Page 33 of Thorns from the Fall

I can’t have both things.

Sasha twists the knife into her heart, and I live vicariously through the hurt she inflicts. “He’s my friend, mybest friend. We’ve been through a lot when it comes to you, without you, just all of it. For once, something isn’t about you.”

Sasha turns her back on Gwyn, resting a hand on Hale’s thigh. The man whimpers, and I’m surprised to see Nico caressing his forehead, softly encouraging him to keep drinking. He’s somehow both gentle and bored, and I think he must have done this quite a few times

“I want a half million for my silence.”

I nearly leap out of my fucking skin as Caitriona appears beside me. I don’t look at her, somehow unable to take my eyes off the scene before us. My uncle’s body lies on the ground behind me, and I’m afraid if I turn to look, there will be consequences to my conscience that I’m not willing to face right now.

“Silence about what exactly?” I ask, unsure about what stipulations she might have. She clearly intends to do something with Gwyn’s DNA, and I don’t know if I should care about that or not.

Not. Definitively.

“That you killed your uncle to protect a hybrid thief.”

“A hybrid?” I ask, laughing. “She’s not a dog. Although I guess she is a bitch, but not in the traditional sense of the word.”

“They’ll come sniffing soon, I’m sure. You don’t want them knowing you allied yourself with her once. Trust me.”

She’s probably not wrong.

“Fine.” I rattle off Margot’s phone number. “Give her your details and she’ll make it happen.”

“I suggest running the fuck away from this if I were you. She’s bad news.”

At that I laugh, and my voice booms through the crisp night air like a clap of thunder.

Gwyn stops staring at Hale and Sasha, and begins to unfold her long legs before standing up. The leather is tight on her flesh, and the sound of it is almost comforting as she walks over. A sense memory pushes its way forward in my mind, and I can see my mother rummaging around in her leather purse as she places it on the front passenger seat. It’s a quick glimpse, one of the rare windows into the memories of my mother, but it’s no less vivid.

“Cool disappearing trick,” Gwyn says to Caitriona. Her hair is a tangled mess, and her full cheeks have a faint tinge of pink to them. She’s just as beautiful now that she’s Ascended, lacking that strange otherworldly sensation after being turned that most vampires have. Hale’s appearance will be unsettling to her for a while. But hers never changed, not really.

Because of Agnarr’s blood. Because of what she is.

“You knew there was no spell on him, right? But you had to get your payout, didn’t you?” Gwyn’s ire is a laser, getting straight to the point. Little does she know, the payment was a violation against her.

I won’t be cluing her in either.

“From one con artist to another, your work here has been impressive,” the witch replies, before turning on a heel and walking away. Though her footsteps are quiet, the change in her pace as she steps over my uncle’s body is deafening.

Frowning, Gwyn watches the witch leave as she crosses her arms. She doesn’t look at me. “He’ll be sworn to Nico, now, won’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Give me your phone.” She holds out her hand, long fingers gently curling upward. For whatever reason, there’s a shift in her demeanor, and I fish the device out of my pocket.

She opens up my messages, clicking Margot’s name at the top of it. Quickly, she types in a few numbers then a word.

“You’ll let me stay at the compound until after Hale is done Ascending, I hope?” She turns the phone, passing it over to me with the message open. I look at it before I reach out to take it. It’s an address.

I go still.

“What the fuck is this, Gwyn?”

“Remy is sworn to me, and Hale is sworn to you. Well, to Nico, but same thing. There’s no sense in?—”

“Remy’s here? At this—where? Is he—You’re just going to—” I’m trying to say too many things at once. I’m rattled, and it pisses me off. “What the fuck was the point of all this? Why, why do all this if… And you’re going to leave after Hale is done Ascending? You take my coven, then you don’t… then you don’t even want it?”

My hands twitch, eager to wrap around her delicate throat. It’s at odds with the expansive relief of knowing where my brother is. All of this is her fucking fault, I remind myself, because the urge to both kiss her and kill her wars inside of me, searching for the path of least resistance.

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