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Kell stomps over from another break in the curtains. “Holy shit.” Obviously, she witnessed enough of her sister’s surprise to double back from her spot in the photo order.
On her heels is Jaden, dressed in a tux that’s as edgy as his eyeliner. Completing the vibe is his taut expression.
“Oh, K-demon…”
“Demon?” Veronica snaps. “You certain of that, darling? Don’t be tactful onmyaccount, everyone. Come on, now. Fill me in. Is it K-witchy now? Or something more fun? Sorceress Supreme? High Priestess of the Powerful Arts?”
Kara pivots and growls. “Does that even matter right now?”
“You think it doesn’t?” The woman spins, looking just as ready to throw a real punch. “Do you really, thoroughly, think it doesn’t? All of you keeping such a huge secret from me?”
“You think itdoes? When you’re keeping an equally gigantic one from Maximus and me?”
“Huh?” It spills out before I can think twice. But I’m already too slow on the snap.
Gigantic one…from Maximus and me…
Really,reallylate.
CHAPTER TWENTY
KARA
A wild craving hits me at full force. The temptation to laugh.
This doesn’t make me totally insane. The oxymoron of the moment has to be visible to someone else. Surely it is to Kell and Jaden, who both can’t have left their logic behind. They have to see it too.
The fact that my professor fiancé—so brilliant he can recite anyone from Chaucer to Tolstoy and back—is still so oblivious about what Mother is trying to orchestrate here.
Or perhaps already has.
The more I rotate my mind around that angle, the clearer it all gets. Why she decided to stroll over and milk the moment Maximus kissed me. Why she was instantly chummy with Gentry, even commenting about our wedding rings and date considerations. Finally, why she’s so incensed about me steering things another direction, in very much my own way.
Most of all, why her ire hasn’t diminished since then.
Because she’s not actually peeved about the information we kept from her. Not wounded, confused, or sad either.
She’s riled about my interference withherbiggest, newest plans. The master game board she’s already starting to map, using our “royal wedding” as collateral, until she achieves the grandest prize of all: global media domination. After all, it’s what she does best. Her own superpower contribution to the Valari empire. A service that’s guaranteed our status and life of privilege.
So how do I tell her that this time is different? That she’s probably pedaling with blinders on? And that once she does see the end, it’ll probably be a dead end?
That even if we save the realms from an all-out civil war, they’ll never be the same again?
How—why—do Inottell her that?
The answer comes from my gut. Too fast and too hard. As I turn from them all and search for someplace to hurl everything from my stomach, my mind resonates with the awful admission.
Because I don’t want to accept it for myself.
Not yet.Oh, God, please. Not yet.
“Hey.”
Maximus offers it as a murmur for my ears only while pressing up behind me. The significance of his presence is exactly what I need, enough to calm the turmoil of my gut. I glance over my shoulder at him, conveying hasty gratitude. If even one reporter catches me vomiting in the bushes a handful of hours after our engagement announcement, the obvious innuendos will be hashtagged and posted before we reach our seats inside.
“You okay?” he asks, rubbing my back.
I lift my head, unsure how to respond. The ground still feels like a funhouse floor. My vision continues to swim. “Defineokay.”
