No. Now wasn’t the time to start thinking about how she did or did not feel.
She was sitting in the back of a car. At least she hadn’t been crammed into the trunk this time. They had taken her somewhere, then loaded her into a building, then loaded her into another car, then another building, and then into another car. She had been allowed to sleep for a little while—and then another car.
How many hours had passed, she had no idea. She was just told to “Get up.” “Get in the car.” “Sit down.” And she silently obeyed. Now wasn’t the time for games. Now was the time for waiting. And listening.
When they pulled her out of the car that last time, she heard something interesting.
Water.
More specifically—theocean.They were at the docks. But…why?
She’d been asking herself that a lot lately.
When someone pushed her up onto a surface that clomped under her feet, and angled upward, she realized she was on a gangway. She was boarding a ship. She could hear an engine idling. A boat. A large boat.
The Nostrom yacht, maybe? Why in the name of the moons were they bringing her on theyacht?
To take her back to the family estate, maybe. To sacrifice her and throw her into the pit where Monica should have gone in the first place. It’d be a fitting place to hide the body of the woman she was still pretending to be, even if Mael—and therefore, she assumed Lana—knew her secret.
But she was only guessing at all of those things. The person gripping her by the upper arm dragged her along the deck of the boat—it was definitely large judging by how long it took to bring her to where they were going. They shoved her down into a chair.
Finally, they ripped the bag off her head.
Blinking, she tried to focus her eyes. She hadn’t seen light in who knew how long.
“Sorry for the treatment, beautiful.” It was Mael. He was seated in another chair across from her. Shewason the Nostrom yacht, she was right. “We had to get Raziel and ‘Monica’ out of there before our people and the Rosovs demanded proof of both of your heads on pikes. They’ll follow us to the ends of Runne now, but not with that mad dog and his new wife in tow. There were conditions. I’m sure you understand.”
She studied him curiously for a moment. Sitting next to him on a three-seater were Zabriel and Lana. She furrowed her brow at them. “I…”
“First, can we drop the pretenses?” Mael smiled. “I would love to see your real face, Nadi.”
She glanced at the men and vampires standing around the deck, all heavily armed, and hesitated. “Well, that answers the question on whether or not Lana knows.”
“I was the first one to suspect. You think my dear dunderhead of a brother put it together on his own?” Lana chuckled and snuggled in closer to Zabriel’s side. The other vampire draped an arm around her, kissing her temple. Lana had changed out of her wedding dress into a less ornate affair. “But he was the one who figured out from one of his associates that you werefae.”
Leaning back in the chair, Nadi turned her attention back to Mael. “This associate. Who are they?”
“A young man who you used to know, when you were young.” He reached into the pocket of his suit coat and pulled out Braen’s leather ledger. He flipped back through several pages. “Kalo Lohti, to be specific. Remember him?” Finding the page he was looking for, he placed the book down in front of her. There, clearly written, was Kalo’s name. As having sold six fae into Braen’s…care.
Nadi’s heart lurched in her chest. For two reasons.
The first was the simplest. She did remember Kalo. She had pretty much grown up with him. The Lohtis and the Iltanis were clans that met frequently to trade, and often intermarried. He had been a bossy, older boy who had teased her about her tail and she had threatened to drown him a few times. Her mother had always warned her that the teasing meant Kalo would ask for her hand someday. Nadi would just laugh and repeat her threat of drowning.
The second reason she had a pang of pain that made her visibly wince, however, was far more complex. Raziel had given the ledger to Mael.
Ithadn’tbeen locked up in a safety deposit box like he had told her. A stabbing pain made her wince as she realized this was precisely why she had always worked alone. He’dliedto her.
And Lana was too perceptive to miss the flash of emotion that crossed her borrowed face. “Oh, you didn’t know that Raziel gave us the ledger?”
It seemed Mael was quick enough to put it together on his own. “What did you think he was going to do with it, love?” He frowned. “Use it to find your people and free them? Keep it safely tucked away? Trustyouwith it?”
Trust.
That was the issue, wasn’t it?
She had just been starting to trust him.
Her jaw ticked, and she stayed silent. “Kalo told you about me.”
