Page 21

“Did Remy not mention it?” I ask, wishing she would tell me everything that had been said by my brother—everything that had beendoneto my brother—during his captivity.

She presses her lips together, not willing to give me an answer. My grip tightens, and I drag her across the countertop. At the last moment, she twists and hooks her leg up, using all of her strength to kick me in the chest. She’s just as strong as I am, but far more agile. With the threat of hunters essentially eliminated, there was no reason to rely on anything other thanour vampire strength. She’s not wearing any shoes, but the blow to my sternum isn’t pleasant, nonetheless.

“Fuck,” I grunt as I let go of her. Gwyn hops off the counter, and her dark hair tumbles out of her hair clip when it falls to the ground. Without turning to face me, she shakes out her hair and stretches her neck. Her shirt is riding up too high, and that thin strip of pale skin is enough to make my fangs lengthen. God dammit.

“If you wanted to chat, Roman, you could have called. No need to make your uncle kidnap my fucking sister.” Gwyn turns around, tugging her shirt into place. “I’ll need proof of life before I answer a single question.”

“Or you can answer them in good faith,” I suggest as I pour myself another drink. She’s lucky the glass didn’t get knocked off the table.

“I let you speak to Remy,” she says, and this time, when she snags my glass, it’s only to toss it back and swallow it in one gulp.

“And it was the least you could do after making me think he was dead,” I retort before I drink straight from the bottle. “What’s your real plan? You want to just give me Agnarr’s bloodsworns? Give me back the coven then fuck off to the beach?”

“Well, thatwasthe plan, when you were cooperating.”

“Why? Why bother killing Agnarr?”

“He’s a threat,” she says, as if it’s the most simple answer in the world. As if it makes sense. But she’s too casual. Not a single word she says should be trusted—not without exhaustive questioning. “Youwon’t kill me.Youwon’t send assassins after my family for decades. He might.”

“What makes you think I won’t?”

At this, she smiles. Her fangs have lengthened in her mouth, and her tongue teases the tip of the sharpened tooth. “Oh, I expect you’ll try. But I’ve already outplayed you once, Roman.Agnarr didn’t get to be old as the hills without being clever. You, however, have somehow made it this far without more than a scant few brain cells to rub together.”

I refuse to let myself rise to her bait. There is no fucking world in which I will let her see that her barbed words are perfectly designed to sink into my most inflamed wound. Because it was my stupidity that allowed this to happen—and she’s right.

“Explain what you said in the ballroom about Ansi’s cave.” I take another swig of the Brennivin, enjoying the slight anise taste.

The rueful twist of her lips, the slight hesitation, and the shift in her posture tells me Gwyn is considering telling me the truth—probably because she knows I’ve caught on to her omissions. It’s how she kept her ruse up for so long. Sometimes shewastelling the truth. No more than necessary, but enough to make her lies easy. Now, though, I’m familiar with it. There will be no dancing around questions or giving slightly related answers—not anymore.

“Explain.” I repeat, insisting on her answer.

“‘To her bite, they did succumb,’” she says, uttering lines from a history she shouldn’t know. “They didn’t die. Well, Hallbara and Geir didn’t die. Those two killed Sif almost immediately. But the other two didn’t die.”

“How do you know this?”

“Where do you think hunters come from?” she asks, huffing in annoyance. “And witches?”

It’s not something I’ve ever contemplated or been told about, so I don’t bother trying to come up with an answer. “In your case, the ninth circle of hell, I’m sure.”

For a fleeting moment, I catch her smile, and it pisses me the fuck off.

“Your history is our history,” she says after a moment, but then her lip rolls inward and she takes a deep breath. “They couldn’t turn anyone until after Agnarr and Ketill were Made. After that, well…Geir mostly stayed in Europe, but Hallbara started colonies everywhere. Why do you think vampires appear in basically every culture?”

I swallow, doing my best to make my heartbeat steady, and I don’t allow my expression to show anything other than dull surprise. Until I’m certain, I can’t show my hand. “Are they still alive?”

“No,” she says, and her lips turn up into a sultry smile. “None of them.”

She’s fucking deranged.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and Gwyn tries to jump across the counter to snatch it out of my grasp when I pull it out. Sticking my arm and elbow out, I block her from taking it when I answer Nico’s call.

“Big fucking problem,” Nico shouts down the line, and the sound of screeching tires makes me wince. “It’s Emile.”

9

GWYN

“He’s been wavingat me to pull over. What do you want me to do?” Nico asks Roman, and that’s when I realize Emile was never part of their plan. The millennia old vampire has gone rogue, and he’s an immediate threat to my sister. I stare at Roman’s hand as he adjusts the phone in his grip.