Page 55 of Vipers and Vendettas
‘Themazetakes requests for objects?’ I find myself asking. ‘From you?’
She nods.
‘The sentient, cursed maze that outright kills half of those who enter it, that makes another thirty percent walk around aimlessly with no escape until it’s forced to let them go and leaves half oftheminsane,gives you presents.’
I rub my eyes, wondering what it is about this human girl that attracts not only my clan to its detriment but my fuckingestateas well.
‘So, you were asking it for another link key.’
‘Yes.’
‘To leave.’
‘Yes.’
‘And where were you intending on going, Julia?’
She sinks down in the chair at my harsh tone, so I temper my next words.
‘Were you really going to go back to that apartment? I’ve seen it, you know. Do you really want to have a child in that place?’
She shakes her head.
‘Where, when?’
She shrugs.
‘Do you think I believe that you, a woman who always has a plan A, B, and C, wouldn’t have even one solid idea in this instance, especially as it involves her future child?’
‘No,’ she says, ‘but you wouldn’t understand.’
She rubs the side of her neck, suddenly looking exhausted.
I let out a breath. ‘So, if you got your link key, why were you coming back through the house? For the diamonds?’
For a split second, she looks so surprised at my insinuation that I’m absolutely sure she wasn’t going for them. She really was just trying to leave.
The thought makes me even more furious for multiple reasons, the least of which is the absolute havoc she caused when she left last time … and not just because she took the jewels, but because she took half my clan’s hearts with her.
But I don’t let my anger show.
‘I was scared, I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to get inside,’ she says.
Her fingers knead at the juncture between her neck and shoulder.
‘And the link key?’ I ask.
‘I didn’t get one.’
At my incredulous look, she rolls her eyes. ‘You would have found it if I had one on me, Maddox. They’re not tiny! What do you want to do, strip search me?’
‘The idea holds merit,’ I snap, and I’m gratified when she curls her arms around herself anxiously.
‘So, you went to the maze and asked for the link key. What next?’
‘Someone appeared. A- a figure. In a cloak, I think.’
I can’t help my laugh. ‘Really, Julia, it’s late. No tales, please.’
