“It’s always so hard to see old friends take the wrong path,” she cooed. “And you’ve never taken the right path in your life, have you? Not recently, at least. But maybe you’re trying to redeem yourself.”
She leaned forward.
*You can still get out of this,*Julian told Francine, desperation sending jagged cracks through his mental voice. *Whatever you need to do or say—aargh!*
Lightning burst behind his eyes. He buckled, forehead slamming into the floor. Francine shouted his name.
“Not a very good listener, is he?” Eloise said from somewhere beyond the pain haloing his skull. “I told you the drug blocks your telepathy. I hope you’re a better listener than he is, Frankie.”
She waited, eyebrows raised expectantly. Julian got to his knees in time to see Francine nod, her eyes fixed on Eloise’s.
Had she heard his message?
“Good,” Eloise crooned. “Because it isn’t all bad, you know? I mean, look at you. You did bring me the last of the shadow dragons.”
She knew.
Sheknew.
Francine was trembling. And Julian’s dragon was clawing itself upward, though it seemed strangely … distant. Did the drug affect other aspects of his power as well? His connection with his dragon?
“The last shadow dragon, all for me.” Eloise kicked her heels. “Babe, youshouldn’thave.”
This was it. Francine’s chance to escape whatever else Eloise had planned for her. He tried to catch her eye, to tell her without words that she should accept this olive branch, no matter how poisoned it seemed.
“I didn’t,” Francine snarled.
Eloise’s smile dropped. “Oh, comeon, Frankie. I’m giving you a chance to get through this with your dignity intact. Take it, won’t you?”
Francine laughed hollowly. “There are two guns pointing at my head, Eloise. I think we’re past me believing in the power of friendship.”
“I didn’t think you were thisboring.” Eloise’s face twisted. “Fine! Have it your way. Because that’s going to work outso wellfor you. The same way it did last time.”
Francine’s face went white. Eloise’s grin became even more predatory. “That’s right. Did you think I didn’t know?Really?Why did you think you werehere, bestie? You let yourself be tricked into doing Harper’s dirty work. Didn’t take a genius to figure it’d be easy to make you do mine, too.”
Harper’s dirty work? What did she mean?
Julian tried to meet Francine’s eyes, but she was staring up at Eloise with an expression of pure hatred and … regret?
His dragon wrenched itself to its feet inside him, pain echoing through the fog that seemed to fill Julian’s soul. Francine wasn’t one of Harper’s people. She was on Lance MacInnis’s side. She’d been reporting back to him…
…No, she hadn’t.
She’d been lying this whole time. Not about the hatchling. Aboutthis.
“When I heard what happened with the Diazes, I thought, I bet Frankie feelsterrible.I bet she’d do anything to feel like a proper lioness again, instead of a loser’s castoffs. So I laid out a little trail of breadcrumbs. And you ate them all up. I didn’t even need to push you. You came all by yourself.” Eloise’s mouth worked. “But you were never here for the right reasons, were you, Frankie? You wanted to crawl on your knees and hope that power noticed you, instead of taking it for yourself. It’s like I don’t evenknowyou.”
Francine’s shoulders slumped. Then she looked up at Eloise again, an expression Julian couldn’t read on her face. “You don’t have to do this, Elly. I’ve been where you are. I’ve had everyone just where I wanted them, I’ve given the evil bitch speech—”
“Don’t fucking talk to me like I’m likeyou.” Eloise’s nostrils flared. “Haveto do this? Iwantto do this. I’m not some other asshole’s flunky, Frankie. This ismyplan.Myyears of work finally coming to fruition.My hunt.”
Francine flinched.
“But you haven’t been a complete disappointment.” Eloise sniffed, folding her arms. “I expected you to come running. I didn’t expect you to bring an adult shadow dragon with you. You actually got in before I blew him up, for which you get a small number of points. I thought at first I wanted him out of the way, but now I see how amazing it will be, havingtwodragons. One little one to keep on a leash … and one to give to the Soul-Eater.”
“You wouldn’t,” Francine whispered, white-lipped.
“Youwouldn’t,” Eloise hissed. “I know what it means to be a lioness. Not you. I’m going to take everything I deserve—everything youdon’t.”
