Or even perhaps,Lissa.
I hugged my arms, shivering.
M.N.’s husband returns tonight, and with him come his personal servants and guard. M.N. said we need to reinstill the need for total silence into our little avenger.
His father had been the personal butler to High Lord Steelcrest, the First of Steelcrest. I put my hand over my mouth as bile burned up my throat.
“I’ll kill her.”
“Of course. That will be perfect.” Lucian’s sarcasm barely registered as the reality finally hit—beyond the argument, the anger, the betrayal—that Gabriel was the man in the book.
The things I had said...
“Out of all of them, she is the one that remains.”
“We left a week after her overture. She never touched me. You succeeded.” Lucian sounded tired, bitter. “You remained the buffer, took all of the pain. Left me free.”
“It should never have occurred in the first place.” Self-loathing saturated Orion Crane’s voice.
“It did. None of this matters now.” Gabriel cursed fluently, creatively—a string of obscenities that lasted a good ten seconds. “A nightmare come true—to have to go back.”
“Go back where?”
“John, I need you to arrange an invite.”
“No!”
“The next target is obvious.”
“And you are going tosaveher?”
The shock of the entire room echoed in Gabriel’s silence. I wished I could see his face.
“Gabriel, you can’t possibly—” Lucian.
“I’m coming with you.” Alcroft.
“I need you to delay the trial, John. Marietta’s brother needs another day.” My vision filmed over at his words. “Possibly two. Lucian, I need you to help him.”
“But—”
“I will be accompanying you, Gabriel.” Stillness fell at Orion Crane’s pronouncement. “To get into the estate, you only need me.”
“N—”
“I will not accept your refusal. Once is quite enough in a parent’s life to fail a child so badly.”
“I’m hardly a child. Besides, I’ve seen the bitch since. More than once.”
My fingers found the wooden token at my wrist. The marks underneath pulsed faintly alongside my unsteady pulse.
“Nevertheless, you are not traveling without me.”
Another long silence. “As you wish.”
Chairs scraped the floor. Footsteps echoed. I ran back to the kitchen.
Alcroft appeared in the door, eyebrows lifting. “Lady Winters.”
