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I glare at the blade, just now realizing I’m looking at the twelfth-century Viking blade given to me by the Prince of Denmark.
What? He’s a voracious member of Venom.
“Well?!” I bark, wincing as I open my jacket and shirt to glance briefly at my cut. It’s superficial, but it still hurts like a motherfucker. I angrily move toward her. Tempest flinches, but then she’s the one lurching at me with fists flying.
“Enough!” I hiss, catching her wrists and yanking her tight to my chest. Her knee jabs up as if to catch me in the balls. But I knock it aside easily with my own thigh. In one move, I’m throwing her over my shoulder, dodging her hammering fists and feet, and tossing her down on the couch.
“STOP IT,” I roar, momentarily making her go still. “What the actualfuckwas all of that about?!”
“You son of a bitch!”
I wince again as I glance down at my side. Then I raise the blade and shake it. “Next time you try and fucking stab me,” I snarl, “use something from this goddamn century!” I whirl toward my desk to put the dagger back in its case when suddenly I freeze.
My gaze lands on the little wooden box, closed and lying on my desk.
My trophies.
And right on top of it lieshisfucking ring: the one with blue and red eyes.
I hear Tempest bolt toward me. I turn, catch her mid-swing, and yank her hard against my chest. My hands pin hers tight behind her back, rendering her helpless in my grasp as I glare down into her furious face.
“I’m only going to ask you this once,” I hiss coldly, my pulse thudding.
I think I know. This is about the rings. She saw them, she knows what they are. And then she tried to fucking kill me.
I am suddenly not at all worried that Tempest is a plant from Charles to try and steal something from me. I’m worried that she’s withthem.
The ones who took Claudia from me.
The ones Ihunt.
“Once, Tempest, and only once,” I rasp. “What do these rings mean to you.”
Fire smolders behind her eyes as she remains tight-lipped.
“I would start answering if I were you,” I hiss through clenched teeth.
“Or what?!” she chokes. “You’ll kill me too?! Like you killed Nina?!”
What?
“I have no fucking idea who the hell that?—”
“You bastard!”
She almost gets her hands free, but I tighten my grip and whirl, pinning her back against a bookcase.
“The owners of those rings,” I snarl, leering close to her. “Specifically, the owner of the one you left on top—blue and red eyes.”
I lower my face even closer to hers.
“Who. Is. He. To. You.”
Tears bead in her eyes. “Fuck you?—”
“Because Ikilledthe man who wore that fucking ring.”
Tempest freezes. I smile coldly.
