“It smells like death,” Jasper said, covering his nose.
“Let’s go.” Elle backed up. “Maybe we can chase them.”
That kick between my ribcage hit again, and I was truly mystified. “No. It’s still here! I feel it.”
“Hmm,” Jasper wondered aloud.
I started to pull back a cushion when Jasper threw a little vial of powder onto the floor.
“Reveal yourself,” he called out, and a gruesome scene appeared before us as if an illusion had just dropped.
Dead bodies… everywhere. One of them I recognized as one of Liam’s men, and another I recognized as a man working for the Winter King.
“Cam!” Elle ran forward, and my eyes snapped in that direction.
Cam was lying on his side, trapped under an overturned sofa, breathing heavily. My gaze flicked across from him and landed on the burning blue eyes of Liam.
Rage rose inside of me so sharply that my hands glowed.
Liam was trapped under three dead bodies. They were piled on top of him, and in his right hand, he was clutching a blue crystal. The Sword of Night was nowhere to be seen.
Lost it already?
A thin trail of blood dribbled from his mouth.
Elle helped Cam out from under the couch, and he sat up, and then she went to pull the bodies off of Liam.
“Stop!” I commanded Elle. “He is a traitor to the crown of Faerie. Help him, and you are against me,” I declared as the anger in my heart grew.
She froze, peering back over her shoulder at me with complete and utter shock. I stalked closer, pulled my dagger from my waist belt, and Elle stepped backward.
“Lily.” She frowned. “You can’t just… leave him like this.”
My head snapped to my best friend. “Like he left my mother to die? To die in a bathtub with her stomach opened up?”
She bowed her head in shame and took another step back.
I looked Liam in the eyes, not caring that they were lined with tears, not caring that he looked hurt by my words. Leaning forward, I plucked the crystal from his hand and put my dagger to his throat. “I can’t believe I ever loved you,” I whispered and dared myself to drag the knife across his neck.
I hated him at this moment. Absolute hatred. He took my mother from me andliedabout it. He made me fall in love with him and held this dark secret. I fucked him. I fucked my mother’s killer, and he said nothing.
I hated him, and yet I still loved him, and that was maybe what I hated the most. Maybe I hated myself right now. I couldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t pull that knife across his neck, and it made me hate myself more.
When I pulled back, the emotional agony on his face was undeniable.
“Let’s go,” I snapped, clutching the crystal and heading for the door.
“Come with us,” Elle whispered to Cam, but the wolf shifter just shook his head, looking at me like I was the devil as he cradled an injured arm to his chest.
“Elle!” I barked, and she trailed after me. When I got to the door, Liam spoke.
“My dad… took the other crystals to Montana. The sword too.” His voice was breathless, and for a second, I wondered how badly hurt he was.
I spun. “Stophelping me!” I snapped at him. “If you want to help me, then you’ll die and forget I exist!”
Elle sucked in a breath behind me, and I stormed out of the abandoned house, wondering if I’d turned into a monster.
We drove the short five minutes back to the safe house in complete silence. Other than telling Mara to take us back to Faerie, we were silent in her office as well.
