Page 146 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“Kazimir rescued me from my fiancé Ladron, but I had to pretend to die to ensure I could escape for good. I was buried a few days after you were abducted.” She pauses, glaring at Jasper around me. “But fortunate that you were because our wretched mother was more interested in going after you than attending my funeral. Kazimir dug me up and brought me back here, our new home from which we will launch the war.”
“But you were bleeding—everywhere,” I whisper as visions of Alyse, nude and sullied, crying for help, flash before my eyes.
Alyse’s brow furrows and her voice whispers in my mind,“Sweet sister, don’t dwell on that terrible vision.”
I gasp. “Youspokein my mind. Leesy, have your powers grown?”
She nods. “I can hear the thoughts of everyone in this room easily. I try not to intrude, keeping a barrier up most times, but some things are just too loud to ignore. Like your distress and fear.” She tilts forward and wraps one arm around me. “I’m sorry I did that to you. It had to be believable.”
I lean into her. “It was.”
“All right, I’m going mad,” Lily says as she sits down across from me. She grabs a thick knife and points between me and Jasper. “I want the story ofthis.”
I look at Jasper. How much can I tell them? Does he want to keep his true identity a secret?
He grabs my hand under the table. “Do you trust them?”
I look between my sisters, then Scarlett, still standing a few paces away from the table with the other man, who must be Zane, the Spider Lord.
She puts her hands up. “Suppose I’ll take my meal back to the Nest.”
I huff. “No. If they trust you, I suppose by extension, I can too.”
“By extension,” she chuckles. She approaches the table and sits farthest from us.
“Reina, don’t be upset with her,” Alyse says. “She has a very good reason.”
“I suppose if she wants to explain herself,” I say with vitriol.
“No!” Lily declares. “I need the hot, juicy details first.” She stops cutting off hunks of meat to point the knife at Jasper again. “Hestoleyou from the palace like a common thief! How are you in love with him? Please, I need to understand.”
I take a deep breath. “Where to begin…”
“I’ll start,” Jasper says, squeezing my hand. Then he gives me a scoundrelly smirk. “You were unconscious, anyway.”
Chapter forty-five
Jasper
Reina and I tell the story of how we fought the queen the first time, then were stranded. We skip some details along the way, namely how I devoured her on the beach, or when we masturbated together in the tent, then how I fucked her with my tentacles up against a tree and all the other bits that I think Lily was hoping for. What a strange princess.
When we finish our story, we’ve eaten most of the food, and Lily has drunk her body weight in apple ale, despite her lover Alastair continually taking her cup away.
“Well,” Scarlett says as she stands, holding up her cup. “I think we should toast the reunion of the sisters.”
“Yes, a toast,” Lily says, stealing her cup back from Alastair as she joins her sister on her feet. Alastair holds her hip in one massive hand to keep her steady.
Alyse stands, cup raised. “To family.”
Reina stands and raises her glass, but her gaze lingers on Scarlett at the end of the table. “You still haven’t explained where you’ve been all the time she was torturing us.”
Scarlett smiles. “I didn’t want to interrupt your gripping tale.”
Reina doesn’t back down and I hide my smirk behind my drink.Get her, my love.
Scarlett sets her glass down and picks at her nails. “She tried to have me killed. The assassin wanted his pound of flesh before he murdered me, and then I discovered I can absorb others magus abilities by drinking blood.”
“And then? Why were you gone fortwelve years?” Reina practically spits fire.
