Page 149 of Until the Stars Fall

She was here. I knew she was.

I raced back to Matthias, shifting before I reached him.

“Three in the barn.”

“Human?” he asked, and I paused, my mind turning over what I’d observed.

There had been no scent other than Lieke’s. Not fae. Not human. I should have sensed them. Why hadn’t I?

“Should we go around the front? If we come around that way, we should be concealed from the windows,” Matthias said.

“Unless they have other rebels lying in wait somewhere,” I noted.

“Well, let’s hope that’s not the case then,” he said, stretching his neck in circles like he did before battles and sparring matches. “Claws out?”

I rolled my eyes at him before shifting again, and we stepped out of the trees together.

CHAPTER 80

Lieke

I opened my eyes to find Anna gripping my shoulder hard, preventing me from backing away from her and the blade she still held lodged in my gut. My eyelids fluttered, but I fought to keep them open despite my blurred vision.

“What are you doing, Mother?” Raven demanded again, but Anna’s gaze was locked firmly on me.

“You’ll see soon enough,” the woman said in an almost cheery tone. She lifted a hand to cup my cheek. I tried to retreat from her touch, but my muscles refused to obey. The edges of my world were quickly darkening. She patted my face gently and crooned, “It was almost too easy, Lieke.”

“What is she talking about?” This time Raven seemed to be addressing me, though I couldn’t be completely sure.

“He’s not coming. You’re wasting your time,” I said. Something warm and sticky pooled in my mouth, and I spit it out into the dirt just as Anna let out a patronizing sound of regret.

“Don’t be so pessimistic,” she said sweetly, but then her fingers tightened in my hair. She yanked my face close to hers. “A fae can’t deny the stars. He will be here.”

She was talking nonsense now, or perhaps the blood loss was affecting my senses.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I ended it.”

“You did what now?” Anna asked, genuine confusion in her tone.

I spat more blood onto the ground. “The alliance. It’s ended. Just like you demanded.”

Snarling, she jammed the knife deeper into my stomach, pulling another pained groan from me. “You stupid girl,” she said. “The alliance doesn’t matter now. Not after—”

“What?” I rasped out, opening my eyes wide as I tried to focus on the woman and what she was saying. “But you said—”

“That was before you let him kiss you,” Anna said in disgust.

How did she know about the kiss? Had a spy of hers seen us in the stables? And why did a single kiss matter to her?

“I don’t understand,” I muttered, wincing and hissing with pain as Anna slowly pulled the knife free. Raven rushed toward me with her hands outstretched, but Anna whirled on her daughter.

“Tend to her and the next thing this blade cuts is your hand.”

Shakily, my fingers found their way to the gash, slipping in the blood that was pouring from it. I staggered back a step, and Anna followed. When I doubled over, she slid the tip of the blade under my chin and forced me to lift my face to look at her.

Her dark eyes blazed with hatred and a hint of confusion. “Why do you think he won’t come?”

I closed my eyes—from both the pain of my injury and the agony of remembering the look on Connor’s face when I’d chosen Brennan.

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