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“Titus is going to kill us,” Ada replied calmly.
“I don’t evencareabout my cousin right now,” Maria snapped. “She’s myfriendfirst and foremost before she belongs to him.”
“How very feminist of you.” Ada tilted her head as she watched the lioness pace. After a moment, and when Maria wouldn’t stop stomping around while muttering under her breath, the hyena sighed. She lowered her leg back to the floor and pressed her hands onto the ground beside her. “I like her too.”
Maria spun to face the other girl, a retort ready on her panicked expression, but she froze as the two shifters exchanged a long look.
“Better?” Ada asked. “Because it’syourjob to hold everyone together. You’re the only one who stands a chance in getting her to listen. We might not get this opportunity again, because next time anything happens, she’ll die. You’ll only get one chance at this.”
Maria swallowed hard, then nodded once before she faced me once more.
“Bianca.” Her voice was like honey, languid and thick. It dragged me back from the edges of numbness. “Bianca, look at me.”
This time I did what I’d been avoiding before, ever since all of this started, and met her eyes.
“Good.” She sounded happier now, and a warm feeling welled up in my chest. “Babe, can you talk to me? How do you feel?”
I stared at her, completely at a loss for words.
How could I describethis, when I had no idea whatthiseven was?
“Okay…” Maria’s voice wavered slightly, and panic began to grip at the edges of my senses once more. “Okay, no!” She pressed her face in between the bars, and my doubt fled. “Bianca, I need you to free Gloria so she can shift.”
Some feet away the hand-drawn circle still glowed a soft white, the runes glittering ominously in the dirt.
“Don’t worry about that.” Maria’s voice soothed though my rising fear. “We’ll be away from here soon, and I promise that you’ll never have to see another magic circle for the rest of your life. Just focus on getting to Gloria.”
My vision wavered as I looked at the wolf shifter, and an ache began to pound at the base of my skull.
Gloria was unconscious and still shackled against the stone wall. That didn’t surprise me. Her body wasn’t used to such abuse. But how long had it been? Her long hair was a tangled wave over her shoulders, and her head rested lightly against her left bicep.
I bet her arms were asleep too. That really sucked—I’d always considered paresthesia to be one of the worst feelings in the world.
Except, maybe, a concussion. Or being maimed in general.
Actually, there were a lot of things worse than tingly limbs.
“Focus, Bianca.” Maria’s voice focused my scattering thoughts. “The sooner we get home, the sooner I can show you where Titus stashed the better pieces of his collections.”
“Are youbribingher?” Ada sounded astonished.
“She’s not thinking clearly,” was Maria’s quick reply. “You need to appeal to her instincts. All fae like shiny crap, and they’re really competitive. Don’t worry, it’ll come back once she starts moving.”
“She’s not going to…”
But Ada’s rebuttal ended as I staggered to my feet.
What was this nonsense?
Hadn’t I already seen the best of the best? After all, it’d been my jewelry we played with when Maria had brought overPretty, Pretty Princess—that should beit. What could be more awesome thanmystuff?
Was Titus hiding something even better?
“Unbelievable.” Ada scoffed. “And a bit frightening.”
“You need to hang out with more fae,” Maria replied.
My body didn’t feel like my own as I crossed the length of our prison. I could hardly feel my legs or my arms, and my mustered-up strength finally gave out when I was a foot away from my target.
