Page 39 of Violet

“See what?” I ask, trying to hold back tears.

“See you shift. See what you really look like.”

I hesitate, but what’s the point of hiding when he already saw me shift once?

I let go of my magic, and Nole’s eyes widen. For a split second, he just stands there, taking me in. His eyes roam over my messy hair and plain face, down to my baggy, shapeless clothes. I don’t look great—or all that good, even—but when he growls, I feel a moment of hope. Maybe Nole finds me attractive, even if only a little. Maybe I can get him to forgive me.

“You’re a fraud,” he spits instead. “And a liar.”

I flinch.

“Nole, I had no choice,” I plead, keeping my voice down. “And you have to promise you won’t tell anyone.”

Nole just shakes his head. Then he turns and walks away.

“Nole, please,” I cry after him, but he doesn’t look back.

Chapter 17

Nole

I storm out of Violet’s apartment and charge toward the stairwell. The same stairwell where I hid when she’d shifted for her precious blood mage.

Who knows how long I stood there, frozen, my mind and body like cement. Was it five minutes? Ten? Thirty? Would have been all night if I hadn’t heard footsteps echoing faintly from downstairs.

Then it was like a storm had started brewing in my chest: anger, betrayal, then images I couldn’t shake. Violet shifting into a younger woman. Violet pulling her lover inside. Violet stripping for him. Violet fucking him. Violet letting him have his fill of her hot, young body—a body she never let me see.

How could she lie to me all this time?

Betrayal courses through me until I can hardly breathe. My mate chose another man over me. My mate could have had us both—could have been with me for months before she met Cash—but she didn’t want me. I wasn’t good enough. I was just her assistant. I was just a joke.

Did she laugh at me every day? Mock and ridicule me behind my back while my heart broke? While I was forced to watch her age? While I spent every night worrying that one day soon, she’d die, and I’d lose my Violet?

I picture her: gray hair, wrinkles, walker. The Violet I thought she was. My friend, my mentor, my mate. The Violet whose memory I planned to carry in my heart forever.

Did I imagine everything we’d shared? The laughs? The heart-to-hearts? That feeling of peace whenever we worked side by side? I must have, because none of it was real. Just a trick. An illusion. The ultimate prank.

I guess now she’s having the last laugh.

I suddenly need air. The stairwell is too small, too narrow. I can’t shift in here—the walls would crumble. That or I’d get stuck, weighed down by actual cement.

If Violet lived a few floors down, I’d jump through the window at the other end of the hall to get out of here. That’s how desperate I feel. Instead, I’m forced to run down four flights of stairs, feet pounding, sounds echoing, while the walls close in around me.

I feel trapped. My lungs constrict. I think I might never breathe again. Then, I finally break free. Push out the front door and stumble onto the nearly empty street.

The sun’s just starting to set, and I race through the dusk, letting my feet carry me. I haven’t a clue where I’m going until I find myself in front of Jewels Cafe. Where my older brother, Wes, lives in an upstairs apartment with his mate, Amber.

“Nole? What’s wrong?” Amber gasps when I throw open the cafe door. Bells jingle wildly above my head. I’m surprised the glass doesn’t shatter.

“Is Wes here?” I demand, looking around wildly. “I need to talk to him.”

Except my brother’s obviously not there—at least, not downstairs. Neither are Amber’s other two mates—Chase and Julian. There’s only one customer: a witch, floating cross-legged above one of the tables.

She casually pulls out a blue plaid scrunchie from the front pocket of her overalls, completely unfazed by my presence. “Boss man’s just finishing up one last job,” she says as she ties her brown hair into a ponytail.

“Zoe’s just waiting for him to come back so she can take the van,” Amber adds.

“You work with my brother?” I demand.