With a frustrated sigh and a look of disgust, she crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at me.
“Fine,” she said. “But if what I tell you leaves this room, I’ll kill you both myself.”
“Like you killed my brother?” I asked. “With an assassin?”
“Yeah,” she snapped back. “Just. Like. That.”
“Where is my wife?”
D'vinda took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, “I don’t know.” A second later, she held up her hands, hurrying to stop me as I unsheathed my phase blade. “But I know people who could help find her!”
“YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!”
D'vinda shook her head, stepping back, finally showing the appropriate fear for her situation.
“I admit, I am in the habit of stealing wives,” she said quickly. “Just not happy ones.”
“What?” Nerus asked, his head cocked.
“Wives,” she said. “I smuggle them out of Ibaruta. I’m connected with a network of people who… have resources. I can help you find her if she’s been taken against her will.”
“She was,” I growled.
D'vinda lifted a sardonic brow. “Because who wouldn’t want to be mated to you, right? Look, I’ve been keeping eyes on her, and she seems…” She made an incredulous sound. “Taken with you?Ibarknows why.”
“BecauseIbarchose me for her.”
“Sure, we’ll go with that,” she shrugged. “And if shewantsto come back, I can help make that happen. If she doesn’t, you’ll never see her again.”
“Hold on, hold on,” Nerus intervened, his hand against my chest before I could lunge for the bitch again. “You’re saying you’re, what? Some kind of Ibarutan bride liberator?”
D'vinda’s spine was rigid as stone as she stared us down.
“You?” I scoffed. “I’m supposed to believe you found all this concern for the forced mates of Ibaruta somewhere in your lying, murdering, stone-cold heart?”
“All these years you’ve blamed me for Rava’s death,” she sneered, “but you’re still too much of a coward to ask yourselfwhy I did it?”
“Power,” I said. “Influence. Does it matter? He’sdead. I’ll never see my brother again because of you.”
Something moved beneath her features, but she beat it back through sheer force of will. “I loved him,” she said, snarling when I rolled my eyes at the lie. “I did. I thought he was my second… my mate.”
“The man you paid someone to gut in an alley?”
“Yes!” She marched forward, jabbing a sharp nail into my chest. “Yourbrother, mybeloved, was shippinghundredsof viable females onto that fucking shit-stain of a moon! Dozens every week. It didn’t matter if they were already mated, or mothers, or sisters as long as they had healthy wombs and could pass for the legal marriage age on Ibarauta.”
No. Rava would never do that.It was a lie. Another lie from a female who wore them like the latest fashion. So why did I have a new ache in the pit of my stomach? Why was Nerus stone still beside me?
“Prove it.”
D'vinda huffed out a breath. “I will. I haveplentyof evidence saved up for this very conversation. Maybe you’d like me to reach out to my contacts about your wife first, though?”
I nodded to Nerus, who passed her a small frame.
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
D'vinda chuckled. “Believe it or not, Qhev’in Kon.”
CHAPTER 40
