Page 106 of To Vanquish Darkness

Amalie stumbled once, and Theo lifted her into his arms. She dropped her satchel inside the wall, then clung to him as he pushed out onto the street. Theo didn’t say a word.

“You know where they are?” She asked before thinking. Of course he did. He’d watched her go to Marcel and Olivie the first time he bit her.

Theo began to move, and the world blurred around her. She held the blade of the sword pressed between her knees, safe from jostling against Theo’s body, then buried her face against his shoulder as they moved. With the wind against her cheeks, she could pretend they were flying.

In minutes, they stood at the end of the street. Theo set her feet on the cobblestones, and Amalie stared at the house ahead of them. Light filtered through the glass. It was the only house on the street without darkened windows.

“You believe he killed her.” Theo’s voice was low, his hand still resting on her elbow.

Amalie nodded. “Don’t you?”

Theo’s fingers tensed. “Ren is complicated. He was with us then. In the beginning. He was betrayed by Helena just as you were.”

Maybe that was why Theo couldn’t see it. Amalie didn’t remember Ren then. She only saw him for what he was now.

She drew a deep breath. “You know why I hunted you.”

“I do.” Theo’s voice was clipped.

“Then you understand what I have to do.” She ignored the pang in her gut as she walked up the street, struck by howdifferent it was this time. She wasn’t hiding marks on her neck or working to cover her sobs as she climbed the front steps.

The house was silent. Calm. If Ren was planning a distraction?—

“I told you to get them out.” Ren dropped onto the porch from the roof of the house, his boots barely making a sound. He looked between the two of them.

“Show me your ring.” Theo’s voice was low and calm. Deadly.

Ren scoffed and pulled the chain from his shirt. “I already showed you?—”

Theo ripped it from his neck, and Ren growled. Theo ignored him, pulling the ring from his pocket and comparing the two. Amalie knew what he’d seen the second his eyes lifted.

“They don’t match.” Theo hurled the ring at him, and Ren stumbled back on the porch.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Theo lunged forward, and lights suddenly exploded in front of him, so bright Amalie stumbled back. The whistles and bells came next, and her heart jammed in her throat. No. This was an attack. The Pourfenders— “Marcel!” she screamed, willing her body up. She blinked, trying to make her eyes focus through the white spots in her vision.

But when the smoke cleared, she saw she was too late. Her hands. They were empty. Ren held the sword to Theo’s throat.

“Ren.” Theo spat the name, and Ren clenched his jaw.

“Don’t pretend to be angry, Theo. I haven’t betrayed you.”

“Let him go!” Amalie screamed, stumbling back to the porch steps. “Marcel! Olivie!” She was going to kill them—both of them—for going along with this. Her thoughts spun back to Servon. How Marcel had dismissed her, then taken her to breakfast in the morning. Ren. Of course, it had been Ren.

He hadn’t followed her. He’d known exactly where she was going. Had it been a coincidence that Marcel had been in the town square?

Ren’s face twisted. “Don’t take another step, or I’ll finish what you started.”

Amalie froze on the step, her ears ringing. “I know you’re out there,” she hissed, scanning for any sign of Marcel, but there was nothing.

Theo’s eyes were fixed on the sword hovering beneath his chin. “How long were you with her?”

“It was only the summer.” Ren’s expression darkened, and Amalie felt like she had suddenly fallen through a ceiling made of glass. Only the summer.

Lapping streams. Plucked bluebells.

It had been the best summer of her life. Until it wasn’t.

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