Page 132 of The Blood Witch

“Why didn’t she kill you that night?” Vee was asking, and it took a long moment for Amalia to process the words. Like her brain wouldn’tlet her understand what was happening. “When the Blades killed your parents, why didn’t they kill you, too? Why were you spared, Princess?”

“Vee… what’s going on?” Amalia asked, fear creeping into her voice.

“It’s not fair, you know,” Vee was saying, ignoring her entirely. Amalia couldn’t see her face, the light hurt her eyes too much to stare at it for long. “I hated you. Hated you for so long…”

Finally, something clicked, and the words began to sink in. Amalia’s mouth went dry.

“Why do you get all of this?” Vee asked. Through the blinding light, Amalia could have sworn Vee was crying, tears flowing down both cheeks. “Fresh cookies every morning. Clean clothes. All of thesestupid fucking dresses. Why do you get all of this when the rest of us get nothing?”

“Vee, what are you talking about?—”

“You have no idea what it’s like to suffer, do you? No idea what it’s like to be hungry, to be left behind? No idea what it’s like to have to scrape and steal and work for every little thing in life? All of this was just… just handed to you, wasn’t it?”

Amalia couldn’t seem to draw enough air to breathe.

“I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want tolikeyou,” Vee was saying. “But I did. I did like you. And now…” A sob. Or maybe a laugh. “Now… now everything is fucked, isn’t it?”

She should run. But this was her friend, and her friend was in pain. Amalia reached out to her, wanting to comfort her.

She didn’t make it.

Pain shot through her. Amalia let out a gasp as her arm froze, just a centimeter from Vee’s, pain coursing down her body.

Finally, Vee looked at her, and there was nothing friendly in those beautiful green eyes.

“I didn’t want it to go down like this,” Vee said, and Amalia let out a soft gasp as her knees buckled, as her body twisted and bent until she was on the ground, on her knees before Vee. Before her friend. “But sacrifices have to be made, don’t they?”

She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but her body wouldn’t respond, wouldn’t listen to her. There was a roar in her ears, like a storm.

Terror gripped her.

“It’s finally time for you to suffer for a change, Princess. Time for someone else to take charge of this miserable city.”

Chapter 62

FEY

The throne room was filled with quiet terror after the attack on Kallista.

“She’s running. Trying to hide from me,” the Demon told them. “But she can’t run forever.”

“It’s not…?” Callum began.

“This is no Vampire,” Kallista assured him. The visible relief in Callum's eyes was nowhere near as strong as the flash of guilt Fey saw there. He’d really believed it, if even for a moment. Believed his brother was capable of this.

Fey met Alice’s eyes. No more doubt there, not from either one of them.

“Keep searching, Kallista,” Alice said, eyes still on Fey.

A Blood Witch. A real Blood Witch, in the city, hell bent on bringing them all down.

“I think it’s time to get your blades, sister,” Alice told her.

Fey hadn’t wornher blades since the night of the Blood Moon. For weeks after, she’d kept them at the foot of her bed, just in case. It hadbeen hard, back then, to think there would be a time in her life without them. Hard to put up that mantle and put that part of her to rest.

Joy had helped. One day she’d come home with a decorative cedar box, just large enough to fit both her blades. The weapons remained next to her bed, carefully nestled in that box until she’d moved in with Alastair.

It had been easier to put them away for good, then, tucking the box under his bed and out of sight. She’d felt okay leaving that part of her behind.

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