Page 115 of Moon Kissed

Edric did what I asked without further discussion. Together we made it to the front gates. Two figures were waiting for us.

“Oh, gods...”

I straightened, my face shuttering closed. I wasn’t about to let this man see me in pain.

He gazed at me as I approached the gates, his lips peeled back in a perpetual snarl. Beside him, a woman wearing the insignia of the secret police stood shoulders back and fists balled.

“Hello, Daciana.”

I shivered. Something about the way he said my name would always unsettle me. “Hello, Councilman Tahan.”

“Father?”

I turned as Badr blew out the front doors, striding down fast. “Father, you’re here. Thank goodness.”

Cygnus Tahan’s frown deepened. “You will address me properly in public, boy.”

The snap made his second, disfavored son clench his jaw. “Of course, sir. Sorry, sir.”

“And you”—Castor’s father fixed on me—“will open these gates.”

I didn’t move. “I told Sunella only one person would be allowed past these gates, and that’s her.” I pointed to the officer. “We had a deal.”

“Sunella promised you a number of things without consulting the rest of the council. She had no right to do so, and you have no right to makedealswith the council. You will let me in, and I will tell you the terms as decided by us.”

I felt Badr’s smirking satisfaction oozing on me. Someone had finally come to deliver the vengeance he’d been waiting for.

I just smiled—though it may have been more of a grimace with the pain in my head. “Fine, but you understand that if the council isn’t holding up their end of the deal, there’s no way I’m holding up mine.”

“Open the gates.”

Reaching out, I brushed a finger over the lock, and it fell away—gates swinging open to Cygnus’s flash of surprise. These gates were the creation of a famous, powerful, and ancient metal wolf. They opened only at the headmistress’s command, and for all of Cygnus’s superiority complex, he just saw that was me.

The officer stepped forward first, standing between me and Cygnus. She clutched a large case in her left hand. “My name is Arabella Costas,” she stated, showing me a badge to prove it. “You will show me the crime scenes, and then you’ll stay out of my way. I will question who I please. I will go where I want. No arguments.”

I jerked my head at Badr, and immediately regretted it. “Badr will show you.”

“Fuck that.”

“Really?” I taunted. “You’re going to miss your chance to whisper in her ear, influencing her investigation to lead back to me.”

Badr and Costas shot back at the same time.

“No one is influencing me.”

“I go where you go.”

“Go with Inspector Costas, boy,” Cygnus sliced in.

“But, sir—”

Cygnus slid a withering look at his youngest child. “Did that sound like a request?”

Badr flashed him a glare with just as much loathing. For all that I despised the man, Badr wasn’t some soft bitch who took it lying down. A part of me—the part with fur and claws—found that very sexy.

Get over yourself,I snapped at my wolf.You took one for yourself. You’re not getting any more.

If my wolf was a separate person with her own thoughts, I would’ve sworn she replied,Try and stop me, bitch.

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