Page 116 of Crave Me

“You’re starting to glow,” Fallon whispered.

“Because I’m pissed off,” I declared, my eyes narrowing as I considered everything I’d been through in this realm. Everything I’d found. Everything I was about to lose.

And I didn’t even knowwhy.

“Why is he doing this?” I demanded, my ire increasing with each passing moment and filling me with a new kind of rage. A rage that required blood. A rage that made me want to slaughtereverythingin my path.

“The vote,” Fallon muttered. “Vesperus voted in favor of Death and Diamond, so we lost our home in the process. Klas didn’t take it well.”

This is because of the vote?I thought.

“But he was already angry,” she continued. “He’s been a lower-level mercenary for decades and felt that he should be moving up faster. Then he found out Vesperus approved the vote, and it further proved to him that our king doesn’t care about his well-being.”

“So he took it personally.”

“Verypersonally. But that’s Klas. Everything is about him. If someone glances our way, they’re obviously evaluating him. If someone cuts us off, it was intentional and meant to piss him off. If he was assigned a low-level mark, it was because Vesperus and the others undervalued him. He’s…”

“A narcissist,” I finished for her, unable to hide the hiss in my tone. All of this was because Klas felt left out of a decision that hadn’t been his to make. A decision that had led to a mostly positive impact.

Kieran and Vesperus had offered everyone a choice. They were working together to ensure the comfort of those impacted, not to mention the long hours and careful evaluations of all the requests. I’d witnessed Vesperus’s exhaustion firsthand. He genuinely cared about his people.

And this was how his mercenary chose to thank him? By creating chaos?

“Yes,” she agreed after several minutes. “Narcissistis a good descriptor. When the vote happened, he was angry. So he decided to test Vesperus.”

We turned onto a street I recognized, confirming we were still in Reykjavik. But it seemed we were several blocks from where I needed to be.

I glanced up at the waning night again, my heart in my throat.Please don’t let him die. Please let me make it in time.

“He… he put in a request to transfer to Iceland, and when it wasn’t immediately approved… he decided to take out some of his competition,” Fallon continued, her words miraculously managing to reach me over the thunder in my ears. “In Dublin.”

My brow furrowed, some of the roaring in my head quieting long enough for me to say, “He blew up the bar.” I should have already guessed that. “To fake his own death.” To cover his tracks and come here.To hurt my mate.

“He hired a witch to cast an explosion spell,” she replied. “It was meant to take out Slater and Nolan. But you saved them. Which infuriated him. So then, yes, he faked his own death. And decided to come here for revenge.”

I considered her words and the events in Dublin, how Vesperus had told me there werethreedead bodies, not two.

Making Klas the third.

Stars,I thought.Why didn’t I ask more questions?

Because I’d been too consumed by the fated-mate magic to focus.

Because I’d been too annoyed by the implication that I attacked the bar to question the body count.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was reaching Vesperus and—

A gunshot cracked through the air, making me call on my ability to phase. Only it was still nonexistent. As was my ability to create a shield.

I ducked instead.

And somehow found myself under Fallon.

She felt heavy on top of me, which was strange because she wasn’t very big. Curvy, yes. But short. I tried to maneuver out from under her, to see where the attack had come from. However, she wouldn’t move.

She was dead weight on top of me.

A sickening feeling touched my gut as I realized why.