Page 60 of Fallen Heirs

Instead of telling me, he said, “Constantine sends his regrets that he couldn’t be here with you in person.”

A shudder rolled through me.

“You didn’t breach the ward around the Academy.” If he had, the alarm would have gone off and an Onyx Alert would be sounding through the speakers. “How did you get in?”

“Your blood is supremely powerful.”

Oh my God, Constantine had saved a supply of my blood from when I’d been in captivity, maybe from when he’d had his vampires feed on me?

He went to fire at me again, but I caught it with a burst of my own power, as I pushed to my feet holding it steady.

“You’ve made a grave mistake,” I ground out.

How dare he think he could come at me?

How dare Constantine think it?

If anything, his hubris and obsession with me had him just playing right into my hands.

I shoved the asshole’s power back at him and it slammed into his chest, making him stumble back, one of his knees hitting the floor.

I stormed toward him and snagged his shoulder, then used my angelic strength to haul him up against the wall. With a flick of my fingers, I had him bound to it, arms and legs outstretched, unable to call his magic or do much of anything at all.

Then I was right there in his space, demanding, “Where is your master?”

He sneered. “You think I’m going to reveal that to you?”

“What Ithinkis that you won’t have a choice.”

I went to make a move, but Xavier’s words blasted front and center in my memory.

“I don’t think you should be compromising who you are, or trading on the dark side to get it done.”

Damn him.

“I won’t change my tune on this. Nothing that leads you down a dark path, Alena.”

He was right.

Of course he was right.

And I could see it now for what it really was.

I was at a crossroads.

If I went down that dark path now, it could consume me.

And then Constantine would have won in a whole other way.

At the same time, I wouldn’t send this attacker toExemplar.I just didn’t have faith in their ability to get this done, to react fast enough or without all their bureaucracy getting in the way of progress.

I could send him to my mom’s house, hold him there, then ask Orpheus to use his Dark Fae mind meddling on him. It was Orpheus, he’d have a way around the situation, a way around doing the guy harm and torturing him with it.

I was about to do just that when red teleportation smoke caught my eye a moment before two more robed assholes materialized in my chambers.

Two blasts from each of them ripped me off my target.

Before I could get my bearings, they continued firing, red magic just like the first guy, and then I was blown through the window, glass exploding all around me in a thunderous crash as I hurtled toward the ground.

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