Page 118

“Where is it, London?” Naomi asks with clenched teeth. “We’re not asking again.”

I can’t respond because the pain in my hand is excruciating. I close my eyes and wait for it, for Nigel to finish me. He grabs the spear and digs it into my side. He presses right into the bit of open skin on my side, piercing my skin and twisting it.

“I don’t know,” I sob. “Micah hid it.”

“We should go get Ezra and let him know we have her,” Naomi says, as if sensing Nigel’s sinister intentions to kill me right here and now. “I can stay with her.”

Nigel takes a step back, and for a second, I’m eternally grateful for Naomi. I wonder if either of them knows what happened to Thomas or if they even care, or how much of a monster Nigel really is. I’m Naomi’s enemy, the one who stole Micah from her. That’s the narrative she has in her head—the poison they are feeding Maison.

Nigel shifts but doesn’t make it far before Micah is in front of him, seemingly coming out of nowhere, and all my tension releases.

The look on Micah’s face is nothing short of terrifying as he pushes Nigel relentlessly until he falls over, tripping into the snow. Micah uses a voice I’ve never heard before, one that makes my insides squirm with delight and fear all wrapped into one.

“Get. The. Fuck. Away. From. Her.”

“What the hell, Maison?” Nigel looks up from where he lies on the ground. “Don’t act surprised. You knew we were going to question her.”

My eyes widen as recognition courses through me at which twin I’m actually looking at. It’s not Micah, it’s Maison.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Maison pushes Nigel back even further into the woods and away from me. “If you touch London again, I will break your fingers,” he growls at him.

Nigel recovers and lifts the spear he stole from me and points it directly at Maison. His lips twist into an utterly cruel smile, even though his face pales. “Back off, Maison. Don’t get distracted by her. She’s only here to get food. She already chose Micah over you. Remember who’s had your back the last few days. They are attacking us, just like you said they would.”

Maison pauses and looks at me, his eyebrows pulled together as if I represent everything that pains him in this life.

Olivia.

I remind him of Olivia.

It breaks my heart how Nigel is using his pain against him.

“He’s Olivia’s brother,” I shriek, and even Naomi eases her relentless grip on me as I finally call out his revenge plot.

It’s time to lay it all on the table and end this.

Maison runs his hands through his hair and stares at him, then at me, confusion etched on his face. “What are you talking about?”

“That’s why he was doing the story on you,” I blurt out. “It wasn’t about the newspaper. He wanted to bring you down for killing his sister. That’s what this is all really about.”

Maison flexes his jaw, like Micah does when he’s about to go off on someone. They are identical when they are mad—and I had no clue. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Maison this lit up.

Fresh emotions are displayed in his eyes, as if seeing Nigel for the first time. In a single moment, it clicks for him, as it did for me. I see the resemblance, clear as day from when I saw the picture of Olivia. Same eye color, same hair, complexion, jaw line—everything.

It all makes sense.

“Get the fuck out of here, Nigel.” Maison’s deep voice makes Nigel stumble back.

Maison, I’ve decided, is much scarier when pissed off than even Micah is. Much, much scarier… especially as the shadows flicker off his face under his gray hood.

Nigel recovers and puffs out his chest but doesn’t make any motions to use the weapon in his hand. He’s not that stupid. “I’m getting Ezra. He will side with me on this one, since you destroyed his life, too.”

Nigel flees into the forest in a blink, and Maison turns his attention to Naomi, who’s examining us carefully, although her knee is still pressed into me.

His eyes flash. “Get out of here, Naomi.”

She releases my arm, and I blow out a breath. All the tension in my body disappears, but I still can’t bear to lift my head from the snow. “She’s lying, Maison,” she says. “If Nigel were related to Olivia, we would have known. London’s desperate right now because she got caught. She’ll say anything to you right now to side with her.”