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“Saints, Jade. I’m so, so terribly sorry. I’ve been thinking about you nonstop and I wanted to come say hi but I didn’t want to bug you and–”

“I’m okay, Adeline,” I said, awkwardly trying to hug her back from where I sat

“Get off of her, Adeline,” Mal warned from his chair beside me.

Adeline dragged a wooden chair next to me, so close that our legs were touching. “Tell me,” she started. Her eyes filled with so much worry that I truly didn’t know how to respond. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” I responded. The words were uncomfortably true.

She glanced at the hanging corpses, and I watched as her nostrils flared in disgust. “They deserve to rot for what they did,” she muttered.

“They will,” I whispered. A comforting wave of power fell over my senses. “I have a feeling everyone who has ever wronged me will get their turn very, very soon.”

Adeline’s eyes snapped to mine. Something dark lingered in her gaze. Something dark and…familiar. Something hungry. “I know you’ll rip them to shreds, Jade,” she said. Her hand came up to tug on my messy braid. “Just don’t feel guilty about it,” she said.

“About what?”

Adeline’s eyes darkened. It was rare for me to see her in this spirit. “About taking over the world and ending anyone in your way,” she said. “And liking it.”

Before I could even process what she had just said, Adeline was leaving the table.

“Well,” Mal cleared his throat. “I’m glad to know she hasn’t completely lost her mind.”

My heart warmed. Adeline was a cheerful, optimistic source of light in Rewyth. But ever since the festival in Trithen, I saw who she really was.

Adeline chose to be that bright light. She had overcome the impossible and survived a life around power hungry, abusive men. Adeline had risen from the ashes, and she was here to create her own destiny now. After so much of her own life had been stripped from her, she chose light.

I admired that about her. That she could have so much taken away and still choose to see the good.

I couldn’t say I particularly felt the same.

“Jade?” Malachi’s voice pulled me from my trance. “Did you hear me?”

“No,” I stuttered. “Sorry. Can you say it again?”

Mal smiled, but it dripped in concern. “I said you better hurry up and eat before your food gets cold.”

“Right,” I agreed, hurrying to pick up my fork. “Sorry, I was just a little distracted.”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he said.

I ate for a few minutes. Swallowing each bite was a nearly impossible task, but there were too many prying eyes watching me. Too many people looking for a weakness to exploit.

The flavor of the food, the same flavor that I had been disgustingly astonished with when I had first tasted it, was now nothing but bland mush.

It wasn’t until Lucien and Adonis slid into the two seats in front of us that I really felt my senses light up.

“What are you doing?” Mal asked, slightly bored.

“You shouldn’t be out here,” Lucien started. “It’s not safe.”

“Not safe?” Mal laughed beside me. “And why is that?”

Adonis and Lucien exchanged a glance. “There are a few who aren’t thrilled about their friends dripping blood on our breakfast plates.”

The low murmurs of conversations around us halted. The only thing I cared about now was Malachi sitting next to me. He looked calm, but I could feel the thrill of power inside of me reacting to his.

Waiting.