If one blow doesn’t kill the animal, you bleed it slowly until it lies down and dies.
“We need to put Amanda to work. She’s the best at sowing gossip among the lesser members of the Resistance. Belle, you focus on the ones who already hate Talia. Don’t let them forget it. Wilde?—”
He cuts in, voice low. “I’ll handle the rest. Trust me.”
A heartbeat of silence echoes, and then Belle says, “What if Chaos turns?”
I glance at Wilde, who looks uncharacteristically thoughtful. “Then we make sure she doesn’t get what she wants. We find the worst potential outcome and nudge others toward it until she has to return. Framing her as a spy will cause a very public, very ugly collapse.”
Belle nods, and I see new respect—or maybe fear—in her eyes. “You two are scary, you know that?”
“It’s why he keeps me around,” I say, and Wilde’s smile is like a knife-edge.
Belle leaves after a few more whispered instructions, and for a moment, the room is still. Wilde pours himself another drink and offers me one. I take it, though my hands are shaking with adrenaline.
“Do you ever,” I start, then stop.
I don’t know how to express what I’m feeling.
“Do you ever worry this is too much, even for us?”
My mate thinks about it as ice cubes melt in his glass. “No,” he says. “Not for us.”
I want to believe him, but already I can feel the aftershocks rattling through our own little world.
There’s always a cost to madness like ours, and we’ve just written a very expensive check.
For a moment, I close my eyes. I see our mate’s faces as the betrayal was revealed, and the inevitable splintering of their emotions when Wilde came into view. I think about texting Deli—just to see if she’ll answer. But I don’t because I can’t.
If I do, it means I care, and I can’t afford that luxury.
I set the phone on the nightstand and breathe.
The glow of the stars outside casts strange, beautiful patterns on the ceiling. I watch, wondering what’s happening in the Resistance Quarter after we blew up its entire existence with one simple wave. Then I lie back, close my eyes, and let the satisfaction wash over me.
When morning comes, I will deal with the fallout of Chaos’ exit and Belle’s worry. I will do it with Wilde at my side, the two of us perfectly matched in the only way that matters.
Her disloyalty will not do at all. I will find her and reprogram it, or there will be hell to pay.
The Cat Goes Missing
TALIA
“Ithink we’re in trouble.”
The words escape before I can filter them, a damp cough of dread that falls flat in the over-bright living room. Taurus is already pacing, each pass across the threadbare rug punctuated by the stiff flap of his duster as he turns. He’s become a metronome of unease, a presence that makes a space seem three sizes too small and full of static. He turns abruptly, lips curled back just enough to show a threat, or maybe just exhaustion.
“You think?” my primary sneers, voice jagged as gravel. “We’ve been stewing here for way longer than I feel okay with.” He gestures at the battered clock on the wall. “It’s been hours. She’s not just running late.”
Our shared mate is wedged between us on the couch, and he offers a wan smile that’s more an apology than anything. “It’ll be okay,” Rafe murmurs. “She always comes back. We have to let her run the course until her fury is spent.”
Taurus looks from Rafe to me, his golden eyes as wide as orbiting moons, because he’s desperate for confirmation. That’s not typical for the stalking predator within him, but after the mess Sari made, everything has been delicate. Deli has been pulled in too many directions by everyone in this damn place, and it’s not surprising that she’s cracked at the seams.
I would have preferred it to happen here and not result in her going missing, but this isn’t about me.
I exhale through my nose and run my hands over my hair. “The party did it, right?” I say, but the question is rhetorical.
We’re all thinking it.
