“Maybe you should try eating something first? You’re not in good shape. Knox is brewing a tonic to help get you back on your feet, but it’ll take time.”
Keira made a sour face. Knox’s brews were often as foul as they were effective. She was pretty sure she heard him chuckle as he picked her up and carefully set her back on the couch.
“I’m going to get you some food,” Florian said.
Keira shook her head. She didn’t want to eat. She wasn’t sure she could keep anything down anyhow. What she wanted was answers and revenge, preferably in that order, though she wasn’t feeling too selective. “How did you find me? How the hell did you get me out of there?”
“I had some help,” Florian admitted, looking over his shoulder.
She followed his gaze to see… Lord Redfield’s mistress? Yvette wasn’t it? She was standing in the corner of the room. “What in the Fate’s design is going on?” Keira demanded.
Yvette paled.
Florian stepped forward. “Someone sold you out to the cartel. Yvette came to find us, to help you.”
“What? How did she even know? How did the fucking Highwinds find me all the way up there?”
Florian turned to Yvette, letting her explain.
“It was Vi- Lord Redfield. He wants Lord Caspian to marry Priscilla, to expand his influence,” Yvette explained. “He just wanted you out of the way.”
“But Caspian wouldn’t- He was going to break the engagement,” Keira said at once. The sick feeling churned in her stomach. “He doesn’t love her.”
They looked at her with horrible pitying expressions.
“The wedding is in two days,” Yvette said quietly.
Rage rippled through her, hot as acid, turning her veins a violent green. Yvette’s eyes rounded, and even Florian flinched backward. All Keira could think was that all the time she’d been wasting away in that dark hell, Caspian hadn’t even been looking for her. He’d set to marry someone else all over again.
Had any of it been real? Falling in love again? It had been real for her. The terrible thought that he had sold her out flickered in her mind, but it was too horrid to even consider.
Keira’s chest heaved, steam pouring from each exhalation. The sound that came from her was between a sob and a howl, a feral cry of heartbreak. Caspian loved her. She knew it in her bones. What they had was real, and the only reason he wouldn’t be here now was if he didn’t know where she was or why. Her pain hardened, honing into malice aimed toward a single focus. If he couldn’t come to her, well then…
Keira was on her feet, striding to the library’s double doors.
“You need to rest and then-” Florian’s voice called at her back, but she ignored him, throwing open the doors.
She was going to a cursed wedding.
Across the hall, the doors to the common room were open. Already Gareth had stepped out, positioning himself between her and the stairs.
“You’re not thinking straight, Keira,” Florian’s voice chased her. “You’re not strong enough.”
They were wrong. She hadn’t felt this powerful in so long. Now that her magic was back, it wasn’t rest she needed; it was vengence.
“Back to bed, now.” Gareth’s tone left little room for refusal.
Keira’s lips curled in a snarl, teeth lengthening into fangs. She had no intention of being held prisoner again.
“Don’t make me-” Gareth’s words were interrupted by another feral rumbling.
Keira’s attention whipped across the hall to where Knox stood. His eyes flashed silver as they locked with hers in challenge. Keira recognized that gleam in his eye. So did everyone else.
“Fate’s teeth,” Gareth cursed.
Keira had already adjusted her posture into a predatory crouch. This is what she needed, to sink her teeth into something. Her body was swelling, transforming into a being of thick fur and wicked claws.
Across the hall, Knox was shifting too. His transition was nothing like her own, not gradual or elegant. The wolfish form burst from him in a heartbeat, and in the next he was charging at her.
