Page 16 of Vengeance and Vipers

He ushers the couple out of the library, and I stare after them, Tabitha especially, with a bemused expression. There’s certainly more to her than meets the eye, but I’d wager she’s not dangerous. At least not to us.

I leave the library and wander around, the crack of a hard ball against another drawing me to the Billiard room.

There, I find Axel and Jayce playing a game together. They look relaxed like they don’t have a care in the world. Like we didn’t leave Jules in that place. That feeling creeps up again, even more magnified, and I tense up.

Guilt. That’s what it is. And if I’m feeling it, then there’s no way these two are over it, either. Not after all the time theyspentwith her in the Mountain. I pin them both with a glare.

‘You’re not fooling anyone,’ I say.

They both turn to look at me, pausing their game.

‘What are you talking about?’ Axel asks.

I scoff.

‘Please! If I took down the shield right now, the first thing you two dumbasses would do is get yourselves arrested and thrown back into the Mountain to go save Jules.’

They just look at me, false incredulity all over their faces. I roll my eyes. ‘You aren’t going to get the chance,’ I tell them. ‘None of us can leave the grounds until we’ve paid the right people to forget we were ever arrested in the first place. Not for any reason.’

They both just stare.

‘Look, maybe you aren’t the only ones who think we did something wrong by leaving her there,’ I blurt, not sure why I’m admitting it to them.

Jayce and Axel look at each other and shrug.

‘Perhaps she got to you as well, Iron?’ Jayce says with a sneer. ‘Wouldn’t tell Maddox if I were you, you’ll find yourself out here in the Badlands with us.’

I look from one to the other and sigh. They don’t believe me. They think it’s a test.

They both go back to their game without another word, ignoring me.

I leave them, feeling frustrated and oddly alone, thoughts of Jules making me freeze in the hallway for a moment. Did she get to me with whatever it was that turned Jayce and Axel to her cause? If she did, it was no magick I’ve ever felt before because I know that I’d feel its residue if that’s truly how she did it.

But if it wasn’t magick, then what was it? How did she do it?

I walk the corridors aimlessly, deep in thought, and I find myself outside the room that Jules had while she was with us.

I go inside, closing the door quietly behind me, taking in a deep breath through my nose, and pretending I can still pick up her lingering scent, even though it’s been over twenty-five months now since she was here.

But who’s counting?

I go to the top drawer of the bureau and open it, expecting, as always, to see the clothes she left here. But they’re gone.

It’s been a long time since I last came in here. Someone must have got rid of them. Inordinately bothered by this, I turn away with a small growl. I go to the bed and pick up one of the pillows. I push it into my face, smelling it, and I swear I get the barest whiff of her perfume.

What the hell am I doing?

With a snarl, I throw the pillow back down on the bed and stalk from the room, unable to push away the feelings warring within me.

It doesn’t matter what she did to me to make me feel this way. It’s not going away. In fact, the shame and guilt and the fear are getting stronger, and it’s like I’m coming out of a fog, seeing everything with sudden clarity.

Maybe it was a latent magick in the Mountain itself messing with my mind, or suddenly having power at my fingertips after so many years of being told Ishouldhave it, yet not being able to manage more than a weak conjure. Either way, I turned into something I hate in there, I realize. A cruel, power-drunk fae. And Jules bore the brunt of me at my worst.

But now everything is shifting on its axis. My mind is clearing when I didn’t even see that it was murky. The Sunroom, I realize. If some lingering magick from the Mountain was affecting me, that would have burned it off.

Now, when I think of what I did and said, how I tormented her and made her break down and sob … it doesn’t feel like it was me.

But it was, and I helped to give her to a psychopath and left her there when we could easily have brought her with us. How could we have done that to her?