Page 69 of Queen of Wrath

She was the only one able to fix this, after all.

“I'm never going to hear the end of this,” I groaned as I planted my butt in the grass and pulled out the emergency tracking device Rowan had given me. “That's strange.”

The tracking device was already blinking a soft lavender color. I knew I hadn’t activated it, which meant it had to be coming from the other end…

How long has it been activated? Does this mean Rowan is in some kind of trouble?

My heart slammed against my chest as fear rushed into my bones.

A fearful shiver ran up the length of my spine as if the cold hand of death was reaching out to me.

When was the last time I even saw her?

I looked back and forth between the tracking device and Zane, who was still passed out cold in the grass. “One thing at a time please!”

I rolled Zane over onto his back, and dragged my palm over his face to pull the magic essence from the potion still wet and all over his skin. I never had to reverse this potion before, but I watched his sharp masculine features contorting as he was released from his paralysis.

Zane's eyes popped open and immediately began searching around him in fear and confusion.

“Try to relax. You're going to feel woozy for another minute or so,” I assured him, trying to calm him, but in no way did I succeed.

He sat up suddenly, and I jumped back just in time to avoid having him ram into me. “What did you do to me? How are you here? Why do you look like that?—”

I placed my hand over his mouth to silence him. “That's an awful lot of questions, and I don't have a lot of time. So, how about I just give you the short version: I got pulled out of prison by an agent of the BPR in exchange for going undercover to take down the Ransom family’s illegal business, but I had to fake my death so that no one would come looking for me, and I had to take potions to change my appearance so that I can work closely with Jax without being recognized. Does that explain things?”

Zane fell completely still as he listened, his lips pressed into a tight line.

His eyes burned into me, and I couldn't tell which emotion was more prominent in him: anger or relief. “So, I wasn't imagining it… I felt all this time that you were still alive. And when I met you in the market—when we talked, it felt so familiar. But you made it seem like I was crazy.”

A frown tugged my head down, my eyes averting to the ground.

I could tell he was holding back what he was really feeling.

The rage inside of him was something I could resonate with. He wanted to yell and be angry, but like me, he knew it wouldn’t change anything that’d happened.

Part of me wished he would yell and just let loose on me, though. But he was still the same Zane he’d always been—the reasonable one.

“I want you to know, that day in the market, I wanted to tell you who I was, but you have to understand that this mission is bigger than you or me. Telling you wouldn't have changed anything. I still had to be Emma.”

I watched his face change as he processed everything I was saying. His eyes might as well have been spinning from how confused he looked.

Then he placed his face into his hands and did something I didn’t expect. He laughed.

What kind of reaction is this?

“After all this time, I was finally about to give up on you today. How glad am I that you showed up to stop me.” He looked up at me, his eyes glistening as a soft sad smile crossed his face.

It was an unspeakably tender moment of reunion with my old friend, but a sickening feeling still turned my stomach. “I was so happy to see that you married Mair. I know she's always been hopelessly in love with you, and it's nice to know she’s been taking good care of you…”

“I knew you would want someone to take care of her.” It was the only retort he had, his eyes turning cold and detached.

“You've always been a good friend, Zane. Better than Jax ever deserved. I suspect that's why you two aren’t close anymore,” I poked a little, wanting to confirm what I’d been suspecting.

“Close? No, not at all. He is nothing to me anymore…so you don't have to worry. Your secret is safe.” Despite his derisive response, there was a hint of pain behind his eyes—something unresolved and eating at him. It made sense, considering how Zane and Jax had been inseparable for as long as I could remember. “But if you want to keep secrets, perhaps you should stop visiting the graves of your family. You’re lucky it’s me who caught you, it could easily have been someone else.”

“I know I shouldn't have come… Rowan would be so mad at me if she—shit, Rowan!” I shouted so loud my voice echoed through the hills beyond the cemetery.

Zane slapped his hand over my mouth, looking around nervously.

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