“Then how did she know?” Dray insists.
I sigh. “Briony, I suspect,” I say.
“Me?” she says, astonished at my words. “I didn’t tell her anything.”
“You broke into her office,” I remind her.
“Yes, but she doesn’t know I did.”
“She’s a vampire. She knew you were there.”
“I used a masking spell,” she insists.
I shake my head. “Doesn’t matter. She would have known. She knows you were there. Maybe she even realized what you had discovered. You took the necklace after all, didn’t you?”
Briony’s mouth falls open and she stares at me aghast.
“Oh, Fox,” she says. “It’s all my fault. Everything that’s happened to you.”
I shake my head.
“Still doesn’texplainwhat happened to you, Prof.,” Dray says.
“I warned you she’s clever,” I say. “We underestimated her. She knew I’d come to the lake. She knows how I feel about Briony. And she ambushed me.”
“But why?” Briony asks innocently.
And that’s the one question I can’t answer. Did she know that she would have to retreat to the demon realm? I try to recall our conversations over the last few days – the words, the sentencesthat were said between us. But it’s all so faint, so mixed up in my head. I was barely conscious.
Did she tell me? Did she tell me everything?
Did she bring me here to lure Briony? Was that the reason? But she’d know that wherever Briony goes the Princes would come. Surely she’d know that she could not defeat the four of them together, no matter how strong her powers may be out here.
So was it love? Was that the reason she brought me? I scoff at the idea. Veronica has a twisted, corrupted idea of love. She doesn’t understand the word.
“I don’t know why she brought me here.”
“Forget about why,” the wolf says, “I want to know how. How did she bring you here?”
“She came to the lake. She said she had Briony. And I, like a hotheaded fool, chased her through the vortex and into this realm where they were waiting for me, where they ambushed me.”
“And why didn’t you escape?” Dray continues. “I’ve seen you fight. I know you’re stronger than Bardin.”
“I told you,” I growl, “I was ambushed.”
“And she bound him with magical attenuators,” Beaufort says.
“Yes,” I confirm, “I was unable to use my magic.”
“She tortured you?” Beaufort asks me, his eyes flicking to my shoulder where a wound is visible through my tattered shirt.
“She set the demons on me, yes.”
“They respond to her command,” Briony comments.
“Was she torturing you for information?” Beaufort continues.
I run my fingers through my beard, thinking. Was that it? “No, I don’t think so. She wanted … She wanted me to love her again.”
