But I’ll survive for the few minutes it takes to deal with my pain-in-the-ass ex.
“You didn’t,” she breathes. Then laughs. “You killed her for me? Aw, I’m honoured.”
My lips tighten.
She grins.
Half of me wants to remove her tongue, but I still need her to do her damn job. As much as I want to kill her, doing so will stab myself in the stomach. There’s very few people who hate the Court more than me and Jace. We might have our differences, but I know that at the end of the day, if it came down to it, Evangeline would side with me over her own mother.
The Court upholds Raza’s traditions, and it was those damn rules that took Aurelia from her. From us.
I do not doubt she’ll try to kill me as soon as they’re gone, but while we share the same enemy, we’ll fight side by side. While sleeping with a knife under our pillows.
“You tried to kill my wife,” I say as I move towards her. Not “Raza’s queen”. My fuckingwife.
Her eyes narrow, the first sign of actual wariness lurking beneath her green irises. There’s a calculation there too, a stubborn fool who will fight her way out even if it means killing us all. There’s a reason I didn’t bring a witch with me. A reason I didn’t attack full force at the very start. If she thought I was actually trying to kill her, she wouldn’t have ever been captured like this. She would’ve razed us all to the ground, taking the fucking Court and mywifewith us too. Instead, I had to make her think this was a game. Because Evangeline might be one of the best damn fighters I know, but she has a terrible weakness.
She can’t resist playing with her food – as long as she thinks there’s no risk of it biting back.
If it wasn’t for Arienna, Evangeline’s assumption would have been flawless. I never would’ve risked killing Echo. I wouldn’t have risked revealing her two secrets: one, that she can split her body into multiples, and two, she no longer needs a necromancer to come back. She simply steps into Purgatory and then claws her way back out.
But she doesn’t know me like she used to.
Or perhaps she does given the flicker of fear in her eyes.
She knows what I’ll sacrifice for those I love.
The lines I’ll cross.
“I didn’t try to kill her,” Evangeline says with a roll of her eyes.
“You pushed her out of the tree.”
“You don’t know that was me.”
“An assassin would’ve slit her throat.”
She grins. “So what you’re saying is you’re happy it was me rather than someone else because there’s no way you would’ve got to her in time.”
“Keep baiting me, Evangeline,” I say softly, “and I will kill you here.”
She snorts. “You mean the eight Echos will.” She looks at the one holding her hand. “So are you the main one? Did I actually get those ‘kills’ because the other ones are shit, or did you let me ‘kill’ you as a ploy to get my guard down? Nah,” she says, answering herself, “even if your clones only had a tenth of your skill, they went down way too easily. Fuck. Well played. But I’m not going to fall for it again.” She looks at me at that last sentence, and there’s a promise there. A certainty that she will get out of this.
I pull a knife.
She rolls her eyes, but I can sense the shift in her body. Her fingers twitch down at her side as she prepares herself to go outfighting. Knowing one of us has to be the bigger person, I force my anger down and step back. Anyone who goes toe-to-toe with Evangeline has to be willing to lose their whole foot. And their leg. And the rest of their body. And I’m not. Because I’ve finally found something worth living for.
She studies me for a moment, our entire history in that look. Then she sighs and glances at the Echo in front of her.
I hesitate a bit before sheathing my knife and ordering them out. The eight of them move into the hall just in time to intercept the two dozen guards that have come running after the explosion.
“Leave us,” I tell the new arrivals.
Evangeline smiles at them and waves her broken hand at the elbow, her fingers crooked and bleeding from bits of bone sticking out of her flesh. Echo’s grip isn’t natural. But then, nothing of her is anymore.
Slowly, they back away, returning to their old positions as the Echoes stand guard in utter silence.
“You gotta admit my plan worked though,” Evangeline says as she hops over to the sofa, then sprawls down in front of it. “I eliminated a good chunk of your enemies, making the world safer foryourwife.” She says those last two words mockingly.
