Page 37 of Vengeance and Vipers

I feel hollow and sick when I think about it. I’m just as culpable as Maddox is. I could have tried to change his mind. Instead, I was a good little soldier and did as I was told. My fists clench when I think again about all the things I compelled her to do with my shiny new power, all the vicious words I said to break her.

I promised myself all my life that I’d never act like my mom’s fae family, but all my high and mighty ideals fell like rotten apples from a dying tree as soon as I was given an ounce of power. It doesn’t matter if my mind was affected by the Mountain’s magick somehow. I should have noticed the change in my thoughts.

I find myself sitting at the table in the formal dining room with a plate in front of me and only a vague recollection of following the others in here. Everyone’s quiet. What is there to say?

Maddox regards us all, pretending to be the attentive host at the head of the table, but I can see that even he’s distracted, troubled by whatever secrets he’s harboring.

‘I’ve made some headway in getting us off the naughty list,’ he says finally, and everyone’s eyes move him.

He nods. ‘It’ll cost us, but it can be done. Itwill be doneover the next few days and cemented in a masque.

‘A party is going to ensure we stay free?’ Jayce mutters. ‘Fucking fae.’

‘It’s not just the Council we’re contending with,’ Maddox answers him, ‘but, yes, a masked ball. Here. At All-Hallows. Everyone who matters will be in attendance, and it will be proclaimed that we were framed or some such tale,’ he says with a wave of his hand as if he hasn’t bothered to find out the specifics.

But he has.

Maddox enjoys playing the feckless fop when he wants to be underestimated, buthe’s underestimated me. Now I’m certain he’s hiding something. And whatever it is, it’s big.

But what?

The remainder of the meal has me playing a role of my own, the loyal friend and right-hand man who definitely isn’t doubting his best friend’s integrity.

But as soon as the meal is over, I slink down to the back of the main halls. I see Tabitha bustling around in the kitchen. I think I’ve eluded her, but she’s suddenly in front of me.

‘Can I get you something?’ she asks with a smile.

‘No, thank you,’ I say, trying to think of something plausible as to why I’m sneaking around. ‘I just came by to tell you how delicious dinner was.’

She gives me a small but genuine smile. ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it. I hope there was enough.’

‘Enough?’

‘Yes,’ she says, wiping her wet hands on her apron. ‘I set the table for five, but I realized halfway through dinner that there are seven of you in the house.’

She taps her nose and gives me a wink. ‘More than just a pixie, remember?’

Seven.

Time stops for me as I try to figure it out, pieces not fitting together properly with this new information.

Seven people. Not five.

She shuffles her feet. ‘Well, I’m glad there was enough,’ she says brightly, giving me a funny look as she goes back to the Range and stirs something in a pot.

My eyes zero in on the new door to the cellar. My original destination. If there are two extra people in his house, I know where they’d be.

I open it and, ignoring the elevator, I go down the spiral stone steps to the bottom. The lights are on sensors, so they go on as I move downward. At the bottom, I walk with purpose to the very end, where another new door was put in not too long ago when the cellars were modernized and became temperature-controlled.

I pull it, wondering if it’ll be locked, but it comes easily. The entire door does, in fact. It’s been ripped off its hinges and propped back up.

I go inside and immediately smell him.Krase. He’s been here. I look into the two cells. One smells more of him than the other does. The one on the left has no scent at all that I can discern, but perhaps Jayce, with his better nose, would be able to pick something up.

Krase must have been down here for weeks, not feeding, slowly dying. We’d all said our goodbyes weeks before we were even arrested and had begun to grieve in our own ways. I thought Maddox had done what had to be done before we were taken by the authorities. He never said, but with how far gone Krase was, he had to have … He wasn’t our clan brother anymore. Krase was dead. We all tried to accept it.

But he never did it. Whatever is left of Krase isn’t dead, after all.

The thought doesn’t fill me with joy. He’s rogue. His mind has to be gone by now.