An earsplitting scream ripped through the desert. We jumped apart, turning to see the landscape below us lit up, and it wasn’t the fire the Knights had set. It was farther out, beyond the circle of the wrecks, maybe a quarter mile or so away. At first, I thought someone had set another blaze, but then I saw the shape—perfectly symmetrical lines crisp on the dunes in the distance. A massive spade, flames licking the edge, the center black against the burning sand.
The Death Dealers mark. My family’s mark.
Every muscle in my body locked up, my lungs forgetting how to work properly. The world seemed to tilt on its axis, pulling me toward the symbol as if it were a black hole.
Kaius stiffened, his head turning toward it. “What the hell…”
My stomach dropped as the wind shifted. It carried a sharp, oily stink of whatever accelerant they had used. The flames hissed and roared like they were laughing at me.
“It’s him.” My voice cracked before I could stop it.
Kaius’s head snapped back to me, eyes narrowing. “Logan?”
I bit down hard on my tongue, tasting copper, trying my best to choke down the tears before they could escape. The promise he had made when I left him rang in my skull, the constant threats that looked over me in Lovelen, every word dripping with the certainty that I would be his once again, no matter whose protection I was under.
Kaius’s grip tightened on me as I swayed on my feet. “Acelynn…”
But I couldn’t look at him. My eyes stayed locked on the spade, the flames climbing higher into the night like a warning. Like a countdown.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
acelynn
The bonfire smoke stillclung to me, woven into the fibers of my clothing and tangled through my hair like a ghost that refused to be shaken off. Even after the drive home, it lingered—dry, acidic, and tasting faintly of the accelerant that had burned the sand dunes.
It made my stomach roll. The smell of fire reminded me of my family home burning to the ground. But the night was over, and the Knights had gone into a full investigation of who could have burned the spade into the sand. I had snuck out of the bar before Kaius could stop me.
The moment I stepped into the front hall of my home, something felt off to me in my gut. The space was too quiet, and I could see the stove light in my kitchen shining into the living room. I had never turned that light on. The metallic tang of adrenaline coated my tongue before I even touchedthe doorknob. My fingers tightened on my keys, slotting one between my knuckles like a makeshift blade. Old habit.
Stepping further into the house, I finally caught the scent of another. Cologne—deep, woodsy, and expensive—the kind you smelled on men who thought money made them invincible. It didn’t belong here in my makeshift home.
When I finally turned the corner, I came upon a man leaning against my kitchen counter like he owned the place. My blood ran cold as I stared down the only living elder the Knights had. Alaric Camberly, the father of the poison maker of the club. A skill passed down from him to his son. I remember when he would visit my family home to speak with my father. His voice could cut through you like a knife, even when he was smiling. And right now, he was smiling, though it was the kind that made my skin crawl.
He traced a finger over the granite countertop, slow and deliberate, like a predator deciding just how much fun it wanted to have before it made its kill. “Hello, Emersyn.”
I couldn’t breathe, the air from my lungs vanishing just by a single name. A name that didn’t belong here. Not anymore. Notever.
“I think you have me mistaken for someone else,” I managed to say, forcing my voice into something flat and dismissive.
Alaric’s smile widened by a fraction. “No, I don’t think I do.”
The sound of my heartbeat was so loud it drowned out the hum of the fridge. My palms became damp as my nerves rose.
“You’ve gotten very good at hiding in plain sight,” he continued, his tone casual, as if he were making small talk with an old friend. “I almost believed the story myself. The Spade family wiped out. The Death Dealer’s king and his precious princess, both gone in the flame. So tragic.”
The wordtragicrolled off his tongue like a joke. The walls seemed to press in around me. I wanted to step back, but doingso would mean retreating, and I had spent way too much of my life running from men like Alaric.
“I’m not sure what you think you are doing here,” I said, turning my head to the side to examine him further. “But you need to leave.”
Alaric ignored me, instead reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a Ziplock bag. Inside were five vials of hemlock. The same bag I had buried inside the wall of the fireplace, where a loose stone could be pulled in and out. How he was able to find it so easily made my vision blur.
My chest tightened. “Where did you?—”
“I got curious,” Alaric cut in smoothly, rolling one of the vials between his fingers. “Curiosity can be…dangerous. You’ve been keeping secrets, Emersyn. Risky ones. Imagine what Kaius would think if he knew you were lying to him the entire time he was between those pretty thighs.”
The way he said Kaius was like he was taunting me. Alaric moved around the counter to come stand in front of me. He chuckled, shaking his head as I didn’t take the bait. “You’re going to tell me why you are here. Why the daughter of the Death Dealer’s leader is hiding under the Knights’ protection. And if you’re persuasive, maybe I will keep your little secret between us.”
My fingers curled into fists. “And if I’m not?”
