Derrick turned to me and his voice broke. “Nothing was going to stop my father from trying to kill him…not even a blood bond with the woman I loved.”
I could not breathe. My chest was tight, but my heart was warm.
He put down the bottle and stepped closer to me. His beautiful blue eyes swam. “So, yes, I paid Grigory to kill him. I gave you that dagger and promised you a marriage to another man if you protected yourself.”
Derrick took my hands in his and suddenly I was trapped in the pools of his eyes. “Riyan was always going to die. If you had sealed that blood bond…I could not let you die with him.”
My throat trembled with a fledgling sob. I wanted to scream at him and curse his blood for trying to murder Riyan. And for deceiving me. And for plotting behind my back.
But I could not deny that his intentions were anything but pure. Every ribbon of logic and sense in my mind twisted into an endless knot. Why could I not just hate him? Why could I not just put him to sleep and run like I had planned?
Derrick’s thumbs stroked the backs of my hands and he smiled. “I would turn the world upside down for you, Serafina.”
“Youass!”
We both turned. Brietta’s white face had flared red.
“You only paid Grigory to saveher!” she yelled. “If Riyan had chosen me like your father planned, you were just going to let me die with him?”
I yanked my hands out of Derrick’s grip. He squared his shoulders and his lips opened to reply, but Brietta cut him off.
“Was I just the sacrificial Hyton lamb?” she shouted. “Big enough to breed but not valuable enough to save?”
His brows furrowed. “Brietta—”
“I wrote those damn poems!” Her eyes watered, but she still bared her teeth. “For years, it wasme!And you would have just let me die!”
The situation was spiraling out of control. We had to get out, even if we just had to outrun Derrick without using magic.
Then Derrick turned to me and I froze. “That was you, Birdie. She is just lying—”
Brietta pushed herself between us. “How much longer are you going to stay in your damn dream, Derrick? There was no Birdie, there was Serafina and me trying to make you fall in love with her!”
Brietta was backing Derrick against the wall, so I scanned the portraits. Each one was too small, too high, or too round to be the one I needed…
“We were foolish schoolgirls, grasping for control wherever we could.” Brietta stepped forward as Derrick stepped back. “But nowyouget to be the fool…”
My eyes settled on a portrait of three pink roses that was the right size…
“Serafina and I are leaving you…forever. Your line dies with you, you stubborn bull.”
I quickly cast out my magic, sensing the faint twinkle of an “X” on the other side of the portrait.
Daigen had made both a window and a door.
“She is not leaving me!” Derrick cried.
I whipped my head around. Derrick’s chest rose and fell as he barely contained his outrage.
My stomach knotted—Alastar was rising.
His voice was low and deadly as he faced Brietta. “You can lie to me all you want.” He took a small step forward and Brietta took one back, then again. “I might not always know what day it is. Or how to speak properly. Or whether blood truly coats my hands. But one thing I know for certain is that Serafinalovesme.”
I nearly choked on my tongue as guilt consumed me whole. Derrick stepped over and held my face. My breath froze as tears pricked the backs of my eyes, but my white flame spread through my body, warming my throat as the truth that I had held back for years threatened to escape.
Soon, my life would no longer be mine. Soon, I would never have the opportunity to release the truth on my own terms.
So I finally let the truth out.
