Page 67

“I’m good,” I lied.

My chest hadn’t stopped hurting. Nigel was gone forever because of me. My relationships were in the balance because of me. My life was on fire, and I had no one else to blame but myself. I thought that the more I aged, the easier it’d get, but it really felt like a cycle of what the fuck since the night I was saved by Nigel.

Nigel.

The burn was back in my throat, and I swallowed it with another sip of the coffee Jo made for me.

I’d always wondered why Kate couldn’t help herself and chase after guys who weren’t great for her; why she always forgave them when they weren’t perfect and hurt her. I never got it. I thought it would be easy to make the right choices and know how to resolve a dispute when the time came to be involved in a relationship, but after the last year, I realized how wrong I was.

Would I ever get better at this? Would I ever know when it was time to fight or time to leave? Would it ever feel like I made the right decision with someone, or would I always question every choice I made? Or worse, would every choice always hurt someone I cared about?

I was starting to think that every person—young, old, experienced or not—were just faking it until we make it like Kate said. We were all pretending to know what to do, what to say, how to act, but we were all completely winging it. Everyone was just trying to make it through their lives and hoping for the best.

My curious gaze slid over to the kitchen where Sloan and Phillip argued with Grams about cooking because she’d only just gotten back from training and was looking her age thismorning—worn out. I was worried about her too, but when I said anything, she glared and told me that if I had time to be concerned, then I had time to train. Which was such a Grams thing to say, so I stopped asking.

But I knew she was hurting. It was in her eyes. In every tired smile. She was grieving like I was. Anyone who didn’t know her might think she was cold and unfeeling, but I saw how weak she’d gotten in the weeks since she was told Nigel had died.

It wouldn’t be Grams if she wasn’t bustling around, never slowing down, refusing to let her pain show, though. Still, I was worried about her. So was everyone else. Even Kris stopped by a few days ago to check on her.

We’d recruited over thirty Hunters to our side, and the more we collected, the greater the pressure to take on the Organization became. Understandably, they were eager to get things underway, but we still had a few in Lux’s boyband left to kill.

Unfortunately, the remaining few were still unidentified. Other than knowing that One was likely an Ancient Fae, we didn’t have anything else to go on. We were in a holding pattern until we knew where to go next. But after losing Nigel, I was grateful for the break.

I checked my phone, and that was when I noticed a text from Kate and got to my feet. She asked if I could come over, and since Grams gave me the okay to visit her whenever I wanted while we were here, I couldn’t help but want to rush over there any time she asked.

“Out of my way, brute,” Cash complained, still arguing with Phillip.

It was weird that the Austrian was more willing to talk to Cash than he was to talk to me, but I figured it was because he couldn’t be angry with me like he wanted to after Nigel died. So, Cash had been nagged and bothered every day since we killed Harmony.Phillip didn’t let the Dark Fae out of his sight. His to-do list for every day was to ruin Cash’s life, and the texts from the annoyed pretty boy were growing by the hour.

“I’m going to—”

Jo nodded, not moving. “Go. Don’t worry about those overprotective assholes. I’ll make sure they don’t bother you.”

I smiled at her, so thankful that the gorgeous femme fatale was on my side. “Thanks, Jo.”

She waved me off, sipping her cup and keeping her eyes on the bickering group in the kitchen. I took that opportunity to sneak out the front door and head to Kate’s house. It was the only place where I was allowed to forget I was a Hunter in the midst of a revolution and a genetic beast capable of horrifying destruction.

With Kate, I was just V.

I used my insane speed to get to her front door in seconds. I was about to knock like always, playing cute when she admonished me for not just coming in “because you’re family, V,” but my hand stopped before it landed on the wood. The door wasn’t closed. The latch had been broken.

Fuck.

Alarm shot down my body.

I pushed the door carefully before peeking my head inside. I wasn’t prepared to see my friend’s home in shatters. One step into the foyer and I was in a warzone. Furniture was scattered and broken. Walls were torn apart, the cushion padding all over the floor. Whoever came through, they were looking for something.

Fear ate at my insides as I navigated the destruction, terrified to find my best friend’s body and not ready to lose another person important to me. But she wasn’t there. I didn’t hear her heartbeat, and I didn’t smell blood either.

Kate was gone.

Her phone was on the counter near her purse—well, theNightmare Before Christmasbackpack she loved so much that she used as a purse. That, too, had been ransacked. The screen on her phone was left open to our text messages, and in the box, ready to send, it simply said: “She’s waiting for you, so come find her, but do it alone or she dies.” A map location was tagged right after the sinister message. I sent the text to myself and pulled up the location.

It was maybe a two-hour drive, but minutes with my speed. And it was a trap. It had to be. But I couldn’t wait. I wouldn’t bring anyone. I wouldn’t be the reason another friend died. There was only one choice I could make—I’d go alone and destroy whoever had taken my friend.

To Be Continued…