Page 104 of Third Offense

I couldn’t say. I couldn’t define it. I just knew that he had to survive this. And then we would find Auric. Save him.Freehim.

This was all such a fucked up mess.

Just… just like the room around us.

My lips parted at the carnage. We were literally in the middle of a sea of blood and ash.

And in the middle of it was a very pissed-off, blood-soaked god with razor-tipped feathers that dripped with immortal blood.

Novak.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX

NOVAK

SEVERAL MINUTES EARLIER

That asshole hit my goddess.My Layla. Mymate.

I’d sliced his head clean off. Only to watch as his blood sizzled with ash.

Just like the mirages back at the reformatory.

What the fuck?

Zian met my gaze, his midnight eyes blazing with fury.

These assholes needed to pay.

Because they’re not real guards.

None of them would have been stupid enough to hit their future queen.

And that ashy blood screamedwrongness.

I spun, my wings reacting instinctually to my thoughts as I began toslay.

Only to be struck in the next instant by a blast of energy that sent me careening across the room and into a wall.

Head first.

Fuck.

My skull ached in protest, making the world spin around me. I clawed at reality, fighting for my vision to return before something else struck me.

It felt slow. Everything moving at a gradual pace, almost as though I were waking from a dream.

Just like when Auric punched me.

And like that time at the reformatory.

I frowned.

The kitchen held those same glimmers I’d seen before, making me squint.

Oh, shit…I knew what this meant.It’s all a fucking mirage.

The glimmers were evidence of enchantment, ones intended to keep me… compliant? Complacent?