature power red.
Cold fingers clamped around my upper arm. “Come, Zoe.” She tried to steer me back the way we’d entered.
My skin iced, then heated. I jerked free. “No.”
Rafe hooked an arm around my waist and hauled me close so we faced her as one. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Victorine’s mouth turned down. She looked at me. “Are you going to let that dhampir order you around?” she demanded.
My lungs squeezed. Everything I’d pushed down, penned up, held in, pressed into my throat, fighting to fly out at my mother.
My right hand flexed. Almost, I drew my dagger.
Strong, in control.And suddenly, I was.
Things really were different this time, because this time, I had Rafe at my side. And Karoly Kral and his people backing me up.
