Page 65 of Radiant Shadows

She nodded sardonically, and I got the sense she’d been discriminated against by more than just me. “Don’t I know it.”

“If you ever need anything, I owe you a debt,” I said. “Maybe I could use my father’s leverage to get you enrolled in the Dome. Wasn’t that what you wanted before?”

Surprise made her eyebrows flicker upward for a moment as she looked at me. Then she looked over her shoulder. “You know, I don’t think I need the Dome, after all.”

When she turned back to face me, she was wearing a contented smile, one that said she had found her place. “Let me know how it goes.”

I held back the smile until she shut the door behind me, leaving me on the porch.

The smile got wider.It worked.I somehow felt different.

Hopeful.

Like I could have a happy ending.

Like my mother could have a happy ending.

For the first time in my life, I let myself dream of a future that wasn’t dedicated to military life to avoid the cold glances at the dinner table. Or seeing a face identical to my mother’s and unable to do anything about it because the person I loved was not the person I shared a life with.

I glanced back at the house as I waited on the curb for my next Uber. Reading the name that was so familiar—Le Fey—I racked my brain, trying to remember where I’d seen it.

Like a cold blast of high-altitude air, my brain found the connection.

Le Feywas the name of the woman who mysteriously died at the boarding house. Alice Le Fey. It was Alice’s sisters, the Le Fey witches, who traveled all the way to Washington in order to curse Claudette Dracul.

Shock radiated through my entire being. Shea was related to the witches who’d cursed my family. No wonder her family grimoire held the countercurse.

But I couldn’t feel enmity toward the witches I’d just left. How could I? They just gave me a gift I thought I’d never have and denied myself from wanting for so long.

The realization filled me with even more confidence that the spell had worked. If Le Fey’s placed the curse on my family, who better to break it?

I was half-tempted to fly home because I couldn’t wait to get back to Arya, but the Uber finally pulled up. I practically sprinted into the car, my every nerve sizzling with anticipation.

Chapter 24

Julian

Whatever was in these cuffs on my wrists had to be more than just a copper solution. Not only was my body sluggish and weak, but a thick fog had infiltrated my mind, making my vision spin at times whenever I opened my eyes.

Though that could be from the lack of blood in my body.

I closed my eyes again and melted against the silk sheets of the bed beneath me, my wrists dangling from their restraints above my head. I almost couldn’t even feel the prick of Marguerite’s teeth anymore, the sensation a dull ache on the fringes of my perception.

And yet, when she withdrew her fangs from my neck, I involuntarily sighed with relief.

“Oh, my poor, sweet Julian,” she cooed beside me, her fingers caressing my face.

I opened my eyes halfway to see her propping her head on her bent arm and looking down at me like she actually cared about me, like I was a cherished lover whom she was trying to nurse back to health. But she was the reason for my misery.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” she said with a pout. “If you hadn’t tried to escape yesterday, I wouldn’t have to drain you like this. But I must say…” Her rouged lips spread into a flirtatious smile. “I enjoy the way you taste.” She leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss against my jaw.

I wanted to jerk away from her, to reject her morbid affections, but I couldn’t summon the strength to do more than roll my head to the opposite side.

Yes, I had tried to escape yesterday after she’d first dragged me into her chambers. I waited until she’d gone into her bathroom to change into “something more comfortable” and then immediately bolted for the door. It had been locked digitally, and I hadn’t been strong enough to budge it open, or patient enough to study and crack the keypad—my room never had such hi-tech securities.

When the door didn’t work, I’d shot to the window, trying to quietly pry it open. The copper in my system worked quickly, weakening every cell, and my normally diamond-strong nails splintered and cracked for my efforts.

Marguerite had come out and caught me, so I slammed at the glass to smash it, hoping to jump out with no clue if the fall from this height would kill me. But my fists only bounced off the glass. Apparently, they were bulletproof.

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