Page 8 of A Token of Blood and Betrayal

My irritation fled, replaced by a different kind of tension.I’d hoped to avoid this conversation, but Nora was holding a grudge, and calling me out.I’d found the token after she’d left to search for boxes to pack up my parents’ room.That had been just half an hour ago.She deserved an explanation, and if I wanted to hold on to this weird new friendship we were developing, I couldn’t lie.I also couldn’t tell her Garion’s secret, not without his permission.

“I can’t tell you,” I said.

“You can’t or you won’t?”

I flinched at her sharp tone.“I just… can’t.Not yet.”

Everything about her—the set of her shoulders, her frigid eyes, the superior lift of her chin—screamed that I wasfathomsbeneath her.

“I want to,” I said.“And I’ll tell you when I can.”If I can.“It’s not my secret—”

“You like to do things on your own.Do this.”She jabbed a finger toward Deagan.

“He’s your husband’s best friend,” I said.“Don’t take this out on him.”

“I amdone,” she said.

I clamped my lips together, not knowing if she meant she was done with Deagan or with me or both.Either way, anything I said at this point would just—

“Pissing off paranorms again, are you?”

The voice came from behind me.Too close.Too familiar.Too much my weakness.

Chapter Three

Awarenessspikedthroughme.Blake.I hadn’t seen him in three days, hadn’t heard his voice or felt the air warm and shift with his movement.Heat tightened low in my stomach.It didn’t matter if we were inside the Null or outside of it, when he was near, my body became attuned to his presence.

It took effort to school my features, to let only my frustrations with Nora, Jared, Canyon—my whole life really—bleed into my expression.I shouldn’t be surprised Blake was there.He had a gift for showing up when I was running out of the duct tape patching my life together.

“Now is not a good time, Blake.”I kept my gaze on Nora.She hadn’t given any indication she’d seen Blake approaching.Even now, she remained focused on me with that familiar, infuriating arrogance.

“It’s never a good time for you.”Blake nudged Deagan with his shoe.“Is he dead?”

“No.”My response was curt and cold—a win considering my body’s reaction to him—but I made the mistake of breathing in too deeply.His rugged, earthy scent filled my lungs, promising a run through a moonlit forest followed by a tumble in silk bedsheets.

“He looks dead,” Blake said.

“He’s not.”I still didn’t look at him.If I met his eyes or saw a curve of amusement on his mouth, on those lips I’d tasted and kissed, he’d pull me off-balance.That couldn’t happen.Too many other, more important things needed my attention.

“Jared brought him?”he asked.Ifelthis gaze.

“Why do you care?”Nora demanded before I could reply.At least I wasn’t the only one she was snapping at.

My peripheral vision caught Blake’s shoulders lifting.“Just wondering if he was Jared’s departing gift.”

Blake’s voice was a drawl in contrast to Nora’s sharp words, maybe because his reply wasn’t really directed at her.He was analyzing me as ifIwas the reason Deagan was alive.The answer was yes, but Blake couldn’t know that.Only Jared, Christian, and Melissa had been in the underground chamber when I’d shoved a blade into Arcuro’s back and then fired bullet after bullet into the vicinity of his heart.Plus the idea that a human could kill an Aged vampire was pretty much unfathomable.I barely believed it myself.Blake was just throwing out accusations to see if I’d reveal something I shouldn’t.

Drawing in a slow, deep breath, I focused my thoughts on Garion, on Deagan and Canyon.I made myself remember Shelli’s death in the woods and Jasmine’s body outside my door, and Ialmostlet myself unlock my hurt and anger at the loss of my parents, but once that door opened, it became too hard to shut.

As ready as I could make myself, I finally met Blake’s too-perceptive dark brown eyes.“Do you have a reason for being here?”

“It’s good to see you too.”His mouth quirked.The polite tone was a cover though.He was testing me, searching for weaknesses in the wall I’d built between us.When I didn’t react, he reached into his back pocket.

And took out an envelope.

My composure vanished.First Jared and now Blake?“You can’t be serious.”

His smile turned genuine.I’d given him the reaction he wanted, damn it.