For a second, the thought struck hard and cruel. Could this act have been hers? It would have been easy for her to slip away from the crowd when we had first arrived. We had left my sister and her out by the planes to get more firewood. It was the perfect amount of time for her to douse the sand with gasoline.
The idea clawed at me. Acelynn had slipped into our world too easily and asked too many careful questions. She had shadows in her eyes that I hadn’t been able to place. And wasn’t that exactly the kind of twisted fate that haunted men like me? That the one person I wanted most was the same person destined to tear me apart?
But then I shut it down. No. Not her. She was reckless, sharp-tongued, and stubborn as hell, but she wasn’t this. Acelynn wasn’t fire in the sand or blood in the dark. She was the one thing in my world that I hadn’t yet corrupted.
I forced the thought down where it belonged—deep, buried, and snuffed out before it could grow roots.
I let the silence stretch, forcing my breath to become steady. I couldn’t afford Vince’s impulsiveness or Nolan’s doubt—not now. I had to see past the fear, past the shadows of the past clawing their way back for revenge.
Finally, I spoke. “Whoever did this knew what they were doing. They had access to accelerant, they had time, and they wanted to send a message. That narrows the field.”
Nolan’s eyes met mine, sharp. “Knights or Dealers.”
I gave a single nod.
Vince swore under his breath, pacing again, fists clenched at his sides. “If it’s the Dealers, we should be preparing for war. Whoever survived has been strategically moving themselves across the board in plain sight. They could even be getting help from inside. If it’s one of ours…” He shook his head, jaw working. “That’s worse.”
The air felt colder suddenly, the night heavier. My gaze dropped back to the spade, and for a moment, it wasn’t just burned sand I was looking at. It was a memory. Fire and blood. Screams swallowed by smoke. Gunshots ringing out in the night air. The ruin the Spades had left behind.
I shoved the memory down, burying it as deep as I could.
“This isn’t random,” I said, my voice low, final. “Someone’s trying to drag the past back into the light. We find out who, and we end it before they get the chance to make a killing blow.”
Vince broke the silence, voice cutting sharp. “It’s her.”
I snapped my head toward him. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
“You know I’m right,” Vince pressed, his tone low, dangerous. “Acelynn was here. How is it that she knew so much, so fast, about us? Because I sure as hell wasn’t having midnight chats with her. So tell me you haven’t thought the same thing.”
Anger burned up my spine, hot and uncontrollable. I took a step toward him, fists clenched so tight my knuckles cracked. “You think I don’t notice everything she does? You think I wouldn’t know if she was playing the Knights? If she was playing me?”
Nolan shifted between us, tension sparking like a live wire, but Vince didn’t back down. His eyes narrowed, daring me.
“You’re blinded by Acelynn,” he said, almost a growl. “And that’ll get all of us killed.”
I closed the space between us until my words were nothing but a hiss through my teeth. “Say her name like that again, and I swear I’ll make you eat those fucking words.”
For a moment, the only sound was the wind shrieking over the sand. Then Nolan shoved at both our shoulders, breaking us apart.
“We don’t have time for this shit,” he snapped. “Whoever’s behind this, we’ll find them. But right now, we move. All of us.”
I kept my glare locked on Vince a heartbeat longer before I tore it away, swallowing the rage threatening to split me open. But inside, the doubt I’d buried clawed to the surface again, whispering the same cruel thought I refused to believe. What if it really was her?
Neither Nolan nor Vince said another word. But the look in their eyes told me they were thinking the same thing I was.
The Spade family wasn’t finished with us. Not by a long shot.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
acelynn
The knife,slick with blood, lay on the floor in front of me. I couldn’t look at it anymore. Couldn’t look athim,sprawled out on my hardwood in a grotesque slumped-over shell of himself. Alaric’s face was frozen in a half-snarl, half-question he hadn’t had the chance to ask me.
My breath came in sharp and shallow spurts, tearing up my throat. The coppery tang of blood clung to the back of my tongue, stronger than it should’ve been, like it wanted to seep into me. Alaric’s blood spread across the tile in widening veins, dark and syrup-thick, tracing the cracks of the grout until it brushed up against the toe of my boot.
My fingers trembled so badly I had to curl them into fists to stop the shaking. If I didn’t get control of myself, I’d fall apart.
And if I fell apart, Kaius would see through me.
