“You were right, but so was I. Romanwasable to love someone like me. I just don’t deserve it anymore.”
4
ROMAN
“So you’repositive you’re not related to her?” Nico asks, and even Margot darts a glance at me, able to sense my fury. “I know you said that?—”
“If I said it, I know it. Agnarr turned Bjorn during a battle. They’re not goddamn related. Ask me again, and this glass will find itself embedded in your skull.”
“But how do you know they weren’t relatedbeforeAgnarr turned him?” Nico prods, and the amusement in his voice grates on me. I’m not sure if he’s asking to piss me off or if he finds my situation amusing, but I’m about to order him to have a picnic on some train tracks. I’m contemplating how to word the demand for maximum efficacy when Margot responds. She doesn’t look away from the screen, and she sounds bored.
“Bjorn’s father, Eric, was an emissary for the King of Norway when he was trying to claim Iceland as his. Eric and hisNorwegianwife stayed in Iceland, and baby Bjorn was born.” She snorts, and repeats the line a few times. “Baby Bjorn was born. Baby Bjorn was born.” I clear my throat, and she gets back on topic. “This all happened like two hundred years after Agnarr was Made. Leave him alone, Nico.”
“Hey, I’m just trying to make sure?—”
“I’m in,” Margot declares like it’s some kind of triumph, and I suppose it is, because Nico shuts the fuck up about potential incest. I didn’t think it could be any worse, but if I somehow managed to fuck my cousin, I might just set myself on fire. “I don’t understand how she fell for that. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You think she fell for it or you think she’s playing you?” Nico asks, and I throw back the remainder of my drink. It’s the only thing I can do to stifle the ache in my chest. Emile started tugging on our bond a day or so ago, and it’s finally grown to an unbearable pain. To withstand it, a baseline buzz is necessary. Otherwise, I’d be fighting the rest of my coven to get out of the compound.
It may still get to that point.
“I mean, I guess Sasha could be playing us, but she’s standing outside at the corner right now.” She points to the screen with a grid of security cameras, and I squint, unable to identify the two figures. Since Margot showed me Remy’s picture an hour ago, I’ve drunk enough to kill a human, and I’m finally starting to feel it. When Margot angles the other monitor to face me and Nico, I see the blinking circle on the map, positioned at the same corner.
“Listen. She’s not going to let a billing issue keep her from her Rihanna panties. She’s just not.”
“Rihanna panties?” Nico asks, and Margot waves him off. Her ponytail swings, making me a little dizzy.
“They’rereallygood panties. Roman, you’re from this century. Do you know what a phishing scam is?”
I simply stare at her, not even attempting to hide my disinterest. “Another one,” I say to whoever will listen, and Nico obliges me. He swipes my glass before he heads out of the room and into Margot’s kitchen.
“Basically, I sent her a text that made her think?—”
“Just find Remy. Don’t fuck it up this time.”
I sit back in the chair she’d dragged from her living room into the cyber security second-bedroom-turned-office. She’s probably pouting, but I don’t know and don’t care as I tilt my head back and close my eyes. All I can do is focus on breathing while Emile’s command tears my fucking insides apart. If Gwyn’s goal is to kill me before I ever get to see Remy again, she’ll probably succeed. By not allowing me to leave the compound, the blood oath is going to boil my heart inside my chest. And it’s her fucking fault. The only reason I swore an oath to Emile to begin with was so I could see her again.
I’ll see her bleed out, of that I’m sure.
“Asshole,” Margot whispers, and Nico laughs as he comes back into the room.
“You’re surprised by this?” he asks as he presses another drink into my hands. Despite the destruction to the coven and Gwyn’s betrayal, there’s a lightness to my friends since we found out my brother is still alive. I wish I could share that same optimism, but until Remy is out of danger, I can’t allow it. I swallow half of the drink in one gulp before I sputter and choke on it.
“You fucking gave me gin?” I demand, barely able to speak. Spittle goes flying, and I throw the tumbler at the wall over his head.
“Watch it!” comes Margot’s cry, but I don’t give a fuck.
“You think I want to deep throat a fucking tree as I die? You think I want my last drink to taste like Christmas?”
“Jesus, dude. Just say you don’t like gin!” Margot yells while Nico picks up the glass shards.
“Leave it alone,” he murmurs at Margot who is somehow still yelling at me, and his gentle tone sets me off. I stumble to my feet, surprised by just how unsteady I am. I guess I drank more than I thought. Perhaps enough to killtwohumans.
“I don’tlikeany of this,” I sneer. “I don’t like that I’m here, in the same place I was six months ago, waiting for Margot to find my little brother.”
“Sit down, Roman. You’re?—”
“And I don’t like that I’m stuck here in this goddamn compound and it’s not even because of Bjorn. It’s because ofher.”