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What did you do to her?I demand.
V waves a hand, blood glittering on her fingertips, and Wes flies off of us, crashing into the dirt several feet away on his back. The others hurry to help Wes as V makes us sit up, sigh, and redo our ponytail.
“Just tell me why you did it,” Wes demands through his teeth, tears streaming down his face now. “Why her? She never did anything to anyone.”
The truth sinks to the pit of my stomach like a rock.Did.Past tense.
You killed her?
V shrugs internally—a strange sensation. I can feel her intention to do so, but our body remains immobile.
The gap-toothed bitch was smart. She figured me out almost immediately. Can’t say the same for the rest of these idiots.
My eyes burn like I need to cry, but of course, no tears can form. Beth.Beth.I’ve only been gone for what? A day? Maybe longer? And I’m already too late.
The bushes rustle as another person surges into the clearing, and the center of my chest warms in a distant, murky way. It must be the bond, suppressed beneath the extra layer of V in here with me, but still intact.
Oh good,sighs V.Prince Charming.
He freezes once he clears the trees, gaze intense as it sweeps over me sitting on the ground. V cocks her head to the side, grins, then stretches her legs forward and crosses one ankle over the other as she leans back on her hands.
Reid shows no reaction to this. Just keeps staring at her—our—face like he’s looking for something.
V bristles, and I feel her magic stirring inside of me, twisting into something dark and thin, then extending in Reid’s direction.
It’s clear the moment it reaches him because the muscles in his face relax and he crosses the distance between us and offers his hand to help us back to our feet.
She’s been controlling him. That’s why he looked so calm in the scene I saw earlier. He knows damn well that’s not me, and she’s been pulling his puppet strings to keep him quiet.
Very good, Valerie. Do you want a gold star?
Ignoring her, I search for that feeling in my chest again. Can he feel the bond now that I’m back? If I can communicate with him through it…would V be able to hear that?
I need to get her out of this body. But how? It feels like she’s filling every inch of it and I’m shoved in the corner barely keeping my head above the water.
I wait for anyone else to join us—Kirby and Monroe, maybe—but the woods are quiet now.
Did you kill anyone else?I ask, my voice shaking even in my head.
Oh, plenty.
I focus back on the raging fire in the distance, and she laughs in my head.
Stop worrying so much. You’re giving me a stomachache. Your friends are fine. They’d be no use to me dead.
But you killed Beth.
Okay, soshehad use to me dead.
“You’re all just going to let her get away with this?” Wes demands in a way that sounds like he’s been talking this entire time and V’s been tuning him out.
“We don’t know that it was her,” says his Marionette.
“Of course it was fucking her!” Wes rips his arm out of his partner’s grasp and takes a step back. “I bet she started the fire too. None of the elementals can get it under control—say the magic is like nothing they’ve ever felt. Who else could have done that?” He turns to me now, the anger on his face twisting into anguish. “How could you? She was your friend.She was your friend.”
Each word hits me like a punch to the stomach. I might not have dealt the killing blow, but I invited V in. Which makes this as much my fault as it is hers.
Reid steps between us before Wes can come any closer, and I can’t tell if he did it on his own or if V is moving him around like a chess piece.
