Kolya narrows his eyes.
“You know nothing, Gabriel.”
“I know everything. I know you’re desperate, and I know you’re scared. Now get out of my house.”
He’s shaking now.
“Get out of my house,” I repeat, “now!”
Kolya narrows his eyes, and I can sense that he’s making the same calculations about killing me.
Instead, he grabs his coat and walks to the door. Once there, he pauses with his hand on the knob.
“Twenty-seven days,” he says without turning around. “Enjoy them, Gabriel. Because after the council, one of us won’t be walking out alive.”
With that, he leaves, the door closing behind him.
I stand there once he’s gone, my pulse hammering.
Twenty-seven days. Twenty-seven days to find proof, to rally support, and to convince the council that Kolya was responsible for the massacre.
Twenty-seven days to protect Thea.
I move to the window and watch Kolya’s car pull away, disappearing through the gates.
He’s right about one thing—the moment she leaves the house, she’s vulnerable. But he’s wrong about the rest. Thea’s not a whore I bought at an auction. She’s the daughter of the man who saved my life.
She’s the last surviving Fetisov.
And she’s mine.
I’ll burn the whole fucking city down before I let Kolya so much as touchher.
That’s a goddamn promise.
CHAPTER 11
THEA
The massive, wrought-iron gate in the back doesn’t latch properly. There’s an electronic panel that I assume controls the bolt, but it doesn’t catch.
“Miss Thea?”
I lean closer, trying to spot what the issue is. The gate nearly blends with the massive hedges that both prevent anyone from seeing in and from scaling into or out of the property. I’ve checked more than a few times—there’s no way to climb it.
But the gate…
“Miss Thea?”
I place my hand on the gate, pulling it just a bit.
It opens.
Holy shit.
Once the gate is pulled a bit, I can see what the problem is—one of the vines, just thick enough—has grown over the sensor.
“Miss Thea? Are you inil mundo dei vivi?”
