The color drained from her face. I watched her process it—the fear, the anger, the bitter understanding settling into her features like frost spreading across glass. She now knew how deep the hole I’d dragged her into really was.
“I don’t have a choice, do I?”
The question was quiet. Controlled. But underneath it was a blade aimed right at my chest.
“No.” I held her gaze, refusing to flinch from the accusation in her eyes. “You don’t.”
Hurt, fury, resignation—all of it swept through her eyes in the space of a single breath. Then she lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and pulled her arm free of my grip.
“Then stop wasting time and move.”
Selena and I transformed into bats and flew into the morning sky as fast as we could. Warm wind and dampness brushed over me.
My mind raced faster than my wings.
Who took the fucking shard?
Who told Angelo I sold it on the black market?
That was impossible. When would I have time to do that? I’d been with Selena the whole night. First at the party, then running through the bayou with her unconscious over my shoulder, then on the houseboat where we’d?—
I shoved the memory aside. Now wasn’t the time.
Someone had set me up. Someone who knew exactly where the shard would be, exactly when to take it, and exactly how to make it look like I’d betrayed Angelo.
Steve Dupont had fed Angelo the lie. But this wasn’t Steve. The guy I knew was loyal to his sister, loyal to the family. Framing me for stealing a shard and selling it on the black market—that wasn’t his play. Someone was using him.
And more importantly—what would happen to my mother now?
The deal had been simple. Steal the shard, save her life. But if Angelo thought I’d double-crossed him...
Fuck.
My chest tightened with a fear I hadn’t felt since the night I’d hurt her. The night the demon had used my hands to?—
No. Focus.
I glanced at the small bat flying beside me. Selena. She’d gotten tangled up in this mess because of me. Because I’d bitten her. Kidnapped her. Dragged her into my nightmare.
And now Angelo would be after her too.
If anything happened to her—if he hurt her because of what I’d done—I’d never forgive myself. I’d already destroyed my mother. I couldn’t destroy Selena too.
I had to keep her safe. No matter what it cost me.
Just as we passed into a cloud, a black limousine barreled down the road below, kicking up dust in its wake.
Enzo.
It had to be.
And if he caught us, we were both dead.
Valentin had said for us to meet them at The Pontchartrain Pines Lodge on the north shore. It was far enough from the houseboat. But I wasn’t a fool. Angelo would be on our trail soon. He had spies everywhere.
We landed in a grove of palm trees near the Lodge and shifted back into our human forms.
My legs buckled. I grabbed a tree trunk to steady myself, scanning the shadows between the palms. No sign of Enzo. Not yet. But out here, with no wards, no walls, and Selena barely recovered from the blood loss—we were exposed. Two targets standing in the open.
