Page 111 of A Legacy of Wrath and Reckoning

Zylah clicked her tongue. “You’ve asked for our help. You don’t get to have our sympathy, too.” She almost wished Holt had shoved the dagger through the vampire’s eye.

There’s still time for that,he said in her thoughts.

“Tell us Ranon’s plan,” Zylah went on. “Tell us why we should believe a single word that comes out of your mouth after everything you’ve done.” Every horrible, awful thing.

“I’m—” Raif cleared his throat at the crack of Holt’s magic.

“It’s too late for apologies, Raif.” Zylah might have accepted them once, might have believed him even. But if it was true he didn’t want to remain this way, that he needed Ranon’s blood to turn him back into a Fae, there was too much at stake for him to fuck this up. He was likely to say anything he thought they wanted to hear to get what he wanted, if past events were anything to go by. “He’s charged his orb. He needs the blood moon. What are his intentions? Is he trying to return home?”

Raif’s one working eye widened at that, but it was all the surprise he showed at her words. “He needs to free Sira first. And then he intends to return home with her.”

Is she trapped in the shop?Holt asked.

I don’t know. I think she was using whoever I met, somehow. They were human but felt very much like a Fae.

Sira was powerful. So powerful Ranon had always coveted that power.

“If you attack tomorrow as intended, he will take out every last one of your soldiers, and he’ll use you to do it,” Raif said, his eye darting over Holt’s face.

Rose didn’t question him, and Zylah wondered if she’d seen it. How much she’d seen of all of it. Whether the Fae had watched Raif keeping Zylah in their grandfather’s maze, and her anger simmered to the surface all over again. Holt pressed a hand to her lower back, fingers splaying over the fabric of her tunic, and she leaned into his touch to ground herself.

“Your vision?” Holt asked Rose.

The Fae looked up at her brother, then back at Holt, her brow creasing. “I saw the two of you fighting side by side to take down our grandfather.”

“This is bullshit,” Kej barked from behind them.

“Kej,” Daizin murmured.

“And I saw Ranon control you. Your magic.” Rose swallowed. “You killed… So many.”

“When?” Zylah demanded. “When did you have this vision?”

“I-I-” Rose stuttered, her attention darting between Zylah and Holt. “A week or so ago, I can’t remember exactly.”

Zylah bristled.If her vision was after what happened at the Aquaris Court…

Then it makes no difference,Holt said calmly.She saw Raif die, and she was wrong.

Zylah eyed the siblings.Not entirely.

“And what was to be your part in all of this?” Holt asked Raif.

The vampire shrugged. “I’m just an instrument. A tool in Ranon’s belt. As are all of his creations, and Aurelia’s creations in turn.”

Rose sucked in a breath at her brother’s words. “I’ll kill her myself for all that she’s allowed to happen.”

“Something we can agree on, at least,” Zylah said flatly.

“Luma,” Daizin told them. “One of Arlan’s,” he added. The missing scout. The spy. Information he’d no doubt received from Nye.

This wouldn’t be good for morale. The merging of their forces had already been tenuous since moving everyone to the tunnels. And now they had an extra day and night to contend with.

“This is as close as you get to the others,” Holt said to Raif. “Rose. You’re responsible for him. I trust you understand the consequences if he’s lying.” He gave further instructions to Daizin and Kej, his eyes never leaving Raif. “If he takes one step out of line, do what you need to.”

Saphi returned with them to the safety of the wards, only Zylah wasn’t certain if it was to put distance between her and Raif or to give Rose some time alone with her brother. Either way, Zylah left her threads unspooled, a few of them remaining at the perimeter of where they’d left the siblings, even though their friends stood guard.

Because no matter what Raif had told them, no matter what he wanted, he was still their enemy. Still a vampire. And they’d just given him access to an unlimited supply of food.

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