Page 49 of Inside the Wicked

She’s not dead. Not kidnapped.

It’s twisted to have hoped for the latter, if only because I wanted to believe my intuition was right and Silas was a lesser, if far more powerful, evil than Alistair.

Alistair sits in his tall chair by the fire. Kenna stands by his desk and regards me with no emotion at all. I’m used to it, but I still wish she would yield something.

“Sit, Anastasia,” Alistair orders. It sends chills down my spine.

Hot and cold, I can’t regulate myself. I’ve spent so much time pushing through everything I should have felt in these three months, and now it’s all punishing me, reversing the resilience I’ve built in myself. The fear of him; the dread of what he could do. I’ve not faced any punishment before, and I think that’s about to change.

Be brave, little bird.

I breathe. I calm. I sit.

I’m offered a glass of water, which I take eagerly, but I sip it carefully.

“I’m rather tired today,” I say. “Why am I here?”

“It’s been a week, and you’ve not been back to Lumina.”

Alistair doesn’t even look at me. He smokes a cigar and watches the fire, because this isn’t an interrogation; he holds all the answers.

“I didn’t realize I had a schedule to be there.”

“Silas won’t answer my request for another meeting.”

“He’s a very busy man.”

“Ana.” He drawls my name, and when his blue eyes do shift to me, they’re testing. “Tell me why I’ve been told Silas has also met with Forthson.”

My blood runs cold.Shit.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I don’t lift my eyes to Kenna to figure out if she betrayed me. It would give away that I even thought it, and that’s as good as proof. Kenna has no warmth toward me, certainly no allegiance. If Alistair was breathing down her neck,I can’t blame her for giving something up.

“I guess he wants to be sure the competition is worth dropping for this.”

“You see, I’m not convinced you’re doing your job as well as you displayed here with him. Unless something happened ...?”

“No,” I say quickly.

“Then I expect you to go back to his club, and if I don’t hear from him by tomorrow, I’ll suspect you’re lying to me.”

“Silas doesn’t take well to being pressured.”

“Then you’d better not make it seem so.”

He wants me to go there tonight.

“Will Kenna be coming with me?”

It’s the first time she meets my eye, but there’s nothing friendly in it. The opposite, in fact. She looks like she’s itching to hold a knife to my throat again.

“No.”

I shiver at Alistair’s tone. He can’t know about Silas’s interest in her, can he?

“Shame. The dominant male ego in that place gets suffocating.” I hope it’s enough to ease his growing suspicion as I stand, appearing bored.

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