Page 144 of Revenant

Nobody speaks. Just gnawing silence.

“What about you, Prycey boy? You had so much to say before. Witch got your tongue?”

“Shove it, Eryx.”

“Oh, the whipping boy grew balls all of a sudden.” I’m not sure why I’m picking a fight—or rather, begging for one.

Maybe it’s because somewhere deep inside me, I know what I did was selfish, and I didn’t deserve that little piece of happiness.

Bastian grabs Pryce’s arm when he takes a step forward. “Not tonight,” he tells him, but tonight is all I have.

“Of course Bas is going to be the rational one now that Elias is gone. Underneath all those muscles and tattoos is nothing more than a sad boy who can’t stand to be alone.”

He bares his teeth. “Tonight is not about you!”

“Sure felt like it was about me when I had her legs wrapped around—” My sentence is cut short by something scratching my cheek. The card falls to the ground, and it’s only then I notice Koen nonchalantly shuffling a deck of cards.

“Nobody wants to hear about your pity party, Eryx. Give it a rest.”

“Did you just…throw a card at me?”

“I’ll make it two if you don’t shut the fuck up.”

Soon they’ll be free. All of them, Alicent included. I’ll make sure she gets out of here, away from…all of this. Maybe give her a chance at a normal life.

“We have to go; the blood moon is about to be at its peak,” Koen states. Always the punctual one. But when they turn to leave, something stops them in their tracks.

“What the hell?” Bastian murmurs, trying to push himself through whatever force is keeping them hostage. “What kind of game are you playing?”

I furrow my brow. “I’m not playing a game.” I push through them and much to my surprise…we can’t pass over the threshold. “I swear I have nothing to do with this.”

“Then how else do you explain—”

“Hello, boys. Miss me?” We all stop, attention turning toward the familiar voice in the archives.

“Reyna?” Pryce says, clearly just as confused as the rest of us.

She looks down at herself and rolls her eyes. “Ugh, right. Let me slip into something…more comfortable.” She stares up at the ceiling, a wicked smile on her face as the color of her eyes bleed outward, spilling past the edges of her irises like poured wax, and where it touches, her features turn to smoke, losing their edges the way a reflection does when you exhale on glass. And suddenly it’s no longer Reyna standing in front of us.

It’s the spitting image of Alicent.

“What the fuck?”

“There’s no way.”

“Not possible.”

“Bloody hell.”

The others collectively sound around me. But I’m stunned into silence.

Veil’s smile rings victorious as the smoke finally clears. My mind immediately begins to race, trying to figure out how we missed this. She’s been right under our noses for how many centuries, even sleeping in the same room as Alicent. Roommates. And yet, none of us knew.

Someone else clears their throat on the other side of the invincible wall, pulling Veil’s attention. She rolls her eyes and quickly goes out of view. But as soon as the other person starts to speak, I know exactly who’s first on my kill list.

“Clara gave me what you needed.” Lacey’s voice sounds small. Frightened almost, but I don’t fucking care.

Who the hell let Lacey and Naomi out of their cage?