Without turning around, Cade sighed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I was bored,” Cassia quipped, knowing the response would annoy Cade the most. She wanted to gloat as she watched his shoulders stiffen. Finally, he wasn’t ignoring her.
“And why is that my problem?”
“I thought maybe you would like some help with your interrogation.”
Cade finally looked at her. She almost gasped. He looked worse than last week. Ghastly, purple bags hung under his eyes, and the stubble on his face was out of control. And hishair. There were many things about her brother she was jealous of, including his perfect, wavy locks, but now, each strand lay kinked and messy. It looked like he needed to shower and sleep for a week.
“I heard about your party from our father,” Cassia said, hoping he would listen. He needed to get out of the dungeon and into the sun, around people, orsomething. “Maybe it’s time you start heading there. She’s a lost cause.”
Fire brewed behind Cade’s eyes, identical to her own, but before he could reply, Alexia’s voice interrupted them.
“For that bottle of wine, I’ll give you three questions.”
Both of them whipped their heads to stare at her in shock. That one sentence was the most Cassia had ever heard her speak. Beside her, Cade venomously glared. A shiver went up Cassia’s spine. At least she’d never been on the receiving end of one likethat.
“I’ve sat down here for months, tried every spell possible to get past the rune on your skin, asked every question I could think of, andnowyou decide to—”
“That’s a bottle from a winery in Vassuryn,” Alexia said, reaching out her hand. “It’s one of my favorites. After tomorrow, who knows the next time I’ll be able to have some.”
Cassia wasn’t sure she believed her. Something dangerous glinted in the girl’s eyes. Still stunned, she looked to Cade for guidance. For a long moment, he gazed at Alexia calculatingly.
“Do we have a deal?” Alexia asked.
Jaw clenched in determination, Cade swiped the bottle out of Cassia’s hand and thrust it at Alexia. “Deal.”
The air in the room changed.
The Andarrian took a long gulp of wine before she spoke. “What would you like to know? You’ve asked about Cora, Quinn, how we knew about the other gate and the Bloodstone… actually, you’ve asked so many things I’ve lost count.”
Cade stayed silent. For once, Cassia wished he would enter her mind and tell her what he was thinking.
“Or maybe tonight you want to hear about Bridget. It really was a long seven months for her with Cora. I can tell you about the scars on her hands, or her back. Or that particularly nasty one on her calf from when Dante…”
Cassia jumped when the entire room began to vibrate. The bars of Alexia’s cell rattled as a gust of a wind swirled around her. To Cassia’s disgust, the human girl smirked. Beside her, Cade’s eyes glowed as his entire body shook with rage. Without thinking, Cassia touched his arm. For a second, the power radiating off him burned her hand. When she recoiled, his eyes returned to normal. “Calm down,” she whispered. “You only get three questions. Ask the right ones.”
“I know that,” Cade hissed, chest heaving. He turned to Alexia. “As for Dante, why do you think a pole went through the center of his chest thesecond I found your camp in Vassuryn? His face was one of the first things I saw in Bridget’s mind after not being able to find her presence for seven months. Now that I know you’re from Andarre, I’m guessing that was thanks to you.”
“Is that your first question? Whether or not I gave Bridget the amethyst rune?”
Taking a step forward, Cade said, “Don’t pretend to be clever. You know there wasn’t a question in that statement. Why did Cora want Bridget? In Cavamyne, she said someone had been looking for her. That she was sent to get her.”
Cassia closed her eyes. He was already starting off with a stupid question. But she should have guessed all his questions would revolve around Bridget. There were so many other things they needed to know, though, like why Cora seemed to know so much about the Sanguis. And there had to be a reason Alexia requested to go to the human realm. Why purposefully curse yourself?
“As you’ve already guessed, I’m from Andarre,” Alexia murmured, motioning to her tattoos. “I met Cora there. She vouched for me when I was wrongly accused of a crime. If it wasn’t for her, I would have been put to death. After that, I vowed to help her. Someone there found out she was a Witch and asked her to find Bridget.”
“I think you should ask about the Sanguis,” Cassia said, sensing Cade was impulsively about to ask about who sent Cora.
A muscle in Cade’s jaw twitched. She could tell he knew she was right, but Alexia had piqued his interest. Finally, he spit out, “What do you know about Quinn and the Sanguis?”
“I don’t know exactly how Quinn began her time with the Sanguis. After all, they are banished and stuck in Iegorus. Cora said they found a way to communicate with her from there. Something about finding a weak spot in the walls between realms. I only saw Quinn once, right after we found her with Bridget in Pontas with the Gemini coven. She used a bloodspell and talked to them through a rune. She almost looked… possessed. It weakened her enough that we were able to take Bridget after she passed out.”
Cade stilled.
“Ask her why she wants to go through the gate,” Cassia whispered furiously, gripping the edge of Cade’s sleeve.
Who in their right mind volunteered to erase themselves? There had to be a reason for that smug look. But as her brother stepped forward and gripped the bars of Alexia’s cell, she knew he was no longer listening to her.
