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I’d felt free. Happy.
Coupled with what I’d found out tonight about my mother and her part in Zaquiel’s kidnapping, my entire world had been turned upside down and sideways.
I was no longer sure what I wanted, except that whatever it was, I wanted Rafe to be a part of it. No, I needed Rafe to be a part of it.
“You’re free,” he’d mouthed.
“Don’t I?” I said slowly.
“Stop it.” Jean-Michel glanced at the room’s single camera.
“They can’t hear me. You know this room’s not miked.”
“Shut up anyhow.”
I shrugged and obeyed. I wasn’t sure how much Jean-Michel could be trusted anyway.
I sank onto the mattress. Reaction was setting in, and with it the fear that despite what Philippe had said, Rafe wouldn’t survive the night.
Because if Victorine had her way, Rafe Kral was dead.
I rubbed my hands up and down my arms, trembling and furious with everyone from my mother on down.
Damn it, Rafe wasn’t supposed to get caught. No one was even supposed to know he was in Philippe’s lair. We’d planned how this would go down. I’d do the snooping and he’d stay in the background, and we’d leave with no one the wiser.
But Victorine and Étan had known it was Rafe in the hall. I’d heard Étan say his name. Someone had told them he was with me.
I glanced at Jean-Michel. “How did they know it was Rafe there in the hall? His glamour was letter-perfect. Even I thought he looked like you.”
His mouth set. For a minute, I thought he wasn’t going to tell me, but he must have decided it didn’t matter if I knew.
“Someone high up in the Kral Syndicate is working with Victorine.”
“Very high up,” I muttered.
And very well-informed.
It was as I’d suspected. Holy Dark Lady, this conspiracy had more heads than a hydra. How many people and syndicates were involved? And what else had Victorine not bothered to tell me?
My head spun. I felt unmoored, questioning everything I’d been told about the Krals and the blood feud.
I’d accepted Victorine’s story as the truth, but I was an adult now. An adult who, as Victorine’s lieutenant-in-training, had seen how far she was willing to go to remain in power.
Looking back, Victorine had never explainedwhyKaroly had staked my father. Maybe my father hadn’t been the innocent victim Victorine had made him out to be. Maybe he’d attacked Karoly, and Karoly had staked him first.
I massaged my forehead.
One thing was certain. I had to rescue Rafe.
I should be pissed off that he’d jumped in when Étan had started smacking me around. But the woman in me couldn’t help swooning a little that he’d risked everything to protect me.
He staked Étan for you. He was defending you.
The hierarchy in a vampire syndicate was clear. Étan was my dominant—no one but Victorine would’ve stepped in to defend me.
But Rafe had, and I was damned if I’d let him be punished for it. If anyone should be in that cell, it was me.
I pictured Zaq Kral’s vampire-marked throat and swallowed sickly.
