Page 160 of Twisted Ties

“It’s just …” She inhales, her bottom lip quivering. She’s on the verge of tears. This girl, so fucking young, has been through so much, and though she’s spat and hissed like a cat, I’ve never seen her cry. It fucking cracks my heart in two.

I lift her chin.

“I thought there would be words, you know,” she continues.“ A note, a letter, a clue even. But there was nothing. She left me nothing at all.” A fat tear rolls down her cheek. “I miss her. I miss her so much.”

“What else, Rhi?” I say softly, swiping the tear away gently with the pad of my thumb. “What did he tell you?”

“My mom was a seer.”

I stare into those strangely honey eyes of hers. “A seer?”

“Yes, the authorities wanted her and so did the gangs and the West. Wanted to make use of her gift. He didn’t know what happened to her, but that was why he said my aunt was keeping me hidden. She didn’t want the same fate to befall me as my mom.”

“It won’t,” I say firmly, my jaw tightening.

“But those dreams, Phoenix? The ones from mymemories. They were predictions, weren’t they? Dreams of the fut–”

“In the past. You haven’t had any in years, years and years. Maybe you had the gift in the past, but you don’t have it now, Rhi. And you, me and Azlan are the only ones who know. You’re safe.”

Her mouth falls open on an “oh.”

I can feel her emotion through the bond. Alarm.

“What, Rhi?” I say, ice running through my veins. “Did you tell anyone else about those dreams? Winnie?” She shakes her head. “Then what? What is it, Rhi?”

She meets my eyes and I see that image again. A wound. A wound that looked like it had been made by crimson magic.

51

Renzo

Crimson magic.

I’ve heard about it. Heard the tales when I was a boy. Listened to men long for it. Watched magicals battle to grasp it.

I’ve never seen it wielded. Never felt it crackle through the air. Never heard it sizzle on the ends of fingertips.

Never tasted all the damage and destruction it could do.

Fuck, it was tantalizing.

My precious little rabbit. Who knew?

Such big round innocent eyes. Such a pretty porcelain face. Such an aura of innocence about her. So tempting to corrupt her.

Yet, underneath it all, deep inside her, darkness.

Crimson magic.

Is that why?

Because we are alike the two of us. I saw the glint in those eyes. Hidden and repressed. She wanted to hurt me. She wanted to kill me. She has a lust for it, just like me.

I spin the knife in my hands.

Lowsky wants her dead. That hasn’t changed. And he’s growing impatient for me to finish the job.

There’s something afoot. Plans brewing with the West.

He wants this done before he initiates whatever he’s planning to start.

But the girl. She’s far more valuable alive than dead. And not just because I want to make her mine.

The two of us, the two of us together, we could be unstoppable. Hell, we could destroy the whole damn world.