Page 69 of Vipers and Vendettas

Tears come to my eyes. ‘I was suddenly there, and I took his horns, and I twisted his neck, and I killed him. And then I ran for the portal, but I was fast. I was so fast …’

I shake my head at my memories.

‘When I woke up, I was in the dungeon. I thought I’d hit my head, that I was remembering things wrong.’ I put my hand over my mouth. ‘What’s wrong with me?’

He just stares.

‘Up there. I changed, didn’t I? I looked different, and Ifeltdifferent. That vamp, he was scared out of his mind when he saw my face … I,’ I swallow hard. ‘I tore his throat out with my teeth.’ I draw a finger over them. ‘And I punched through his ribs, and I killed him by ripping out his heart. But not with these teeth and not with this hand,’ I whisper. ‘They were different. You saw it, right? Did I imagine it?’

‘No,’ he whispers, ‘you didn’t imagine it.’

‘What am I, Iron?’

‘I don’t know, Jules.’

I start to cry. ‘What if the baby isn’t okay? What if I’m changing? What if?—’

A delicate cough from across the room reminds me that we aren’t alone.

Iron’s nanna is watching us with unconcealed interest.

‘Sorry to interrupt,’ she says.

She turns to take one final look out the window before she closes the curtain and comes back to the table, turning off the stove as she walks by.

‘I don’t think anyone heard the commotion,’ she says. ‘They’d have come by now if it was reported.’

‘Reported? Who do you think is coming, Gigi?’ Iron asks her gently with a sad smile.

‘Don’t you take that tone with me, boy!’ Gigi says, staring up at him.

She suddenly soundsand looksyears younger.

Iron looks shocked beyond measure. ‘You’re not senile!’ he exclaims.

Gigi taps the side of her nose.

‘You crazy old bat! You have the entire family thinking you’ve lost your mind. I saw Uncle Terri at Mom’s last week, and he told me the motor was running, but there’s nobody behind the wheel!’

Gigi barks a laugh. ‘That’s a good one. Haven’t heard it put like that before. Now, hush and come with me. The walls have ears.’

She leads us down the hall to a door. She opens it, and it looks like a set of steps going down into a gloomy cellar, but when she steps through, she disappears into nothing.

Iron swears under his breath. ‘It’s a fold that she’s hidden somehow. Jesus. Mom is going to be pissed. Come on.’

He goes first, and I follow him, and we find ourselves in a stone room a second later. Torches are burning in sconces on the walls. Test tubes and glass cylinders, Petri dishes, and science beakers line tables and are connected with tubes and funnels. Liquids are bubbling and distilling. There’s an area with a circle drawn on the floor. There are fae symbols on the walls.

Some of them are familiar, and they make me uneasy. I try not to look at them.

‘Where are we? This isn’t a fold.’

‘No,’ Gigi says. ‘This is a cellar space I rent from a mage I met in my knitting circle. Lovely boy. Made me blanket last year. Good at keeping his yarn tension, novice though he is.’

Iron lets out a sigh, clearly not ready to unpack even part of what his nanna had just said.

‘What are these? Potions?’ Iron asks, walking forward.

Gigi has some plastic goggles on. She gives him a scathing look through them. ‘Well, it’s not fucking moonshine, Jeremy!’