“If you know something about the attack on that Darkhaven, you need to tell me.”
Leah crossed her arms. “I don’t. But even if I did, talking to the Order is the last thing I would do.”
Kaya blew out a curse in frustration. “Don’t you care about what’s right or wrong? Doesn’t justice mean anything to you?”
“You have no idea what matters to me,” she shot back now, angry and defensive. “You never did. You were always the strong one, the smart one. Always whispering to me about your dreams and plans for your future, even when we were little kids. The only thing I ever wanted out of my fucked up life was to survive it.”
“At the end of the day, that’s all anyone wants,” Kaya replied.
She’d heard the pain in her sister’s voice. She understood it the way only a twin could, connected on a level that went deeper than basic siblings. But Leah wasn’t reaching out. She was pushing back, barring Kaya as if she were a stranger.
And maybe after all this time, that’s all they were to each other now.
Kaya recalibrated her feelings for her sister, resolved that she wasn’t talking to her twin but questioning a member of a hate group so tight-knit and steeped in doctrine it might as well be labeled a cult.
“Do they know you’re one of us too?” Leah’s question caught her off guard. It held a curious edge, but there was no mistaking the accusation in it, either. “Is that why they sent you here?”
“They didn’t send me. And I’m not one of you,” Kaya replied, but the denial lacked the venom she wanted it to have. “I haven’t been part of this world for a long time.”
Yet she’d been born into it, raised within it. For the first sixteen years of her life, all she’d known was the abhorrent, violent world that somehow still held her sister in its thrall. As much as she wanted to deny it, Kaya’s shame over that fact ran deep. It would likely never fade.
“Oh, my God,” Leah whispered, openly astonished. “They don’t know.”
Kaya felt her jaw clench. “Don’t try to make this about me. If you know anything about those killings today, I need you to tell me. Please, Leah. Whoever did it showed up prepared to take out any Breed male they came in contact with. The Order is investigating. It’s not going to take them long to come around here asking the same questions I am.”
Leah glanced away from her now, her mouth flattened in a hard line. She picked up a damp cloth and began scrubbing the scarred countertop of the bar. “This conversation is over. I want you leave now, Kaya.”
Instead of doing what she asked, Kaya stepped forward. “Have you ever heard Angus mention Opus Nostrum?”
Leah’s hand stilled. Her face paled a bit, blood draining from her cheeks and lips. At that same moment, a thump sounded from the back room of the tavern. Someone had just come in from the alley at the rear of the place. Kaya didn’t have to guess who it was.
“Shit,” Leah hissed. “Get out of here, Kaya. Don’t ever come back, do you understand? Angus will kill me if he sees me talking to you.”
“Then come with me.”
She blurted the offer before the thought had barely formed in her mind. But she meant it. Never mind everything that had passed between them four years ago or at any time before or after. Leah was her sister, her twin. She couldn’t walk away without trying to reach her, to appeal to any thread of humanity still remaining in her.
“I mean it, Leah. You can leave with me, right now. I promise you, the Order will keep you safe.”
“Shut up.” Leah gave a vigorous shake of her head, sending her dark brown hair sifting around her shoulders. “Shut up and get out, Kaya. I don’t want your help. I don’t want anything from you.”
More noise sounded from the other area of the bar. Then a voice as jagged and cold as gravel called out. “Raven! Goddamn it, woman. Where the fuck are you?”
When Leah flinched, Kaya reached for her hand. “Come with me before it’s too late.”
“Too late?” She scoffed, brittle and angry as she wrenched out of her loose grasp. “You have no idea what you’re saying. Now, get out of here.”
Pain stabbed her as she watched her sister withdraw. “If you refuse now, I may not be able to help you later.”
“Go, damn you!” Leah snapped in a harsh whisper. When Kaya’s feet refused to take the first step, Leah threw down her wash rag and finally circled the bar. “Get out of here. Before I call him up here to make sure you never come back.”
Kaya’s gaze snagged on the subtle fullness of her sister’s belly. She sucked in her breath and it sounded more like a sob than a gasp. “You’re pregnant. Oh, God . . . Leah. Please tell me it doesn’t belong to Angus.”
But her sister gave her no such reassurance. Her unblinking gaze stayed fixed on Kaya, bleak and hard. Her face was shuttered, inscrutable. Unknowable, even though it was a mirror reflection of Kaya’s own features.
“Leah, please--”
“Angus! I’m out here.”
