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“You’re saying that Margo is possessed? That the others were possessed?”

Quinn just pinned me with his golden gaze. He knew I already had the answer. But the next question, the one I didn’t want to ask, but needed to, had me shaking.

“So, what do they want with me?”

35

CORDELIA

No one said a word in answer. Each of them looked like they had an answer to give—they just didn’t plan on sharing it with me. Even Alric wouldn’t look me in the eye, and that hurt more than I could deal with.

Camel, meet straw.

“Okay. I’m going home.” I pulled myself out of Bellamy’s grasp. “Where’s my purse?”

“Pixie, wait⁠—”

“No!” I whirled on Alaric, mad enough to breathe fire, and jabbed a finger into his solid chest. “In the last four hours, I have been attacked by a demon, healed by magic, found out that the first man I ever loved is, in fact, not just a figment of my sad imagination, and learned that I’ve pretty much been lied to my whole life. So, no. I’m done waiting.”

“Alright,” he surrendered, a muscle in his cheek twitching like he was fighting a grin.

Quinn crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. “Feel better?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, wanting to hold on to the heat of my outrage, but it slipped through my fingers like smoke. “Yes,” I said, not giving him the satisfaction of calling me out on another lie. “But I’m still going home.”

Alaric moved back into my space and tipped my head back with a knuckle under my chin. “We’ll take you home,” he agreed. Flecks of gold sparked in his hazel eyes. “We can finish this conversation there just as easily. But then you’ll be packing a bag and coming back here.”

My heart skipped a beat before racing to a full gallop at his suggestion. No, his demand. “You don’t get to tell me what to do.” The words came out breathy and unconvincing.

The cocky bastard just smirked. “Are you sure?” He lowered his face, our lips only an inch apart. “Because that might be a perk that comes with being the first man you’ve ever loved.”

My face flamed, but before I could sputter a protest, he dropped a teasing kiss on the corner of my mouth and straightened. I glared back at him, really hoping I was sending ‘rip your heart out’ vibes and not the ‘rip your clothes off’ urge I was feeling.

He had the nerve to wink. “Bel, you’re driving.”

I spun to find a nervous-looking Bellamy holding my purse. I snatched it out of his hands and marched toward the door. “Egotistical, pushy males,” I muttered as I passed.

“You’re not mad,” Alaric chuckled behind me.

“I’m mad!” I threw back over my shoulder while I wrenched open the busted front door.

“Liar,” Quinn helpfully supplied.

I bit my lip hard enough to sting to keep from laughing along with them. At least Bellamy had the good sense to look contrite. I’d almost reached the SUV when two arms banded around my waist and pulled me back against a hard body.

“You’re in the back with me, Pixie.” Alaric’s lips brushed the shell of my ear, making me shiver. “Please, trust us to take care of you.”

“You know I trust you,” I sighed as I climbed into the back seat. He grinned and climbed in after me. While Bel and Quinn got settled in the front, he reached over to buckle my seatbelt and gave my cheek another quick kiss. I didn’t resist when he took my hand and interlaced our fingers.

The silence that filled the car as Bel navigated down the winding road wasn’t exactly a comfortable one. My thoughts were far too hectic for that. But eventually, between the green blur of the forest as we drove and Alaric’s thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand, I zoned out. Maybe that was why I didn’t immediately register the black van that had come up alongside us, trying to pass.

“The hell?” Bellamy muttered in the driver’s seat in front of me.

Then it was all chaos.

The van veered sharply, slamming into us. The screech of metal drowned out my strangled scream. Bellamy managed to correct our course after the first hit. He wasn’t so lucky when the second one came. The SUV lurched over the shoulder and toppled, roof over wheels, down the steep embankment. It happened so fast, yet it felt like forever. One, two, three times the car rolled before it slammed into a tree with enough force to shatter every window, coming to a stop on its roof.

I didn’t think I passed out. Maybe I did. Honestly, everything was still spinning, and I wasn’t entirely sure what was real. The ringing in my ears, that was definitely real. The pain in my body as I hung upside-down, suspended by my seatbelt, that was real too. The airbags had deployed and deflated, probably the only reason I was still alive. But I wasn’t the only one in the car.