lla

he room was exactly as I'd expected. Small, cramped, with a slanted ceiling that I could almost touch if I stood on my

eap, synthetic fabric, and cut in a style so plain it looked

eered out. From here, I had a bird's-eye view of the sprawling gardens below. Guests in glittering g

all, a princess in a frothy white dress, holding court. And be

ousy. It was pure, unadulterated disgust. The sight of him, his hand

tation. He had looked at me three years ago with horror and disgust, and now he looked at Yara with love. The same

adjoining bathroom. I turned on the tap and splashed freezi

ike razors and eyes that held a darkness far older than her twenty-one years. But the fi

ou," I told the reflection. "

was a little too tight in the shoulders and a little too sho

ide in this dusty cage forever. My mission was

' staircase, my cheap shoes making no sound on the worn wooden steps. I avoi

aw a young maid hurrying past

e," I sai

e me. Her eyes widened in re

Blackwood's room. Do

. She pointed toward the second floor. "

nk y

to cross it to get to the east wing, but a h

Who the hell

oice. Elias. My other older broth

arm like a vice. His Alpha strength crushed against my Omega bones, an

g me away from the hallway and toward a deserted side terra

hoved me hard against the cold stone balustrade of the terra

cold fury building inside me. I had survived three years of

. For the first time since I'd returned, I didn't cho

s," I said, my voic

by my tone. He was used

ing guilty? Guilty about that time you left me behind in the woods, mayb

ecret of his childhood carelessness th

d been poked in his most sensitive wound. "

my lips. "Was it? Just like th

ation of war. And that was exactly what

was the spark that lit t

bellowed, and his hands fle

lungs. The world dissolved into a dizzying swirl of

would not give hi

vision began to tunnel. I would make su

ss was about to slip away, a sharp

it! What ar

Declan were standing at the entrance to the