Page 116 of Third Offense

“I need Novak,” I said. “I need Auric.” They would be able to help me puzzle through this. “Auric knew we were caught in a loop. He could see through it somehow, maybe because the magic didn’t work on him as a Nora. Similar to the plague.” My lips pinched to the side. “But Novak… I think he could see through it, too.”

Not me, though. I’d been blind. Happy. Enjoying the freedom and love of my mates.

How naïve I’d been.

But now wasn’t the time to berate myself.

Think, Layla, think. It was all right there. We took the flight. They gave us the elixir. We slept. Something in the elixir must have knocked us out. “How long is a trip from Buenos Aires to Rome?” I asked, still pacing. “Do any of you know?”

Sorin and Zian both shook their heads, and Raven groaned from the floor as she started to wake up.

Ketos still didn’t move.

The ground continued to rumble.

We were running out of time, but I had to solve this puzzle. This riddle. It was important.Why now?

If Netiri and Iston were working for my father this whole time, they would have engaged in this battle years ago. Which meant that they’d either been brainwashed, or replaced… I frowned, glancing at Iston’s remains. He hadn’t turned to ash at all. His face remained the same—what was left of it, anyway.

But I wonder…

I grabbed a knife from a nearby block and walked over to his corpse. This was wrong on so many levels, but I had to know.

I bent his head and cut into his neck, into the place Sayir had implanted those bugs. And growled as I found one lodged into his skull.

I dropped it on the ground before Zian and Sorin. They both immediately grasped their own necks. Zian pulled out a blade, driving the tip into Sorin’s skin, but all he did was bleed in response.

Sorin repeated the action on Zian and the same thing happened.

Then they attempted to rouse Raven enough to have her check with her healing ability, but she was too weak to do more than mumble unintelligibly at them.

I knelt beside Ketos, gently moving his head, and pressed the blade to his neck. But he caught my wrist in a flash, his alert gaze lifting to mine.

My heart skipped a beat at finding him awake, my soul rejoicing in a cartwheel of emotions I didn’t have time to analyze.

Instead, I swallowed, and let him see some of those emotions in my eyes. “I’m… I’m checking you for an implant,” I told him.

And I’m so glad you’re alive. That we have a chance. That… that we might be able toknoweach other better.

He didn’t reply at first, his gaze suspicious and his grip firm. He wasdefinitelyclose to fully healed now, confirming Raven had given him an extreme amount of energy.

After a long beat, he ever so slowly released my wrist and relaxed his neck for me.

I sliced as small a sliver as I could, finding nothing inside him.

“So just Iston,” I said, frowning. “Then how did they bespell us the last few days?”

“The food,” Raven croaked out, coughing with the words.

I frowned at her, then recalled all our meals. Auric had made breakfast. But my mother had supplied afternoon tea. And dinner was always prepared by the Noir team.

But that still doesn’t explain my purpose here, I thought, standing again. I needed some distance from the prince on the ground. Now wasn’t the time to explore our connection.

Although, I was entirely grateful that he’d survived.

Because I wanted a chance to know him.

To see… to see what could exist between us. Within my mate-circle.Maybe.