I glared at my scarred palm, thinking back to everything Aspen said.
Don’t worry about me. Worry about getting out.
Just find a way out.
If you find a way out, come to me.
Have you found any way of escape?
“Lilith controlled him,” I said to myself.Thatwas it. She controlled his words. I had thought he wanted me to escapefor him. But he wanted me to escape forLilith, which meant I was right. Lilith didn’t want me to die. She wanted to steal me. That was why Ni didn’t kill me.
“What was that?”
I panned between my hand and the paragraph. A dagger that couldunmake and remake. Like remaking a portal where one used to be?
“Maybe it would’ve worked. Maybe Ni just used the wrong knife.” The puzzle was slowly coming together, but I still couldn’t place the part about the Immolation Circle.
Why send me there?
I needed answers, and there was only one person I could ask.
“Lucy!” Oliver grabbed my shoulders, shaking me. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“About Ni?” I asked.
His eyes flickered with fire. “No. Who does Lilith control?”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
He tightened his fingers on my shoulders. “Say it.”
“Aspen.”
Chapter
Forty-Three
RONEN
Flying away from the hellion yesterday—and leaving her with Alexei, who maimed her face, although minimally—took more strength than I realized, especially with the rage boiling inside me from what Brockalian did to her ear.
I had to force myself to fly to Portal Lake to calm down. Anytime her pain punctured my barriers, it sent my shadows into a frenzy. I hadn’t registered the slices on her cheeks, but the arrow through her hand, I noticed that immediately. I might not want to be near the hellion right now, but I also wouldn’t stand for her to be in physical danger. Although I didn’t expectmy thirdto be the cause of that danger. MJ was lucky she left when she did.
It was getting harder to control myself the more I was in proximity to the hellion. My shadows wanted to connect with her… and itterrified me.
That afternoon, I flew out to Portal Lake, knowing that if I didn’t, it’d cause me a bigger headache than I’d like. Sitting on the edge of the cliff, lost in my thoughts, something slammed into my back. I fell off the ledge, my wings burst free, and I banked upward.
My shadows lashed out and wrapped around MJ’s neck. They didn’t choke her, but they made it pretty damned uncomfortable. And like the insane female she was, she smiled. She always fucking smiled.
“That’s for not telling me Lucille was the daughter of Hell,” she rasped.
“Alexei—”
“Said nothing.” She tucked her chin and grasped at my shadows. “Lucille admitted to it this morning.”
“I planned to tell you today,” I said, resigned. After Lucille’s brilliant display of control over her Glory, I knew MJ would demand an explanation.
I let her suffer for one more second before releasing her.
