Page 95 of Veradel
“Saskia,” I try again before I have to resort to that, softening my voice and reaching out to grab her hand instead. If she would just meet my gaze, I’d be able to read her better. “We can figure this out. Don’t leave me.”
At that phrase, she physically recoils. For some reason, her attention flickers to Gabriel, who gives a miniscule shake of his head that I don’t understand. Saskia, however, sets her mouth in a grim line and wrestles her hand out of mine.
“I was wrong,” she says, the reddish hazel of her eyes solidifying into something I’ve never seen in them before as she finally meets mine: repulsion. “Life outside the Wall… I thought it might be better on the other side, but it’s feral and wild out there. No electricity. No order. No Rules. It wasn’t until I experienced it and came back that I realized how much better it is in here.”
Confusion ricochets across each face in this hideous throne room, from Guardians to werewolves to sentries… to mine. My heart no longer pumps.
She’s lying. She has to be lying.
But Arad’s grinning as if she isn’t—as if he actually believes what she’s saying. “We all make mistakes, Saskia. I’m glad to see you’ve finally arrived at the same conclusion as everyone else. So who’s it going to be?” He pauses. “Guardian or Monster?”
Every breath seems to waver as Saskia glances at the thirteenth throne, an unmistakablyhungryexpression in her gaze. “I know I’m not human anymore, but my ancestor sat in that chair. And I want to come back… if you’ll have me.” She dips her head at Arad.
Who throws his head back up in a cackle.
“Is that so?”
Saskia’s face pales. “Yes.”
Arad grins with all his teeth. “Thenprove it.”
Again, Saskia physically flinches at that phrase, glancing at Gabriel. Once again, he shakes his head, so subtly that I halfway wonder if them communicating is just a part of my imagination. And again, I reach out and snatch her hand.
“Saskia.”
“Stop touching me!” she shrieks, ripping herself away. “I’ll always choose my own blood.” Warning seems to ring through each word.
My own dirty werewolf blood whooshes in my ears, and understanding barrels into me. If this is truly what she wants to do, then I have to respect and honor her choice, or else there won’t be any difference between Arad and me at all.
But my vision still blurs when she unstraps her belt from her waist, letting her weapons clang to the floor. Vivian’s eyes widen. Soren tries to shake his head at her. Merrick grunts. My claws extend from my fingers, digging into my own palms until blood wells from each mark. It takes self-control granted from an unearthly power for me to refrain from lunging forward to snatch her back.
Then, like a scene from my worst nightmare, Saskia drifts toward Arad.
Each of her steps claps against the floor. Every breath tightens.
Arad’s eyes widen a fraction, as if he didn’t expect her to actually do it. And when she gets close enough for him to touch, he removes his knife from Vivian, who stumbles away with a gasp.
Prove itseems to ring through the room.
Saskia does.
As the other Guardians and sentries lower their own weapons from the rest of my pack members, she raises her hands and cups Arad’s pale face.
His entire countenance shifts, his eyes running over her neck where the gold chain hangs, as if she’s still human. As if the blood that runs through her veins right now isn’tmine.
Then he swipes a tongue along one of his fangs and lifts his eyes to her lips. She leans toward him with a tilt of her chin, closer and closer, but the second before their lips meet, my own curl up in a grin.
Because the moment Arad lets his eyes close in preparation for a kiss that he never won at all, Saskia rips his head off his neck.
All around me, the pack members shift back into werewolves and fighting explodes through the throne room as I take Arad’s head by a fistful of that golden hair and chuck it to the side.
But before I can pull out his heart, his arms shoot out to grab me, and his foot—
It kicks out, hitting me in the stomach and sending me soaring into the opposite wall.
Saskia! Lucan cries, our connection re-established now that he’s a werewolf again.
My back crashes into the wall, sending pain fracturing through my whole body while chunks of marble fall from the ceiling like jagged pieces of hail.
