“What is it?” I asked.
My bestie sighed. “Morgana is already married and has two heirs. By law, Luka can’t enter the final fight without a wife, so…”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “So?”
Liv looked down at her clasped hands, resigned. “He is to marry Cassara tomorrow night in a small ceremony.”
I swayed, the shock of her words slashing into me painfully.
“No,” I whispered, even though I knew it must happen. But I wasn’t expecting it so soon.
Demi and Sage stepped into my side and each slung an arm around my shoulders.
Tears filled Liv’s eyes as she spoke again. “And Luka and Cassara must have an heir within a year or the vampire council will abdicate to Morgana.”
I ripped myself away from the comfort of Demi and Sage and burst down the hall to my room, a sob shoved so painfully into my throat that I couldn’t breathe.
“Aspen!” Liv called after me.
The moment I got inside, I locked the door and threw myself onto the bed, weeping into my pillow.
This was what I got for falling for a vampire. And I couldn’t even leave, I was bound to him for life. The depression of that fully settled into my bones. I couldn’t leave, but I couldn’t fully be with him. What a horrible juxtaposition.
I lay there a long time just staring at the ceiling and ignoring the soft knocks that came at my door. I was considering going back out to the girls and asking them to watch a movie, when my burner phone rang inside my backpack.
I stilled.
Only one person had this number. Sterling. And he was dead.
With a shaky hand, I unzipped the pack and pulled out the phone, seeing that the number was unlisted.
“Hello.” My voice shook as I answered the call.
“Oh good, you’re still alive. Lay low, I will be in touch,” a familiar female voice said before the line went dead.
I pulled the phone back and stared at the screen in shock.
Why would Ruby Thorn call me, and how did she get this number?
My mind spun. Did Sterling contact Ruby? Did Vasquez? Was Ruby in with Maz, or was she an outlier like me?
The sun set as my mind tried to work out all of the details and think up what this could possibly mean. I lay there for hours until I finally got up and slipped into sleep shorts and drifted off to sleep.
* * *
I awoke to a tapping noise.It wouldn’t stop and it pulled me from a deep sleep. The window. Someone was tapping on the window, I realized. Sitting up, I pried my eyes open and looked at the alarm clock blearily. It was 4 a.m. With a groan, I shuffled over to the window and parted the curtains.
Luka.
He stood in the garden, pleading with his eyes for me to open the window.
I did. But only six inches.
“What’s going on?” I asked, the grogginess still fading from my bones.
Luka looked up at me with a pained expression. “Do you want me to marry her? Because say the word and I will leave all of this. We can find another way to save your mom and the breeding farm, and me and my friends can live on the run forever. It doesn’t matter.”
With that, all the sleep fled from me and I was suddenly alert. “No. Then Morgana will become queen and go to war with the werewolves again. You and Walsh, and the rest of Five Crew might get caught one day and thrown back in jail, and we might not have enough forces to save my mom with the werewolves alone.”
