Page 83 of The Darkest Night

The look on Bennett’s face said she agreed. Mae rose to follow the attorney, Brimstone padding silently by her side.

“Ms. Jin?” Calvarro called out.

Mae stopped and turned to the agent.

“What did you find during Antonovich’s autopsy?”

Bennett frowned. “Don’t answer that.”

Mae contemplated Calvarro and Dickson thoughtfully. “It’s okay.”

Brimstone spoke, his tone pensive.They are not our enemies.

His words convinced her to disclose the truth hovering on her lips.

“It was an enlarged pineal gland.”

Confusion clouded Dickson and Calvarro’s faces.

“An enlarged pineal gland?” Dickson repeated slowly.

“Yes. I believe that’s why he was so freakishly strong.”

Mae turned and exited the interrogation room, the detective and the agent’s stares boring into her back. A bolt of intuition flashed through her. Dickson and Calvarro’s zealous interest in Antonovich could only mean one thing.

They knew he was more than a criminal.

And they were likely the ones that got in Vlad’s way when he was tracking down Antonovich.

Chapter 38

Dawn wasan hour away when Mae walked through the front door of her apartment. Nikolai, Violet, and Miles trailed in behind her.

“There’s bedding in the hallway closet and the spare bedroom. I’ll leave you guys to decide who’s sleeping where,” Mae told them tiredly. “Goodnight.”

They didn’t argue, their faces similarly exhausted.

“Goodnight,” Nikolai murmured.

Mae headed off to her room, the events of the last twenty-four hours catching up with her. Vlad’s words when they’d parted in front of the police station flitted through her mind as she undressed.

The Dark Council won’t let this slide. Be on your guard.

Nikolai had concurred. The sorcerer had fallen into a meditative silence shortly after and had barely exchanged a word with them while Bennett drove them home. The attorney had informed them Bryony would be expecting a visit at the Madison Avenue high-rise later that day. She’d advised they use the SUV Mae had been gifted. Mae wondered how much the lawyer knew about her client.

Her troubled thoughts returned to Nikolai. She suspected that, out of all of them, he was the most worried about what the Dark Council would do in retaliation for messing up their plans.

That’s a problem for another day.

She brushed her teeth, slid under the covers, and turned the bedside light off. The faces of the two men who had entered her life and who now seemed to occupy her every waking thought lingered before her eyes as sleep claimed her.

It felt like she’d hardly rested when a hot tongue rasped her cheek.

“It’s too early, Brim,” Mae mumbled.

She turned over and burrowed under the covers.

That was not me.

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