Page 122 of Shadowblood Souls
My stance goes rigid, a renewed wave of fury rushing up through me. How can I want something even a little bit that Griffin had first, that he can never have now?
All that fury expels itself in Drey’s direction. “What a stupid fucking fairytale. And you believe all this bullshit she’s been spouting, huh?”
“Yes,” Andreas says firmly, “I do. Because I’ve been watching her and listening to her for days, and everything adds up to it being true. In case you’ve forgotten, the whole reason I started ‘getting cozy’ with her was so she’d open up about things she wouldn’t have told us otherwise. I held up my end of the deal. Now you’ve got to listen.”
As the last words tumble from his mouth, a movement just outside the door catches my eyes. Riva has jerked to a stop where she’s slipped up the stairs, her face gone rigid with apparent horror.
A sick sense of satisfaction fills me so completely I don’t even mind that she’s somehow gotten out of the basement.
“Yes,” I say, yanking my gaze back to Andreas with a tight smile. “That was the deal. And now she knows it too.”
Let’s see how long she can keep up her innocent act in the face of this revelation.
Riva walks through the doorway, her eyes glued to Drey, and then halts. Her voice comes out scratchy. “You were acting friendly just to trick me into telling you things?”
For once in his life, Andreas seems to grope for his words. “It wasn’t like that, not exactly. And it isn’t like that now.”
Oh, please. He needs to realize how much bullshit that is too.
“It was exactly like that.” I turn my attention back to Riva, shaping every word to cut through whatever fantasy she thinks she’s caught him up in. “We had a little conversation right after we arrived at the college, while you were locked up in your room. I wanted to keep you out of our investigations, but Andreas insisted that we should get you involved so we could see if you’d give something away in the moment. He promised he’d convince you to trust him so you wouldn’t be as guarded.”
Riva’s mouth twists, her claws slicing through the air at her sides. Already prepared for a fight.
“You argued in front of me about whether I should come along,” she says, as if that means anything.
I smile coolly at her. “Yes, we did. We had to sell the idea in a way you’d believe. And it gave Drey his first chance to play your champion.”
Andreas, the fool, is still trying to pick up the pieces like there was ever anything worth fixing here. “Riva, I swear that has nothing to do with tonight or—or— I believe you. I realized we were wrong. I?—”
I interrupt him before he can babble on any more. “He’s very good, isn’t he? Got you to let your hair down and everything.” I cut my gaze to Drey. “You can stop now. I can’t see how you’ll get anything more out of her than you already have.”
“Will you shut the fuck up, Jake?” Andreas snaps, but Riva is deathly silent. Taking it all in, understanding just how much she threw away four years ago.
She’s never getting us back. None of us. I’m making sure of it, like I should have to begin with. For Griffin.
Her lips part. “Why would you— How could you?—?”
She doesn’t seem to know how to go on. Does she think those puppy-dog eyes are going to work even on Andreas now?
A twinge of uncertainty quivers through me, rankling my nerves. Enough with the charade.
I glare at her. “Do you actually think you deserve better?”
She reaches up to grasp the damned necklace that Griffin gave her, as if she has any right to hold on to a gift of his friendship. She glances at the other guys who’ve remained still and silent by the bed.
“Are both of you okay with all of this? Really?”
Zian looks sick, but he doesn’t deny it. “We needed to know—we needed to be sure…”
“We’ve had to look out for ourselves,” Dominic grits out.
Riva’s jaw clenches. Her eyes close, but I’m not letting her check out of this conversation.
“You don’t have to playourfriend anymore now. You’re not getting anywhere with that. So let’s see who you really are already.”
Riva winces, and her fingers tighten around the pendant so abruptly there’s a metallic crack. Her eyes snap open; she stares down at her hand.
How can she look so anguished about it even now?
