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“I think it’s the only plausible explanation. It wants something, and it doesn’t care about the consequences of its actions to have what it wants.” She gestured to the photos. “The more corpses humans have to analyze, the closer they will be to figuring out the truth. It’s only a matter of time before they exhaust all human angles and start thinking about the non-human ones. About the possibility thatweexist.”

“Then what do you propose?” one of the enforcers asked. “We figure out what it wants and if it’s worth giving up, then we strike a compromise and let the demon have it?”

Katarina paled. “No, of course not.” She glanced at Alexandru, and the cold light in his emerald green eyes made her swallow.

“Then whatareyou suggesting?” another enforcer demanded.

Before she could answer, Alexandru said, “I would like to know the same thing as well.” Alexandru faced her fully. “And I hope you speak plainly this time,hunter.”

He saw Katarina flinch, but his frigid gaze on her didn’t ease. This woman might have once owned his heart – might even own it still – but that did not mean he would let her speak ill of his pet.Ever.

“Alexandru, I—-” She started to reach for him, but her hand slowly fell back to her side when she felt it.

Everyone felt it.

The air in the headmaster’s room, dropping to sub-zero temperatures—-

“If you believe my pet is to blame...” Alexandru’s voice was velvety soft, almost musical. “Then say so.”

Katarina paled.

She had heard that tone innumerable times before, but he had never used it with her, and she had never thought he would because when Alexandru had used it in the past, it was always just before he killed.

“I’m sorry.” Fear had her speaking between stiff lips.

“Calm down, my friend.” The headmaster’s voice was quiet. “I’m sure Katarina did not mean any such thing.” As he spoke, puffs of cold air came out of his mouth.

Alexandru started to speak, and Katarina held her breath while tension gripped the rest of the room’s occupants, all of them vigilant as they waited to see if Alexandru would snap.

No words came from Alexandru.

Her heart beating madly, she mustered the courage to look at him.

Oh.

Alexandru’s eyes were closed, his lips tightly compressed. She knew immediately that he was no longer with them, with a part of his mind locked with his pet through the blood bond they shared.

When his eyes opened again, fury swirled in its green depths. “I must go. My pet needs me.”

And then he was gone, his powers fully unleashed, its impact like a torrent of wind that left the humans falling to their knees with dazed expressions on their faces.

Katarina only had a moment’s hesitation before a rare sense of impulsiveness seized her.

She followed him, tracking Alexandru by his scent. It was the only way since Alexandru was moving too fast, making it impossible for Katarina to keep him in sight.

When he slowed down, she slowed down, too, and Katarina realized that they were at Key Moarte. She remembered then that today was the scheduled trip—-

A scream spilled past her lips as fingers came out of nowhere, encircling her wrist and whipping her back. She stumbled to a stop and she screamed again in shock, this time upon finding Alexandru looming before her, with nothing to shield her from his powerful aura.

Leave now if all you have come for is to cause trouble.

Alexandru’s menacingly soft tone in her mind made Katarina shudder. It was like hearing a stranger speak, a terrifyinglyvolatile stranger and not like a man who had once loved her more than anything else in the world.

I come in peace, Alexandru.She dropped to her knees. It wasn’t just a sign of respect, it was also to acknowledge that he was the brother of the marquis and thus he, too, ruled over their kind.

She said in her mind,I am a healer, Alexandru, and your pet may need my help.

Silence, vicious and taunting, as if Alexandru was weighing how much he wanted her alive—-