She’s right.Of course she was right.
Arthur’s hand fell off his sword hilt. Rowan covered the side of his face with his hand. Flynn’s features crumpled. The surface of Blake’s emerald eyes shattered into sherds. Our grief hung heavy in the air, fresh and wet with dew. Weweremessed up. Completely lost. We needed Corbin to hold us together, but Corbin wasn’t here.
I sniffed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just let Kelly and I help.” Jane always knew how to bring an emotional situation back to practicalities. “Hell, just answer our bloody questions. Starting with this one – I want to know why the fae tried to kill Kelly. She’s not even technically related to Maeve. She doesn’t have any powers.”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t tell you. That sixth stake was supposed to be for me.”
“You only thought that because Daigh told you so,” Aline said. “It looks as if he knew all along who he intended for the sixth stake.”
I frowned. “Why could I never see it in the dreams? If I’m a dreamwalker then I should have been able to reach that sixth stake, but I every time I got close it was like there was this invisible wall holding me back.”
“Sorry, Princess,” Blake said. “That was me. I’ve been in your dream every time. I blocked you from seeing that stake.”
What?“Why?”
Blake’s shattered eyes bore into mine. Even though his expression was as smooth and stony as ever, his eyes betrayed pain he’d buried deep, rising to the surface for the first time in his life. He didn’t know how to handle it.
He looked away, closing his long fingers around the curled arm of the sofa. “Because I knew who was on it. And I didn’t want you to see. Daigh had already hurt you enough.”
“Damnit, Blake!” I yelled. “If I’d seen Kelly on that stake I would’ve known Daigh was lying. I would never have deactivated the charms.”
Corbin might not have died.
“You should have known that anyway,” Blake shot back. His head whipped around, and his eyes flared with darkness – a simmering rage that forced back the pain. “He’s lied this whole time. That’s what he does. Fae lie.”
“Don’t blame Maeve for this,” Arthur boomed. “You’re the one who’s been keeping secrets this whole time. You never told the truth about who you are, and you’ve been double-dealing with your fae friend and sneaking around with Flynn. For all we know, you’re still loyal to the fae king?—”
“After all this time, you still don’t trust me.” Blake’s lips curled back into a smirk that bore no resemblance to jocularity.
“You shouldn’t have kept that from her, Blake,” Flynn said.
“You mean, like all the thingsyoukept from her?” Blake’s fierce eyes darted between Flynn and Arthur. Arthur’s hand flew to his sword, and Flynn crossed his arms across his chest, his features completely devoid of mirth. Blake’s posture remained relaxed, but his nails tore the upholstery. Tension crackled between them, rising off them like a hurricane, dragging outtheir darkest fears and battering them against each other in a clash of wills.
This isn’t what I want.I was pissed at Blake, sure. I was pissed at them all. But that was just because I loved them so much. We needed each other more than ever. If their friendships fell apart because of Corbin’s death, we would loseeverything.
“Guys, don’t do this,” I pleaded.
“This is his fault,” Arthur growled, drawing his blade out and pointing the tip toward Blake’s chest. “You should have just stayed in the fae realm. We should never have let you into the coven.”
No.
I wanted to reach across and slap the words off Arthur’s lips, but it was too late. He’d loosed them into the maelstrom. They whirled through the air like rotor blades and slammed into Blake’s face.
Blake’s head snapped back, slapping against the sofa. His chiselled features crumpled completely as his mask fell away, revealing hurt so deep and so fathomless my stomach plunged into my toes.
Right there in front of me was Blake Beckett, stripped of all the ego and fortitude that Daigh’s tutelage had bestowed upon him. All that was left was the human boy, the vulnerable child who’d been taken from his parents and forced into a life where he didn’t fit. The lost soul who had risked everything to join us and now had all the evidence he needed that he didn’t fit here either. He didn’t fit anywhere.
“Arthur, how could you?” I cried.
“Mother Mary, Arthur,” Flynn breathed. “That was ratshit, mate.”
Arthur’s piercing glare didn’t leave Blake’s face. He didn’t speak, and he didn’t lower his sword.
Blake stood up, brushing a strand of his long black hair behind his ear. “Thanks for your honesty, Arnold.”
I grabbed Blake’s arm, trying to force him to look at me. He didn’t react at all. His eyes fixed on some position on the wall behind me. A lump rose in my throat. “He didn’t mean it, Blake. He didn’t?—”
