Everything goes cold.
“Cassia,” I whisper, but I already know what he’s going to say.
Priam looks at me, eyes full of failure.
“He took her.”
The world ends.
I will burn it down to get her back.
Chapter
Thirteen
Cassia
The first thing I notice is the smell.
Not the club smell. Not perfume and sweat and money.
This is old beer, stale wood, and cheap cleaner trying and failing to cover up years of spilled liquor and bad decisions. The kind of place that used to be loud once, back when humans still came here to forget their lives, before the world shifted and monsters started using places like this as meeting rooms.
How did I get here? The last thing I remember is heading back toward Dyrk. I was going to talk to Orpheus. To make things right. The pain of leaving was too much. He held my heart, and I needed him. I was being stubborn for not telling him. He fought for me and had every right to know why.
Gods, I’m so stupid for being stubborn and not telling him.
I’m shoved forward hard enough that my shoulder clips the doorframe. The movement pulls me out of my thoughts.
“Watch it,” I snap automatically, because my mouth is stupid when I’m scared. I spin around to look to see who it is and find the gray-haired vampire’s hand clamping on the back of my neckand steering me through the doorway like I’m a dog on a leash. Oh no. It all comes back to me. He attacked me outside the club, knocking me out.
“Still got teeth,” he says, voice low and amused. “Cute.”
I stumble into the bar’s dim interior and force myself upright.
The lighting is wrong. Yellowed bulbs. A few flickering neon signs that don’t match the vibe, like someone thought they could buy atmosphere off a broken thrift shelf. The place isn’t busy, but it isn’t empty either.
There are vampires scattered around the room, leaning against the bar, tucked into booths, standing near the back like they’re waiting for a show. They go quiet when they see me, eyes tracking the way I move, the way I breathe. The way I don’t bow.
The gray-haired vampire pulls me closer to his side, tight enough that I feel the edge of his nails through my coat.
“Look,” he says loudly, “the King’s little human made it.”
A few snickers ripple through the room.
My stomach drops.
Orpheus.
I shouldn’t have left the club. The gray-haired vampire, whose name I don’t even know, would never have gotten me if I hadn’t. Thanks to me being an idiot, he did, and now I’m here, and Orpheus doesn’t know where I am.
I wish I hadn’t been stubborn and fought with him. I wish I’d told him how thankful I was he fought for me. I wish I’d expressed how much I love him.
We haven’t known each other more than a handful of days, and yet I love him. I’m so in love with him, it hurts my heart to think of not having him in my life.
The gray-haired vampire leans in, mouth close to my ear. “Don’t try anything.”
I scoff, because it’s either sarcasm or shaking, and I will not cower in front of him or anyone else. “What do you think I’m going to do? Pick up a pool cue and take you all out?”
