Page 108 of Fighting for Her Heart

Zuben and Ryker arrive on either side of me, their strong presence an unbelievable comfort and source of strength as my body heals from the very real near-fatal chest wound.

“Let’s talk,” she says, and my surroundings transform into the living room at the farmhouse. The men don’t seem to notice. “Sit.” She gestures toward the sofa.

“I’m done with your tricks. Done talking to you.” Feeling weak and tired, I don’t waste energy on breaking her illusion and instead crouch next to Axe and rest my hand on his strong back as he rises.

Axe wraps his arms around me, but I keep my eyes fully on Nora. There is no chance I will let her get the better of me—not again. Not when I have all three of my men around me.

“There’s plenty of time to talk.” She crosses her arms over her chest. “I’ll wait until you calm down.” Her smug smile is so condescending and the fury and light inside me build.

“We have nothing to talk about.”

She sighs. “But of course we do. I know this is difficult for you to comprehend, but soon you’ll see that working together is the only way.”

“The only way to what?” I snap. “If you think you areevergoing to take another drop of blood from one of these vampires…”

The three men gather around me, all of them touching me, showing support.

“Fine.” She sighs. “I wanted to make this easy for you, but you’ve left me no choice. Seems you prefer to make this difficult.”

She spreads her arms. The men fly to the sides of the room, landing hard when their backs strike the walls.

They try to move back toward me, but can’t.

“Let them go.” I glare at her, incredulous that she still thinks she can best us.

She turns to Zuben. “Kill them.”

A crossbow appears on the wall next to my tall Egyptian, and he takes it off its holder. The expression on his face tells me everything I need to know. Zuben’s moving against his will, struggling not to do what Nora commands.

“Ember,” Nora says sweetly. “Which one should Zuben exterminate first? The charmer or the bear?”

“You need them.” I glare at her. “You won’t kill them.”

“Have you not been paying attention?” She shakes her head, just like when she was homeschooling me and I didn’t understand my lessons.

“I don’t need these vampires. Not all three of them, anyway. Especially not if I have you—and your sisters and birth mother.”

“Liar!” The label fits, whether she’s lying now or was lying when she told me my family was dead.

“You know better than that.” Her chin rises. “I don’t lie.”

“You lie all the time! If they’re alive, where are they?” She even pretended not to know about Octavia or DEFTA.

Irritation flashes on her face. “Temporarily unavailable to me. Taken when the fools at DEFTA cleared out that prison.”

“They were in the dungeon?” My voice dries my throat and my heart skips a beat. Was I really so close to my mother and sisters while I was trapped down there? “Are my sisters and mom vampires too?”

“Your kin were among the blood donors offered to the prisoners at the new moon.”

“Bullshit! And if they’re illuminants, why do you need me?”

“The sunlight protection that their inferior blood offers to vampires is fleeting. And they don’t have the power to create lambent vampires. At least not as quickly as you can. But I still have faith that given enough time, enough feedings, your sisters can create them too.” She shrugs. “But all that is moot. I have you.”

My jaw tightens and I glare. My light swirls and builds inside me, but I can’t act on impulse. I can’t lash out every time I get angry with her. I need a plan to trap her, to dull her magic so we can turn her over to the proper authorities, whoever they are in this case—the Council of Magic Keepers, perhaps. Zuben will know.

But so far a sound plan eludes me. Since she can change the state of the world around us—trick us all so easily—how can I devise a cage that will hold her? How can I be sure that anything is real.

“Have you selected?” she asks.