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“What the fuck, Wes?” He sneered at me. “What the hell?”

The laughter was gone, but I smiled, lifting my hand and pointing right at him. “That’s for kissing her at the gala, for kissing my promised.”Promised…the word felt so good, tasted so good to say again. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again.”

Matias looked guarded for half a second, and then he wiped away the blood from his nose with a smirk. “That’s fair. Are we good?”

I glanced at him, my hand drawing up, touching her ring. “Yeah, we’re good.”

He nodded. “Then what are we going to do?”

I ran my hand through my hair, my mind buzzing. I had to get her out. I didn’t know how, but I had to get her out ofthere before it was too late. Before the prison broke her. I shook my head. “I don’t know.” I grabbed my towel again and started walking. “I’ve got to talk to Sasha. She may be the only one that can save her now.”

“Sasha?Why Sasha?” Matias fell in step beside me.

“Because Sasha doesn’t answer to the North, and she doesn’t answer to my dad. If there’s a loophole to getting Mara out of this mess, she’ll know it.”

Matias fell quiet beside me, and my mind kept spinning.It’s not what it seems.Something happened, and Mara acted. I didn’t know what, and I didn’t know why, but I was going to find out. And I had a sneaking suspicion that my father was part of it. Why else would he give me her ring if not as a silent way to gloat at his triumph?

It wasn’t what it seemed.

She loved me. My hand drew up to her ring a third time, feeling the stone I had agonized so much to pick out. I loved her. I was hers.

Even in anger, I was hers.

Even in hurt, I was hers.

Even in betrayal, I was hers.

I had always been hers.

And I always would be…always.