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I’d been looking for them for what seemed like hours—but the house had been strangely empty.

Cavernous.

The garage was empty and dark, and even the pale violet glow of my magic hadn’t brought me any comfort as I ventured inside.

The secret room beneath the mansion—empty.

Titus’ room. Valen’s loft.

Empty.

The library was the last option.

The doors were slightly ajar and the warmth of firelight spilled into the hallway.

Rage pounded in my ears as I approached the room. The low murmur of masculine voices reached my ears. I should have taken some relief at finding them… but there was only anger and desperation clawing for dominance within my chest.

Finally.

I stormed into the library, gasping, my breath and my hope torn to ragged shreds.

“You can’t let it happen—”

I clutched at the sides of the door, letting it take my weight.

My chest heaved like it had forgotten how to do its job.

Valen, Titus, and Bastin turned to look at me and my heart twisted to see the grim resignation on their faces—the guilt.

My mouth worked as if it had a mind of its own. “You can’t. You can’t let it happen. You won’t let this happen. I won’t let it happen. We can’t— I can’t—”

The word marriage didn’t fit what Lucian intended for me.

I wanted to collapse, but Valen was there before I even took a step.

He caught me in his arms, eyes soft with pity.

“Hush, little bird,” he murmured. “We know. It won’t happen—”

“Don’t lie to her,” Titus snapped as he rose from his chair.

His brothers—my stepbrothers—watched, waiting for the explosion.

Did they think I was a bomb about to go off, sending bits of myself in all directions?

Maybe I was.

My breath came in panicked bursts and I pushed away from Valen, who reluctantly released his hold on me.

“How could you let him do this?” The question clawed its way out of my throat.

“Nothing has happened yet,” Valen said. His voice was soft, and I wanted to believe him.

I wanted to believe that I could fix, reverse, or make this all disappear like a bad dream.

But my dreams haunted me now—they couldn’t just be blinked away.

I could still see the look of triumph in Lucian’s eyes, pale and pitiless, as he’d made the announcement.

Why? Why was this happening?

Any why couldn’t they stop it—

“Avril, listen to me,” Valen said, and he came close and gripped my shoulders tight. I focused on his eyes, dark and full of everything Lucian’s weren’t.

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised, and maybe he meant it.

But what could they do against Lucian? What could they do against the Council that bowed to him as if he were a god and not the evil entity he really was?

Maybe that was how they saw him—maybe that was why they worshipped him.

“After everything we—” My voice was a thin thread, unraveling fast. “You should have told me he was still planning to go through with it—”

“We didn’t know,” Titus said, cutting me off.

I hated that I knew he was telling the truth.

The magical bond between us was strung tight, and I could feel them straining against it.

They couldn’t betray me—if they did, they would die. I’d made that clear enough.

This was a betrayal, but they weren’t responsible.

And they were keeping something from me.

Damn them all.

“What do you know?” I snapped. “Do you know why he’s so… fixated on me? Did you know that he’s been stalking my every move since I was a child?”

No one responded, but Bastian shifted slightly in his chair. How could they all be so… relaxed?

I couldn’t bring myself to do anything of the sort.

But their lives weren’t at risk.

Their lives didn’t hang in the balance like mine did.

“Did you know?” I demanded.

My voice echoed in the room and finally faded away. My chest heaved as I struggled to take a breath, but my stepbrothers didn’t move.

Was I losing my mind?

No. Not losing my mind. I was seeing more clearly than they ever had.

The grimoire’s whispers rose up behind my thoughts and I shook my head to chase them away.

“Answer me!!”

“No,” Titus replied finally.

Liar.

I pressed my fingers against my temples to try to dampen the grimoire’s whispers.

Valen set his hand on my waist and led me toward the center of the room. “You have to understand— This… this isn’t about you. Not really—”

What the fuck was he saying?

I tried to focus on the rough stone walls, the flickering candles, anything but the pounding of my heart. “He thinks if he marries you—”

“ When he marries me,” I corrected and bitterness curdled in my mouth. “He set a date—”

“He thinks…” Valen paused and looked at his brothers.

Did Titus just shake his head?

“He thinks what?” I demanded.

“He thinks it will bind us to him,” Valen said in a rush. “But it won’t.”

In my mind, the grimoire’s hiss was loud.

Liar.

“Bullshit,” I snapped and pulled away from him. “You’re not telling me the truth— I can see it on your faces. What happened? Tell me what you know!”

I wanted to tear something apart with my bare hands, but I could only ball them into fists at my side. I wanted to throw every ounce of my magic at them—but then they would know…

Don’t show them , the grimoire whispered. It’s our little secret…

The grimoire was right—they couldn’t know.

“Sit down, Avril.” Titus nodded at a deep maroon leather chair and Bastian unfolded himself from the couch and crossed the room to pull the chair toward the fire.

I allowed Valen to lead me toward it and sank down onto the rich leather. Bastian sat down on the floor in front of me and laid his hands on my legs. His touch was sensual and comforting, and the anger in my chest began to unwind—but only a little.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

I felt like a petulant child asking a question like that… but I’d felt abandoned and alone in this house for far too long.

“Tell her,” Valen said.

My eyes narrowed as I twisted around to look at him. “Tell me what?”

“Where we were—” he said without looking at me. “She wants to know.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” Bastian murmured in a sing-song voice.

Titus grunted and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Lucian summoned us to a Council meeting.”

“We didn’t have time to explain,” Valen said. His tone was strange and I couldn’t be sure what it meant.

He laid his hands on my shoulders and I didn’t flinch away. Bastian leaned against the edge of the chair and trailed his fingers up and down my shins. The pulse of magic in their fingertips should have soothed me—but the thud of the grimoire in my mind turned their touch into something sinister that made me want to push their hands away and jump up from the chair.

I swallowed hard and forced the words past the lump in my throat. “What happened?”

Titus’s smile was sharp as broken glass. “A purge.” He spat the word out, contemptuous and cold. “Five dead in under an hour.”

My hands flew to my mouth as disbelief mingled with horror. “How?”

“I told you they’d tear each other apart,” Bastian said with a sigh. “We barely had to lift a finger.”

“What—”

“Lucian’s paranoia has overtaken him,” Titus said. “He ordered the Council to reveal spies and conspirators—”

Valen’s fingers tightened on my shoulders. “He didn’t tell us anything. It was so… sudden.”

Bastian chuckle wrapped itself around my senses. “Too easy,” he said. “You’d think they would have tried harder—”

“Harder to what?” I asked in disbelief.

Bastian’s pale gray eyes, so much like his father’s, turned to me as he rested his chin against my knee. “To hide how much they fear him… They’re giving him what he wants. He wants them to fear him so they won’t stand against him. Obedience. Submission. Sure, he wants those, too. But fear is what he craves.” His fingers pressed into my calf. “That’s what he gets from you , little bird… All of those things. He relishes it.”

His words were soft and thoughtful, but they sliced deep into my soul.

“How can you say that?” I hissed.

“Shut up,” Titus snapped at Bastian. “This isn’t the time.”

“She needs to know,” Bastian retorted. “If she wants to help us—she needs to know.”

Titus’ dark eyes met mine briefly before he turned away.

“So— what now?” I asked. My voice shook just a little, but I wasn’t afraid.

I was angry.

“The Black Council is ripping apart at the seams,” Bastian said with a shrug. “We could just wait—”

I frowned and shifted my legs to push him away and he chuckled softly at my movement, but didn’t release his grip on me. “Wait for what? What could Lucian have to gain from this? Isn’t losing followers a bad thing?”

Nothing made any sense, but I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know the answer.

What did I care about what happened to the Necromi?

I cared about stopping this wedding—about stopping Lucian from wiping out whatever chance I had at having a normal life.

“Normal—there’s nothing normal about you,” the grimoire whispered. “Not now. Not after what you’ve done—”

“Shut up,” I muttered and then bit down hard on my lip.

Bastian looked up at me and a curious smile curved the corner of his mouth.

Had he heard me?

He said nothing, just drew lazy circles against my knee with his thumb.

“They know he’s dangerous,” Titus said. “It makes him powerful. And if the ranks are thinning themselves out—”

“Then only fanatics will be left,” Bastian finished. “That makes everything easier. No one will question him when he takes over the Sages Council.”

Was that what he was planning?

My throat tightened with the urge to warn them, to tell them what I suspected—what the grimoire had whispered to me in the darkness. That Lucian may have wanted them here, may have known they’d hatch some sort of scheme. But if I told them what I suspected, they’d know how strong I really was—and how much of myself had been lost to the grimoire.

They’d never trust me.

And I couldn’t be sure if what the grimoire whispered in my mind was really the truth—it had led me astray before.

If Lucian did suspect his own sons, if he was setting them up, they needed to figure it out on their own.

“If all you’re going to do is wait, you won’t get anywhere,” I said. “When he marries me, it will be too late.”

Bastian’s fingers stilled on my shin and Valen’s grip on my shoulders loosened.

Titus looked at each of his brothers in turn, then at me. “You want us to move faster?”

I let out a bitter laugh that tasted as acrid as it sounded. “Why shouldn’t you? You made it pretty clear you’re using me as much as he is.”

Valen winced and lifted his hands from my skin. The cold emptiness he left behind made my stomach twist.

“I should go,” I mumbled.

They were silent for a long moment before Titus ran a hand through his hair and strode across the room to the bookshelves and disappeared from sight. Bastian sighed heavily and unfolded himself from the floor.

He rose to his feet with an effortless grace that was almost feline and looked at me with knowing, silvery eyes in a way that sent a shiver through me and made me think of the sensations that had resonated through me when those same eyes devoured my naked skin.

“It’s not like that,” he said, but I could tell he didn’t mean it—not entirely.

“Isn’t it?” I choked out.

He shrugged and turned toward the fire, the dark smoke of his magic twined around his hand like writhing snakes.

Valen extended his hand to help me up, but I pushed it away as I stood.

“What else happened?” I asked.

Valen’s deep blue eyes were stern as he looked back at me. “You don’t want to know.”

“Tell me,” I insisted.

He sucked in a breath and glanced at Bastian, but his brother didn’t turn. “Lucian didn’t talk to us before the Council meeting. It was weird— he always tells us what his plans are. But not this time. Not even Titus knew what was going to happen.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and glared up at him. Whatever he was about to say wasn’t going to change the way I felt.

Valen shifted uncomfortably. “Lucian announced that there was a traitor in the Council,” he continued. “We— we found him and were—”

“We were going to torture the truth out of him,” Bastian said flatly.

Shit.

That did change things.

I’d always wondered why Lucian’s sons commanded as much fear as their father—that would explain it.

Bastian probably enjoyed it.

Bastian turned slightly and the smile on his angelic face sent a chill up my spine. “But he did the job himself.”

My breath caught as the smokey blackness of his magic coalesced into the shape of a long-bladed dagger. Bastian’s smile didn’t falter as he brought it up and drew the inky blade across his throat. As quickly as it had happened, the blade dissolved into dark gray vapor and Bastian chuckled as it faded away.

“I get the point,” I muttered.

“So did he,” Bastian snapped.

“Avril—” Valen said, bringing my attention back to him. “I just want you to be careful. Don’t do anything…”

“Stupid?”

He frowned. “Reckless.”

“Are you saying that you can’t protect me?” I shot back.

Valen’s eyes widened. “No— Of course that’s not what— No. We’ll protect you. We promised.”

“You did,” I said firmly. “If you don’t keep that promise, you know what will happen.”

My gaze flickered to Bastian. His pale eyes narrowed at me before he turned back to the fire.

“We know,” Valen said.

“That spell can’t be broken,” I said. “If that’s what it takes to hold you to your promise, you can bet that I’ll invoke it if you betray me.”

“Calm down, little bird,” Titus’ rumbling voice rippled through me as he reappeared from between the bookshelves. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.”

He didn’t realize how far ahead I already was.

“Am I?” I snarled. “How would you propose I react to this? Lucian is killing his followers— No—excuse me—he’s letting his followers kill each other to stay in his good graces.”

My cheeks were hot with rage, and my magic pulsed in my palms. More power than I’d ever experienced rushed through me.

Maybe he was right.

Maybe I should calm down.

I didn’t know how to control all of this… not yet.

“Why wait—”

The grimoire’s voice was insistent—harder to block out—and I gritted my teeth.

“Do you really expect me to just— sit back and let this all… happen to me without trying to stop it??”

I was ready to burst into flames with all the rage that swirled in my chest. But Titus’ expression was calm.

I wanted to hit him with something.

Something heavy.

“If you do— If you try to resist him or push him away, he’ll kill you,” Titus said. “Is that what you want?”

Shit.

“No…”

“Then you have to trust us,” he said.

“Trust you?”

The words came out as a strangled shriek.

“How am I supposed to trust you? You didn’t stop him! You saw it coming and you still let him set the date— Are you planning out my spot in the family crypt, too? Have you picked out the marble casket I’m going to rot to pieces in?”

My shouts echoed in the room and I relished the way Bastian’s smile faltered as my words sank in.

Valen’s hand was light on my wrist. “Avril— That’s not going to happen.”

I pushed him away.

It was too much. All of it.

The grimoire pulsed in my mind, urging me to lash out.

I could. It would be so easy.

But then—

Maybe they were right.

If Lucian knew what they were planning—or what we’d already done—he wouldn’t let them anywhere near me.

The spell I’d cast over my stepbrothers, the one that bound them to me. It would have been enough to drive Lucian into a murderous rage.

But even if he didn’t know—he suspected something.

He had to.

Why else would he be so paranoid?

The grimoire’s whispers rose in my mind and I nodded, suddenly understanding.

“You want him distracted,” I murmured as the idea came to me. “You want him to be obsessed with me—focused on me—so that you can…”

He wouldn’t notice what they were up to until it was too late.

It made a terrible, demented sort of sense. But it wasn’t good enough.

And what if it was too late for me?

Titus nodded and Bastian’s chin lifted, but Valen couldn’t look at me.

Curse them all— I was right .

Lucian had set the date for the wedding—and the ache in my chest felt as sharp as a blade when I thought of what it meant.

“You have to be patient,” Valen said. “When we know what Lucian is planning—”

“You bastards,” I whispered. My voice didn’t even sound like my own.

“Avril—”

I turned away from Valen’s pleading eyes and stalked toward the door. With a wave of my hand and a burst of magic, the door slammed open so hard it rattled on its hinges as it struck the stone wall.

“Where are you going?” Valen called after me.

Cool air and uneasy silence wrapped around me once I was in the corridor.

I had no intention of answering him. I only wanted to be alone.

They were right about one thing.

I wasn’t strong enough to stand against Lucian.

Not yet.

But I would be.