Page 39 of V for Vengeance

The femme fatale’s eyes narrowed, and the next look she sent at Cash was full of amber rage. “What did you give her, you bastard?!”

The Dark Fae had a dagger at his throat, but he didn’t retreat or babble like he normally would. He just stared back at thehomicidal woman ready to cut his throat out and said, “Blue Magic. It’ll wear off soon without another shot. I might not care what happens to a she-devil like you, but don’t stand here and tell me you haven’t already seen how much I care about what happens to V. It’s rather unprofesh of you.”

Again, Cash talked more like a high school girl than I did. He’d delivered his speech with the razor-sharp glare of a killer, but that last bit ruined it. I barely kept it together. Now wasn’t the time to giggle or argue. I was about to say as much, but the floor quaked and cracked loudly. In an instant, the entire building seemed to shift and move.

“Well, we’re about to put that proclamation to the test, asshole,” Jo growled, her eyes shifting over to the backmost part of the room. “She’s already closed off the exits, and even your teleportation magic won’t get through it.”

Chapter 20

Shadow Fae

Jo

Iknew something was up the second that bastard Dark Fae showed up at V’s door and refused to leave.

I detected the shift in his confidence when he got his slimy hands on that amulet he blackmailed V into getting for him. I hadn’t figured out what it did, but I didn’t like how quickly Cassius lost the fear in his eyes when I attacked him. Or how the usually incoherent coward barely hid his arrogance, sure that I wouldn’t win against him should a fight occur—as baseless as that confidence was because I never lost.

Loathe as I was to admit it, Cassius was clever. Everything he did was directly connected to helping V. Every movement he made was to further our agenda so we could take down Lux and his evil minions. And he never once mentioned the amulet. He’d barely looked at it since the night he retrieved it. I found it broken and in pieces inside a box he kept in his room, discarded like trash.

So, what was it? What did he gain from it?

Curious, I tailed the two when Cassius insisted he get V all to himself without the ever-watchful gaze of her tattooed keeper. Another clever tactic I hated to give him credit for.

Phillip was right to be wary, but V had the arrogant bastard under her thumb. The fiery Hunter was the cleverest of them all. Honestly, it was just another reason that I was enamored with her like the rest of them. A surprise, yes, but one I wasn’t exactly upset about.

The Dark Fae used a stone to travel, but it was easy enough for someone like me to follow. I’d put a tracker on both Cassius and V the first day we met—one even the great Phillip couldn’t detect. It wasn’t magic. It was a shadow that took the shape of theirs.

What no living creature knew was that I controlled shadows. I could become them, move through them, use them. It wasn’t an ability anyone but my kind could do. And even then, very few of us existed now or in the past. So, in this world, no one feared their shadow. Not until I appeared out of it, striking before they could breathe—their worst fucking nightmare.

I was undetectable. The Chaos Fae every supernatural creature feared. Terrifyingly powerful and merciless. As a shadow, I could go anywhere and do practically anything. Still, as with anything, there was a great cost to using my shadow ability. One I’d pay for tonight if things went pear-shaped because I’d already used too much and rendered my other powers useless.

Something about Cassius’s power since he retrieved the amulet was noticeably different. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I’d lost him despite the shadow tracker. And that was when I sensed serious goddamn trouble.

Fucking Serine.

I’d thought for sure she was back in the Fae realm. She’d gotten her ego bruised during our last encounter, butapparently, she was back—and with a fucking army by the looks of it. Not the usual one or two she kept with her for protection, but a staggering twenty in total.

The cloaked figures moved through the crowd, drawing hoots and hollers from the inebriated mass. Humans were drawn to our kind, but in this case, the numerous cloaked figures making their way through the crowd in formation looked like a show was about to take place. The humans around me grew agitated with their excitement, following the cloaked figures wherever they went. A death procession of sorts. Because by the end of the night, every human who followed would be dead.

If Serine was here, then V was in danger. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Serine was power hungry. A ruthless mercenary with a penchant for destruction. It wasn’t beneath the Organization to network with her kind. She was worse than Eros, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was being paid a pretty penny to come after their runaway weapon. But what the Organization failed to anticipate was that Serine wouldn’t take the coin or favors, she’d steal their prized goose for herself.

I didn’t want to think about what would happen if Serine got her claws into V.

I had to move fast to find out where the obnoxious Dark Fae took her. Neither of them were up to snuff. They couldn’t take on Serine without the right information. Instead of tracking Cassius, I followed V’s tracker. I came to her as a shadow, revealing myself to someone for the first time in centuries. The first person since Reyna. I’d ponder its significanceafterI got the saucy Hunter to safety.

Serine wasn’t someone I wanted to fight after using my shadow form all night. I’d be too vulnerable to her magic, and with an army at her command, I’d have to hope V could pausetime and use her abilities to end it quickly. Because Serine was the same thing V and I were.

A Royal fucking Siren.

Overuse of my shadow form was already taking its toll. I wouldn’t be able to fight like normal, and certainly not against Serine’s necromancy. Because the way I controlled shadows, she controlled the dead. Every cloaked figure she’d brought with her was a Fae she’d killed and collected for her army of the undead. She’d upped her game. Controlling so many would take a toll on her, but their abilities became hers. Without significant recon, I couldn’t be sure what any of them could do—and that was what made Serine the most dangerous person any of us could face.

There was a time limit on her control, but only with that particular Fae. Unfortunately, not short enough to be any use in our present predicament. She’d move her power through the group to reserve her strength. The only way to defeat someone like Serine was to get to her before she could get to you. But I’d already lost my edge. I wouldn’t be able to disable her now that I had to warn V she was about to go up against her own kind.

I grabbed the confused Hunter and headed the opposite direction of Serine and her undead army. V moved like normal, so I was thankful the annoying asshole had the good sense not to give her anything that would limit her ability to fight. When I looked back, I didn’t see Cassius anywhere. He’d disappeared into thin air. Did that fucking coward flee at the first sign of danger? He wouldn’t be able to use his teleportation, so it was more likely he’d found somewhere to hide. It fucking figures he’d be a coward to the very end.

Men and their goddamn lip service.

V seemed to catch my line of sight. “Where’s Cash?”

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