Page 66 of Invidia

Grandfather would consider such messiness beneath him. I fully expected that we’d only see Lochan and other minions firsthand, and that the family would be kept away from this entirely.

“I can’t understand how he got us here,” I muttered, my head thick and aching. If he’d gotten us to the in-between, I could see it being doable. After all, one of the portals had remained open and accessible from the human realm side. Yes, the in-between was guarded, but from what I gathered, Evrin was the only one who actually took it seriously and knew his way around, and he couldn’t be everywhere at once.

But there was no way Lochan could have gotten us to the in-between without someone seeing us. He’d have had to traipse through the palace grounds, somehow transporting two unconscious bodies. Even if Sebastian had been helping—and Cora—that would have been an impossible feat.

“I don’t think they could have done it without insider help.”

“From a Shade?” I gasped, the idea not even crossing my mind once. Obviously, the shadow realm wasn’t all sunshine and roses, but I’d always felt safe there.

“Maybe?” Austin hedged. It was such a grim thought, I didn’t even want to entertain it.

I lost the battle to keep my eyes open, dozing in my chair for long enough that my neck and back were stiff and aching by the time I woke up.

“Someone’s coming,” Austin whispered, bringing me back to full alertness. I rolled my joints as much as I could, wishing I had some way of making myself at least look less defenseless.

Lochan pushed open the basement door first, holding it open for two of his minions to follow him inside, though I didn’t recognize either of them.

“Thibaut cousins! Welcome home,” Lochan said cheerfully, unlocking the cell door. A tall woman approached me, not making eye contact as she shoved a water bottle with a straw into my mouth.

As much as I wanted to object, my mouth felt like it was lined in sawdust, and my head was aching from thirst, so I drank and hoped for the best.

“What is the point of all this?” Austin drawled, far better at hiding the fear in his voice than I was. “Do you need us hydrated before you kill us?”

Lochan snorted. “The timeline is still being established, so I’m to keep you functional in the meantime. Unfortunately, the Council are being rather shortsighted about the whole thing, not appreciating your grandfather’s vision.”

“And what vision is that?” I demanded.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Regardless of what they say, neither of you will ever be returning to the shadow realm. That’s all that matters.”

“I’d love to know how much Grandfather is paying you for this,” Austin said mildly. “What is the going rate for sacrificing pieces of your soul these days?”

The words seemed to have struck a chord.

“You’re the sacrifice, not me,” Lochan snarled, ushering the others out of the cell.

“Sure,” Austin agreed easily as Lochan secured the lock. “But you don’t think you’re going to walk away from this unchanged, do you? After taking two lives?”

“I’ve killed dozens of Shades!”

The words made me feel nauseous, but Austin managed to respond. “In their wraith, human-realm forms. Where they couldn’t speak. Couldn’t scream. Couldn’t bleed. I fully intend on looking you in the eyes while I bleed out, just so you know. I hope the image haunts you for the rest of your life. You’re going to leave my child without a father. How does that feel?”

Tears silently tracked down my face at the picture he was painting. At the future we’d miss out on. The lives we could have, that we were supposed to have.

“I’ll be sure to remember the look in your eyes while I’m drinking cocktails on the beach in the Seychelles,” Lochan snapped, though his hands shook slightly as he finished locking the door, the other two already heading up the stairs. With a final glare—though it was a wary one—Lochan followed, shutting the basement door behind him.

“You definitely rattled him,” I whispered shakily.

“I wish I could have done more.”

So did I, but our options were at a solid zero. If only we could knock out even one of the lights that was flooding this place with brightness. It wasn’t some high-tech place with difficult-to-access LED lighting. It was Aunt Carol’s straight-out-of-the-seventies basement. There was a dangling lightbulb in one corner that was practically begging to be used as target practice, except they’d been very careful not to give us anything that could be remotely used as a weapon.

Chapter 24

The portals continued to flicker for hours, keeping everyone in the in-between in a state of panic. Selene eventually had to leave, to corral members of the Guard and give them orders, but I stayed in the post where she’d left me, as close to Austin—and hopefully Tallulah—as I could be without being able to pass through to their world.

I did my best not to be angry at the king and the Council of Shades, but it was a struggle. Why did it feel like we were never ahead in this battle? We had a dependency on either human fear or Hunter desire, and that put us at a disadvantage, but we had to start being more proactive, or we were going to be wiped out.

There were some shouts of alarm deeper into the in-between, and I dragged myself away from my post long enough to investigate, since I appeared to be the highest-ranking member of the Guard in here right now. The Captain had followed Astrid to the human realm, trying to get a read on the situation from the other side.

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