Page 23

Bryce, however, did not seem to be the wise sort, and after sucking in a deep breath, he moved forward, ready to argue. But before he could, Brayden stood between him and the dragon.

“Hey,” Brayden said, grabbing Bryce’s arm. “Stay here with me. I need to talk to you.”

Bryce glanced at Bryden. “Why do you need to talk to me right this instant? I talk to you every day.”

“I have to tell you a secret,” Brayden said, glancing at Anthony. “You’ll like it. Anthony told it to me.”

Anthony frowned at him.

“What secret?” Bryce scowled. “You don’t have secrets. Circumstances notwithstanding, you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”

“I know, I’m awful.” Brayden jerked Bryce’s arm, and Bryce stumbled in his direction. “That’s why I’m going to tell you what it is!”

“Hey,” Anthony protested. “It better not be that secret!”

“You’ll get to learn about it before everyone else!” Brayden bribed. “Before Jin !”

Bryce pursed his lips, contemplative. “I accept,” he said finally. He looked at Damen and nodded. “I will allow you to leave with my sister.”

“I wasn’t asking your permission,” Damen answered. “I was just going to let Titus kill you.”

Bryce ignored him. “But be quick about it,” he said, waving at us. “Do not betray my trust.”

“What the hell are you even talking about?” Damen grumbled but moved toward us nonetheless. “I don’t answer to you.”

Still, he stopped in front of me. “Let’s just get out of here,” he said, side-eyeing Bryce as he moved to stand in a circle with Anthony and Brayden. “Before that pain in the ass changes his mind.”

“Is this better?” Julian asked as he tucked a blanket around my legs. He’d pulled a thin chair next to the coffee table, and the others trickled into the room around us, taking various seats as he fussed around me.

“Y-yes,” I told him. He looked so stressed that I couldn’t resist my need to reassure him. I grabbed his hand before he could back away and smiled. “Thank you! You’re so nice!”

Julian stared at me for a moment before slowly blinking. “Right,” he said—although I wasn’t sure why he sounded so guilty—and squeezed my hand. Then he turned to the table and began removing various items from the small bag he’d brought with him.

“Finn—” Damen sat near me, his elbows braced on his spread knees as he looked at his brother. “I do have a question for you.”

Finn stood across the room and straightened at the sound of his name. “What?”

“How does your relationship with your quintet play into this?” Damen asked. “Does Bryce support you at all?”

“Yeah.” Finn shrugged. “Bryce has been helping too—although I don’t think he’s realized. I’ve had to rely less on Bianca since he’s gotten stronger.”

Damen’s lips turned down.

My heart raced as I looked between them. Was Damen looking for a fault with Bryce’s performance? That was my job.

“Do you think he could support your contract with Kiania on his own?” Damen asked as Julian placed two blue pills and a bottle of water in my hands—I glanced at him, but he’d already returned to his medical supplies.

This wasn’t my usual medication. But…

I trusted him.

“I’ve thought about that—you know, theoretically,” Finn said, looking to the ground. I sipped on my water as he explained, “But I don’t think it’ll work.”

“Why don’t you just dissolve the contract?” Damen asked. “You can get another shikigami.”

“I can’t,” Finn replied, tensing. “Kiania said that even without me, a contract would still exist between them. And, well…”

Julian, who’d been unwrapping the bandage from my neck, froze. “That would kill her!” he protested. “Even with the medication, there’s no way Bianca would survive.”

“Yeah,” Finn replied. “I know. That’s what Kiania says, too. So, I don’t have a choice. ”

“It’s blackmailing you?” Damen lowered his hands from his chin. “You definitely should have said something.”

Miles, who’d been listening from a spot on the couch, spoke up. “So what do we do? We can’t suppress Bianca’s abilities for the rest of her life, and—” he looked at me apologetically. “Sorry, mon rêve, but even you aren’t strong enough to support Damen in this situation.”

A warm tingling had begun to crawl under my skin, but even that couldn’t fully distract me from his strangely foreboding words.

Would they try to find a way to replace me with Bryce? It couldn’t be. Finn had just said that Bryce was a weakling.

“Okay.” I grinned at him despite the tears welling in my eyes, and Miles raised an eyebrow. My thoughts were slipping, and even though I knew I should be frustrated, it was getting harder and harder to focus.

What was wrong with me? I was completely useless to them. How could I help anyone?

Stupid Kiania. I wanted nothing more than to strangle her with my own two hands. She would die a most painful death, and then, I would ask Damen to punish her for all eternity.

Perhaps he’d toss her in a bottomless pit. I wasn’t sure what form she had, but I hoped she couldn’t fly. That would ruin everything.

“ That’s rather unkind, ” a melodious voice echoed through my mind. “ Especially given our history together. ”

My tears dried instantly as my breath caught.

It was she! The fiendish woman in my dreams, aka my imaginary friend. She was that horrible shikigami!

And she could talk to me in my head. How wonderful.

Could this day get any worse ?

“Darling?” Julian’s brows were furrowed in worry. “What’s wrong?”

“In a second,” I told him, holding up my hand. I would tell him about her. But first, I had to figure out whether it counted to curse someone in your mind. Would it make me foul-mouthed and rude?

But she deserved it.

I wondered if she could read all my thoughts.

“Bianca?” Julian’s frown deepened, and Titus moved from his place near the wall, but I had to focus. I needed to let that she-devil know that bright red lipstick didn’t look good on her. Plus, she desperately needed a haircut. Also, I bet her shikigami form was stupid, like a badger.

I touched my fingers to my lips and giggled.

“What the hell?” Titus sounded alarmed. “What did you give her?”

“It’s only morphine,” he answered. He was taping the wrappings over my shoulder, but his eyes were warily moving over my face. “It’s less than what she got at the hospital.”

“She’s not high, is she?” Miles asked.

Julian opened his mouth, but I interrupted him as I narrowed my eyes at the witch. “No,” I said, my voice slurring as the word drew out longer than intended. I pointed at the fluffy-haired man. “I’m just trying to figure out how to reply to the lady in my head.”

Miles’s mouth thinned, and Julian’s eyes widened.

Damen leaned forward, grabbed my hand, and responded, “What lady?”

“The lady in a red dress. She is very rude.” I swooned, and Titus moved forward and—after nudging Damen and Julian back—lifted me into his lap as he sat back in my chair. I snuggled up into his lap as I added, “She used to talk to me a lot, but then stopped. But she came back! ”

Damen’s eyes were flaring with fury, and he glanced at Finn.

On the other hand, Finn was watching me in shock—his pale features are even more pronounced now.

“You didn’t say that Kiania could communicate with her,” Damen said accusingly.

“I had no idea!” Finn’s eyes tore from me. “Neither one of them ever mentioned it!”

“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes as I pressed my cheek against Titus’s chest. “Like I’m going to admit to something like that. This is—this is your secret! Now you get one too, just like Bryce!”

I grabbed Julian’s arm—as he’d begun to prod at my neck again—and my thoughts spun. “You can’t tell anyone!” I told the necromancer. “She said it’s important because—because Huo is an idiot and will ruin everything.”

Damen’s face morphed into a roaring inferno, but his eyes fixed on Finn. “Bring Kiania here now!”

“Hold on! He can’t do that,” Julian protested. He gestured toward me. “We’re not sure how it’ll affect Bianca!”

There was a short pause before the fire faded from his features, and Damen pinched his nose. “Right,” Damen said. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, he should totally summon her!” I argued. I sat back up with renewed energy. “I’ve always wanted to meet a talking badger!”

Everyone settled into a shocked silence before Miles tilted his head. “I can’t decide how to feel,” he said, expression torn. “It’s a little bit funny but mostly sad.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Julian rubbed his temples. “They must not have been giving her the correct dosage. Bianca—” he began, and I tilted my head toward him. “How many tablets did they give you at the hospital? ”

“The pills you just gave me?” I asked, and when he nodded, I added, “Never seen them before.”

“What?” Julian replied, and his pensive features twisted into something fierce and scary. I nodded and covered my grin. I was so proud of that expression. With that kind of attitude, he might one day be able to fulfill his destiny of killing people after all.

“Hey—” I pulled on his sleeve. “I found a really cool place to dump dead bodies.”

Julian stared at me.

Damen’s mouth thinned as a line of tension moved between them. However, he shook his head.

“I’m not surprised,” Damen told Julian, changing the subject, and I frowned as the two of them ignored my offer of intelligence. “We should have expected this. Those witches were terrible. We still need to deal with them.”

“What does that mean?” Titus asked, tensing under me.

“Yes,” Miles said. “What does that mean?”

Julian and Damen exchanged a glance before Damen refocused his attention on the others.

“Later,” he said, nodding toward me. “We have something else to take care of first.”

“Who cares about those stupid, mean nurses?” I asked. I pushed against Titus’s chest, but his hold was firm, and I quickly gave up. I was half-tempted to tell the dragon about them. He needed a snack. He said he had a people-eating quota to fill, and I’d rather have him eat them than Bryce.

But first…

I wanted to see this. “Please summon Kiania,” I begged, looking at Finn. “I want to see if she’s as fancy as she is in my dreams!”

Finn scowled as Damen tensed further.

“I probably could do it,” Finn offered. “If Bianca has been taking the other medication, it should be safe for a little while. I’ve been able to use Kiania sometimes while she is on them.”

“Darling—” Julian touched my arms. “Have you been taking that medication at least?”

I blinked and cocked my head. “Yeah, they said it made me less scary.”

Julian’s eyebrow twitched, but he looked at Damen. They were silent momentarily before Damen spoke again, “Fine,” he told Finn. “Go ahead. Hopefully, there will be no need for an intervention.”