Evvie gnawed on her bottom lip before answering. "Just friends."

I flicked her arm with the backs of my fingers, hard enough that she startled, her rounded gaze swinging back to me. Pinching my lips, I folded my arms across my chest and gave her a look that said I was onto her lies and I wasn't going to put up with them any longer.

A crestfallen look swallowed her features, and her shoulders slumped. "Father abhors the idea that you'll be married to Graysen, so he's not going to be swayed to allow another daughter into that family." She dropped her gaze to her hands as she threaded her fingers together, rubbing them back and forth. "And...I...he..." Her nose scrunched as she shook her head as if laughing at her own absurdity. "It's not as if I don't know what he's like...I mean, look at him, he's such a flirt," she waved a hand, gesturing toward Caidan. "He can't help himself."

When I turned back to the Crowthers, Caidan had Elyse in a fit of laughter, one hand resting on her shoulder, a boyish grin dimpling his cheeks.

Exasperation had my eyes narrowing at the sight. Still, I couldn't stay my tongue. I'd seen what was on Caidan's face in the laundry, that yearning, the belief the feeling wasn't returned. I might have shared this with Evvie because in some way I owed him. "He might be talking to her, but he's not stopped looking at you."

I'd felt his attention all over Evvie while we'd been tucked together beneath the low-hanging branches of the willow tree. Swift, sharp, stolen glances, as if he couldn't prevent himself from looking.

"That doesn't mean he actually has any real feelings for me...ones he'd act on."

"But you hope he might."

She sighed as she tipped her gaze to the canopy of rushing leaves. "There's no use hoping for things out of my reach, Nelle. All I can do is focus on me, what I can achieve." When her eyes sliced to mine, a sly gleam darkened their color, and like the wonderous smile I'd seen her give Caidan in the laundry, this was the same but of a different nature. I'd never seen that cunning stare before, nor heard the cold, calculating tone in her voice either. "And I am going to. I will find out what's going on inside the Pelan Laboratories. I'll find out and give what I learn to Father...but it will be an exchange of information, for the right price."

Ruthless. That's what I instantly thought and had never considered my sister could be either. She astounded me, and I could only blink blankly as she said, "I'll trade whatever House Pelan is up to in exchange for my right to choose my husband...and you too."

You too—had my eyes widening and my heart thundering.

"Maybe what I learn will be valuable enough that you won't be forced to marry Graysen Crowther." She smoothed her hand down the front of her dress as she squared her shoulders, but her gaze and voice softened when she whispered, "Well, that is, if you don't want to."

I turned toward Graysen, my body instinctively knowing exactly where he'd moved to stand near Caidan, even if my mind didn't.

If I had the choice...would I marry him?

His gaze shot to mine as if this time he couldn't help himself, couldn't deny the taut line of energy singing between us, tugging each to the other.

The moment our gazes collided, every cell in my body awakened with a crackling jolt. The wind ruffled his charmingly disarranged hair as he stared back. His eyes were as inky-black as the crest of darkness high above a city skyline, its nightlife blanketing the stars. And I lost myself within their endless depth with no stars to guide myself home, no way to find an escape from within him.

I wondered if he felt the same.

If I affected him the same way he did me?

Neither of us able to deny or stop this attraction.

But there was nothing on his expression. Nothing at all.

As if I meant absolutely nothing to him.

A brisk gust of wind whipped tendrils of my hair across my eyes, which had come loose from the braided tiara. My lashes narrowed instantly and I blinked against the moonlit strands. Tucking the wayward locks behind my ear, I tilted my head into the wind, and it was like a trick of the light reflecting off the dusty surface of a glacier—a crack rendered through the icy wall Graysen projected around himself. Enough for me to peep through and see past the facade, the turbulent emotion roiling inside those conflicted eyes, the remorse and awe and banked desire as he stared back at me.

It slammed into me with stunning simplicity. The man who'd kept me company all this year wore his brooding and sullen mood like armor, his apathetic bored-as-fuck tone as a shield, and that jerkass attitude was his blade.

He was a godsdamned liar!

He, like me, had hidden himself well.

Perhaps even better, because he'd refused to face his own truth.

He'd kept himself distant all this time because he really liked me, that much deeper kind of like too, and this was not a new feeling for him either. Even his brother was aware of it, and thank Zrenyth, had thrown him spectacularly under the bus.

As if she's everything.

It should have filled me with joy. I should have been bouncing up and down with glee.

Instead, it was a match to dry kindling and my temper ignited.

I popped a fist on one hip and rolled my eyes at him. He was an idiot if he thought he could keep up this charade. Though he didn't want to want me, it still meant he wanted me.

I mouthed—Such a liar, Graysen Crowther.

Shock exploded in his midnight eyes, a flame to illuminate the darkness. And I smiled in delight to see him unnerved, how he scrambled to bring back the guardedness in his gaze. The anxious way his features tightened, the muscles corded starkly against his tattooed throat, the tension in his hands as he flexed them by his side.

Too late, Graysen Crowther.

And I couldn't resist giving him a wink and mouthing—Gotcha!

***

There were no other words for it...I was freaking the fuck out.

I stood with my family on the outskirts of the temple with the trees at our backs. Leaves rustled and branches slapped and creaked and groaned. The wind was as scattered as my thoughts, the gusts as strong as the panic sweeping through me.

Wearing my usual mask of boredom and indifference, no one could read the riot of emotion going on inside me.

But she wasn't just anyone.

Nelle was as sharply honed as the blade tucked inside my jacket pocket. She'd picked up a sledgehammer and smashed the thick wall of ice, splintering it into chunks and shards, and seen right through to the heart of me.

Oh yeah, I am screwed.

That girl let me get away with nothing. She was going to nail me to the wall, pin me there like a moth, and torture the truth out of me.

What Caidan had said back there in the woods slayed me.

It was scratched across my mind in big block letters I couldn't get away from. A mirror held in front of me, forcing me to see the truth reflected back—all those moments when I'd forgotten myself and dreamed of her, of what could have been.

And did my brother have to make it sound like that?

Gods, what kind of bullshit rom-com did he pull that from?

As if she's everything.

But it was true, and it scared the ever-living fuck out of me.

Hooking a finger into the knot of my tie that was strangling my neck, I tugged and yanked. The godsdamn thing was too tight, I couldn't breathe. At least that was what I told myself in my desperation to ignore the fact my hands were shaking.

Shit, my hands are shaking.!

Shock flared through me that I'd only just noticed.

I flexed my fingers, curling and unfurling their length until I got myself under control.

I'd left Nelle behind in the gloomy woods, gathering my messed up feelings and confusion at what I'd confessed to her, and had run like a coward.

I couldn't give her what she wanted.

I couldn't let myself care for her.

Gods, but I do.

And it was right then, with sickening clarity, that I realized she was a vibrant poison that spiked my blood and fevered my soul. I wasn't sure I had the strength to find a way to bleed her from me like toxic blood, nor even if I truly wanted to give her up.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sucked in a fortifying breath.

Fuuuck...I am so fucked.

Another thought arose, slinking through my mind, and it had me roughly running a hand through my hair, tugging hard enough to make my scalp burn. Why the hells did I confess as much as I had to Nelle? What was wrong with me? It had been there on the tip of my tongue, about to slip free—what her family had done to ours.

She was clever, my little bird. I didn't think she remembered my mother or knew of her friendship with Marissa. While my mother had rarely visited Marissa at her home, so too had Wychthorn rarely attended House Gatherings.

She'd put it together though. In my moment of madness, I'd given her enough for the wheels to start turning in that brilliant mind of hers. Gods, she'd spent most of her life in her family's library, searching for any reference of otherworldly creatures in those cumbersome tomes, then tracked down the location of the Uzrek and found a way to speak with it. And what had my big fucking stupid-ass done? I'd handed over all the pieces of a jigsaw. All she had to do was fit them together.

She'd soon come to the right conclusion, that we'd both been punished the same year. How that inner light her mother glowed with had dimmed as she'd fallen into despair and turned to those little white pills to blanket her guilt.

Marissa had locked her own daughter in a tithe prison, trapping her in absolute darkness behind a wall of adamere. Maybe because she couldn't deal with what Nelle was, but I suspected it was more about the fact she couldn't face her daughter. Nelle was a living reminder of what she'd done. How she'd saved her daughter at the expense of her best friend.

If Nelle pieced it together, discovered why our two Houses were pitted against one other...what the Alverac meant...what I was going to do to her—

How can I go through with it?

I suddenly felt my aunt's attention slithering all over me.

I kept up the mask I wore, something even my aunt couldn't see past, and waited until her interest turned back to her twin, my father. She leaned slightly to the side to whisper something to him. I didn't listen in. I didn't care to. It would only be about those Houses gathered here, or the Wychthorns, always at the forefront of our intrigues.

Lightning ripped across the churning storm clouds, chased by thunder. The smell of ozone fizzing through the air muted the foul, rotten tang scraping against my tongue from those dark souls eagerly anticipating the blessing. Beneath it all came a low vibration I felt all the way to my bones, emanating from the temple itself.

The last of the stragglers had made their way from the marquee and arrived at the Wychthorns' temple to await the arrival of the Horned Gods. I watched them mingling like a thick cluster of ants crawling around a kill.

We were the only House that survived the unfolding centuries after the Final War. The other Houses that had lived through that bloodbath, had fallen away into history, annihilated from the machinations of other Houses, or fell from grace. We survived by keeping our distance, being ruthless and cunning, like we were doing right now.

My aunt's violet eyes slowly raked over those gathered on the outskirts of the temple, her razor-sharp mind no doubt calculating and scheming to use whomever she could. Ever since that black night on the country road when I'd lost my mother, she had one singular purpose—find the Horned God with the vibrant red hair and forked tongue.

Garnering the identity of the Horned God had proved elusive.

Nelle would assume I hated my aunt for what she did, tearing my skin anew, flaying my back until it was tattered shreds. And there were moments, dark moments when I did, when I'd wanted to rip that whip from my aunt's hand and turn it against her.

But my aunt had been right. It was all down to me. To that foolish kid who'd opened his mouth wanting to protect a small girl.

If I hadn't...if only I'd kept my mouth shut.

But then Nelle—

"Bishop to C4. Mate in three," a low raspy voice said, interrupting my conflicted thoughts.

I jerked around, the soles of my shoes scraping against cobblestones and through crumpled leaves. Ferne stood behind me, holding onto Caidan's arm, my brother smugly smiling, no doubt thinking he'd done me a favor back there in the woods.

Ferne let go of Caidan and stretched her fingers forward, and I offered her my arm.

Earlier, after Caidan had checked on Evvie, he'd joined me in my quarters, both of us remaining silent and brooding in each other's company. I'd changed yet again into a new tuxedo, one that, at my request after Nelle tripped me up into sludge, my sister had brought with her from home. Caidan had been forced into borrowing a pair of my pants since our rumble in the woodland had torn holes in his. The only good thing that came out of the mess he'd shoved me into with Nelle, with all my secrets spilled for her to sift through, was the uncomfortable way he stood, my tuxedo pants too tight for his bulky body and fucking balls.

Sudden fury rolled off me in blistering waves at how Caidan had so brilliantly fucked everything up for me. I'd been drowning in quicksand with every single reveal and he'd forced me to face up to my own truth, how I felt about Nelle. And to top it all off, the girl was now onto me.

My brother was going to have a little chat with my fists later on in our training pit back home.

As if he read my dark thoughts, his smile turned into a half-feral grin, those stupid-ass dimples denting his cheeks as he mouthed—Bring it on.

I bared my teeth.

He wiped a mock tear from the corner of his eye with his middle finger.

I raised my fist to break his nose—

Ferne threw up her hands in an exasperated gesture. "Whatever is going on between you two, knock it off."

Caidan and I were still locked in a fearsome glare-off when Ferne barked, "Now!"

He silently snarled and broke first, spinning around to stalk off. Well, tried to stalk. I huffed a gleeful laugh at his wooden stride, the way he tried to stealthily tug at his crotch for more room. He flipped me off over his shoulder without even looking my way, rejoining Elyse Estlore and Mela Văduva.

A short dress hugged Mela's curves, the white fabric a striking contrast to her dark brown skin. The warm undertones to her complexion were drawn out further by the gleam of fire. She smoothed a hand up over her braids that had been swept elegantly into a high bun before she nervously fiddled with a golden pin encrusted with a sparkling ruby. I knew Mela well enough to see how on edge she was around Elyse, how she was trying desperately not to seem affected by the other woman.

I caught her eye and smirked, mouthing—Good luck.

A small sliver of white teeth flashed as she shot back a disheartened grimace, one that neither my brother nor Elyse noticed.

Nelle had assumed wrong in the water well when she accused me of favoring the girl with the scent of honey and orange blossoms. I let Nelle believe that Mela and I occasionally fucked. But the truth of it all was...hells no. Mela was my best friend and our friendship was and always had been platonic. Besides Mela wouldn't ever be interested in me, she was attracted to her own gender. The only reason why Nelle picked up on Mela's perfume was that every so often we'd crash together. Maybe after we came home exhausted after a hunt or we'd gone out to a bar and gotten absolutely hammered, I'd succumb to my insomnia and collapse into a deep sleep while she passed out beside me. Mela was the only other person outside of my family that knew of my insomnia. Well, I supposed that was no longer true since I'd entrusted my secret with Nelle too. Not that either of them knew the reason behind the affliction.

My sister cleared her throat, rousing me out of my thoughts.

Angling my head back to Ferne, and welcoming the distraction from the fucking mess I was currently in with Nelle, I said, "Bishop to C4, huh?" Tucking my hand into my pocket, I dug out my phone and swiped the screen. Ferne's last chess move showed up as a notification. She'd obviously sent it through a moment before sidling up to me. I arched an eyebrow I knew she wouldn't see, but she responded all the same, her small smile growing wider. "Mate in three? Gods, Ferne, so fucking cocky."

She shrugged a slender shoulder. "You have to be with brothers like mine."

"You haven't won just yet," I reminded her. Though, with Ferne, it pretty much was an absolute.

She nudged my side with a pointy elbow, making me shirk away. "Oh, but I will."

Ferne tucked a lock of glossy black hair behind her ear and stilled as if she sensed something. I frowned, watching her worry her bottom lip with her teeth as if biting back a smile, as if she were hiding a secret, while those sweet cheeks of hers pinked.

My eyebrows nearly rose to my hairline as an uneasy feeling squeezed my gut.

Oh, fuck no.