Page 69 of Owned

Did he care what his bride was doing in the garden in the middle of the night?

He would if he knew what we were planning.

Better for him not to know.

His obsession with the Black Council should have kept him busy and distracted—but for how long?

Could I really hope to get Avril out of Withermarsh before something terrible happened? Something unfixable… something permanent.

The guards turned away and followed Avril, but I held my breath until they were out of sight.

Whathadmy brothers offered her?

They hadn’t told me anything, but I knew them well enough to know that they wouldn't just stand aside.

Especially if they knew I was trying to help Avril escape this place.

That was what she wanted—what she’d always wanted—

Freedom.

But did she still? Or had the grimoire stolen that from her, too?

I triedto stay mad at Valen.

I really did.

The allure of following Titus and Bastian down their dark path was… hard to ignore.

But I couldn’t ignore the feeling—the itch in the back of my mind—that they were stalling.

Learning the deeper magic of the grimoire was dangerous, and I couldn’t do it all at once.

I was impatient.

Lucian had already announced the wedding, and with every day that slipped by I could feel his fingers digging deeper into my skin.

He hadn’t tried to touch me.

“Not yet.”

The grimoire’s hiss was impossible to escape, but the unexpected volume of its dark voice was—

“Are you okay?”

Valen.

Shit.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied through gritted teeth. “It’s just… cold.”

The motorcycle was awkward between my legs. Too large.

Gods… why was it so heavy?

How was I going to balance it?

How the fuck was I supposed to handle it once it… started…

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