Page 121 of The Cursed Fae

“You filthy fucking fae!” she screamed. “I should’ve realized. One twin always has to be weaker, right?”

“What’s she saying?” he asked as I eased upright, careful not to make any sudden movements.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what Missy was going on about, but the alarm bells blaring in my head warned against repeating her actual words to Laz.

“She’s been watching Lena for me,” I said, surprised at how calm I sounded when my heart raced painfully in my chest. “The vampire never showed up today, so I guess he knows about our session at the cove.”

I watched him closely to gauge his reaction as memories from my short time in Arcane Landing flashed behind my eyes. Very few people knew about both my ghost-whispering abilities and my portal-making attempts, and Laz was one of them. Archer was another. One or both of the guys I’d been getting handsy with was Mat’s informant, the person spying on me for the eternal.

How could I have been so fucking stupid?

Behind Laz, Missy swung at the back of his head like a boxer with a punching bag. Her incorporeal fists sailed right through him with Laz none the wiser. With each failed blow, Missy’s anger ratcheted up another notch.

“You lying, murdering, thieving sack of shit!” she cried, each word reverberating between my ears.

Bile burned my throat as I battled the waves of nausea crashing over me. This was a bad dream, a nightmare. Laz definitely liked to bend the truth, and he had stolen the ingredients for the ghost summoning spell—but murder? Was he really capable of draining another person, taking their life?

He held my gaze, a smug gleam in his stormy gray eyes. “Have you been talking to him too, Miss?” Laz asked. His next words were to me. “Guess she didn’t tell you about Ty? She and my brother were pretty tight when they were both alive.”

My blank stare made him laugh.

“Oh, come on, Winter. Don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out?”

I swallowed thickly. “Archer Tycott is your brother.” It was statement, not a question, yet I still held out hope Laz would say it wasn’t true. “The one who died from depletion.”

How had I never seen the resemblance?

“Oh, do not!” Missy’s incorporeal foot planted on Laz’s knee, over and over. Heaving from exertion, she turned pleading eyes on me. “I didn’t know what he was, okay? He’s not like me. That’s why I told you to stay away from him. Which I did, if you recall?”

She had, and I hadn’t listened. But in that moment, she was just another person who’d left me in the dark. All the warnings about ghosts and their agendas blared inside my head. Why had I ignored all Nana’s advice? My entire life, I’d done everything Mom and Nana told me to do. Why had I chosen this year to become stubborn?

“You can’t trust spirits, Winter,” Laz said, gesturing wildly toward the door.

“Maybe not,” I agreed. “But how many people have you murdered?”

Lightning crackled in his pupils. “None. Zero. Missy was an accident. The transference spell got away from me.”

“Liar!” she screeched.

“So, you only meant to steal her magic, but not drain her?” I must’ve done a good job of keeping the accusation to a minimum; Laz somehow believed I thought this would be better.

“Yes. Yes. Thank you. You get it.”

“And Ray, he was an accident, too?” I swallowed over the lump in my throat, determined to keep him talking until Astrid returned.

That was apparently the wrong thing to say.

“He was dying, Winter,” Laz snapped. “Ray didn’t need his magic anymore.”

Instead of helping a guy he called a friend, Laz had hastened Ray’s way to an early grave. That was... vile. Mat might’ve been an evil bloodsucking monster, but at least he hadn’t pretended to be my buddy before trying to kill me.

“Let me guess, Ewan couldn’t use his magic either, right? That made it fair game?” It proved impossible to keep the hysteria from straining my voice.

Where is Astrid?

Laz laughed. “Yeah. Thanks for the idea.”

My stomach wrenched. I had a bad feeling Astrid wouldn’t be back soon enough, leaving me to deal with Laz on my own.

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