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I let go of her before anyone can get to me, and she scrambles away. She picks up the phone, holding it to her ear. I don’t move. I’ve missed my chance to fucking end her, and it makes me want to tear this place apart. There’s a loud metallic sound, and the floor above us shakes. My father’s suite is directly above this room, and there’s only one sound it could be. A shudder ripples through me.

“Gwyn? It sounded like you were being attacked. Are you okay? Did you do it? Are they dead?” I can hear her sister’s voice on the phone, frantic. I pull my legs up, resting my elbows on my knees, and hang my head.

I’m in a state of shock. I’d watched them for months. Me and Margot had researched formonths. They hadn’t planned anything, had given no indication she knew what she was. I blink, wondering if Sasha is also a hunter. My mouth has gone dry, and I can feel my blood rushing through my veins.

Margot comes to sit at my side. I don’t look at her. “Did you know what she was? Did you lie to me? Did you—did you know?” When she puts her hand on my shoulder, I shrug her off.

“Alright, call me back in a minute,” Gwyn says before shouting some orders to the waiting vampires. She’s making them burn the bodies, and I feel sick. Those were my people, and I’m the reason they’re dead.

“No, Roman. I swear,” my old friend says. “She’s been giving me commands, I think. No idea how long.”

Blowing out a breath, I shake my head. “We have to get out of here.” There’s a loud roar from above us, and Margot’s eyes widen. I don’t know if she understands, but I’m about to rise when Gwyn walks over.

“Don’t let him stand,” she demands, and Margot only looks at me sadly before I sit back down. I won’t make her hurt herself to hold me down. Gwyn stands above me, arms crossed over her chest. “Susan wanted to breed me by force. When my parents wouldn’t let her, she took care of that obstacle with the help of some demons and your brother. I was already trying to figure out a way to take down every last vampire when Hale figured it out.” She laughs, cold and hollow. “She’d been giving me time to mourn their death—because it would be too hard on a fetus. It was an easy shift in our plans.” She has the audacity to fucking shrug.

Sheusedme to kill them. I shake my head. Remy wouldn’t work with someone like Susan, with someone like Charlie. Fuck, he wouldn’t work with demons either, not if he was sober like I thought. It doesn’t make any sense. I’m looking down at my hands when I realize there’s a hole in her story. “Remy called me six months after your parents died. You’re full of shit. He had nothing to do with it.”

At this, she grins. “And when did you last hear from him before that,sweetheart?” I don’t answer, knowing it was the day before her parents died. He’d sent texts here and there, but that was it. Margot never picked him up on any cameras after that night. It’s all lining up, and I’ve been a fucking idiot. “Who do you think made him call his big brother?” She laughs, wicked and low. “Still took you two months to find me with no protection. He thought you’d be faster. Thought you’d save him.”

“You fucking bitch.”

This time, her laugh is soundless, and her jaw clenches shut. She swallows before speaking. “Watch how the fuck you speak to me, Sauveterre. Even without an oath, you’re going to do every single thing I tell you to do, and you’re going to do it without hesitation. Do you understand me?”

The cell phone rings, and she answers it, not lifting it to her ear.

I snarl. “I’d rather kill every person in this room—”

“Ro?” The voice on the phone makes me freeze, and I feel my eyes widen as I stare at it. Lifting my gaze to hers, there’s the tiniest spark in them. A flicker of something which isn’t hatred. It’s gone by my next blink, and I’m just staring up at her, mouth hanging open.

“For you,” she says, handing the phone to me.

“Remy?” I breathe, almost dropping it as my hands shake.

“I-it’s me. I’m okay. Are you okay? I’m sorry. I’m so, so fucking sorry, Ro. I’m—”

“That’s enough,” Gwyn barks out. “Hang it up.”

“Where are you? Where do they have you? What—”

“Hang it up right now, or Sasha puts a silver bullet in his fucking skull. We have shit to do,” she says.

“She’s not lying, bro. I’m so sorry. I fucked up. I’m sorry,” Remy says before he cuts the call himself.

Gwyn clears her throat. “Now, get up. If you ever want to see your brother again, you’re going to help me kill my father.” I just stare at her, dumbfounded. She did all this toavengeher father. “Well, you woke him up, didn’t you? That’s him roaring and shit, isn’t it?”

Agnarr.

I close my eyes, a slow smile lifting my lips, even if the ‘how’ of it is unfathomable. “Clever, sweetheart,” I say, tilting my head back as a chuckle bubbles its way up my throat. Half-hunter, half-vampire, Gwyn only had to Ascend for every drop of blood taken from her to become a weapon. A poison within my coven.

You were never my damnation, Roman. You’re my absolution.

I gave her everything she needed to destroy us. To destroyme.

The moment I get my brother back, I’m going to rip out her goddamn heart.