“And what if I refuse to go to the Blood Coven?” I ask.
“Then we don’t go.” He doesn’t move, and the hardness behind his eyes shows me that he means it. “Wherever you go, I go. Blood Coven, Council, off a cliff… it doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving you, Jade. I never will.”
The ache in my chest swells until I don’t know how I’m managing to breathe. Because I believe him.
There’s no point in lying and saying otherwise. All that would do is wreck us more than we already are, and I don’t know how much more of this heartbreak I can handle.
“There are three other champions.” I twist my bracelet twice, forcing myself to think instead of feel. “If anyone can tell me what Tempest actually wants from me, and whether this power is a gift or a curse or a cosmic prank that got out of hand, it’s them. And if they can help me figure out whether loving a Revenant makes me?—“
I stop.
Loving.
Notcaring about.Notbeing with.Nothaving complicated feelings for.
I saidloving,and it’s sitting in this cabin like a live current with nowhere to ground.
Logan’s hand presses against the token, and his lips part, and my stupid electricity sends a single arc across the gap between us that connects with his other hand and makes his breath hitch.
“Don’t.” I hold up a hand before whatever’s building behind his eyes can turn into words. “If you say it back right now, I’m going to fall apart, and I need to not fall apart for another ten minutes, minimum. I’m on a tight schedule of emotional breakdowns, and this slot is booked for decision-making.”
His mouth closes, and he nods once, his whole body tightening.
I take a deep breath and force myself to focus. “Do you know where the other star touched are?”
“Ruby operates out of Pine Valley, in upstate New York, with her mate and their wolf shifter pack,” he says, as if he’s giving a military brief. “Amber’s in Manhattan. Her husband’s the kingof the vampire clan there. Sapphire’s in the fae realm, moving between courts to solidify new alliances.”
“How do you know all that?”
“The Blood Coven’s been tracking them.”
“Of course they have.” I huff and twist my bracelet. “That’s not creepy at all.”
“It’s useful.”
“Those aren’t mutually exclusive.” The old rhythm of our banter aches worse than everything that came before, because it feels like a ghost of the trust that used to exist between us. “And one of those options is the clear winner, because I want to go home. To Manhattan. Which means we’ll find Amber first.”
The ache behind my ribs sharpens, because I don’t just want to find Amber. I want to walk into my kitchen and steal bites of whatever the chef left in the fridge, and annoy my sister in the library while she’s studying for her finals over Thanksgiving break, and not think about boys whose blood doesn’t move without my magic pushing it forward.
“You can’t actually go back to your real home,” he says softly, and every vein in my body goes cold. “No one from your old life can know the truth about you. The Council will be watching them, which means you’ll be risking their lives if they do. And going to the fae realm will be difficult, to say the least. Which makes Ruby the most sensible choice.”
Ruby. The one chosen by the moon goddess, who lives in upstate New York, surrounded by wolf shifters and probably an alarming amount of flannel. Not the city where I grew up, where I know which bodegas are open at 3:00 AM, which subway transfers to avoid—anything involving the tunnel between Port Authority and Times Square—and where my old life is buried under a name I can’t use anymore.
And even though I want to fight back, Logan’s right. I hate that he’s right, but he is, just like healwaysis.
“Fine.” I take a breath, and the static under my skin dims to a low hum. “But if you really want to come with me, we need to make sure none of them find out what you are.”
“You’d lie for me,” he says, as if he’s testing the words, trying to figure out if they’re true. “You’d walk into a room full of people fighting Revenants with a Revenant beside you and keep quiet.”
“Apparently that’s my specialty.” I roll my eyes, the words feeling hollow. “I watched you compel Evie, Kieran, and Callie on the Lotus Eaters’ island. I stood on the deck and said nothing, because I chose you over the truth, and I told myself it was protection.”
The words taste like the whiskey Callie shared with me on the deck, cheap and sharp.
“So yeah.” I push off the wall. “I’ll lie for you. I’ll walk into a war room and pretend the man next to me isn’t the thing everyone in that room is fighting against. Because if I don’t, they’ll destroy the token, and then you’re gone, and I can’t?—“
My throat locks, and I twist the bracelet so hard the clasp snaps open. The chain slides down my wrist and falls to the floor, and I don’t bother picking it up.
“I’m not really on their side, am I?” I stare at the bracelet, at the clasp I’ve broken and repaired so many times the metal is warped. “Because Tempest chose me to destroy Revenants, and I’m standing in a cabin planning how to hide one.”
