I stalked back to my suite, glaring at anyone foolish enough to get in my way.

They all skittered away from me, no one wanting to get too close. Several people turned and walked the other way when they saw me approach.

Good.

At the moment, I only felt hatred for every single person I came across.

Everyone was the enemy. My people, the Council, my mother, Nina.

They were all against me. I had no one in my corner.

Is it her fault she did what she was raised to do?

Snarling, I shoved the thought aside as soon as it surfaced.

It would do me no good to sympathize with her. She was a monster; whether of her own creation or someone else’s, it mattered not. She’d had a choice in her actions after she’d arrived at the castle, and she’d chosen to kill.

She chose to kill rather than be with me.

The pain was too much. It threatened to tear my chest in two, and all I wanted—all I could ever want now, it seemed—was to storm down to the pit and hold her tight in my arms.

Somehow, I knew deep in my soul that if I could touch her, this pain would go away. Everything around me would calm, and I’d be able to think straight.

But that couldn’t be true, because every time I thought of her, my anger increased tenfold.

And if I was near her, she’d muddle my thoughts with her blood magic.

She couldn’t be trusted.

I stalked into my suite, slamming the door so hard, the wall shook.

“Well, that was quite impressive,” Alex said.

I snarled, baring my fangs at him. He was sitting on the chaise longue against the wall, looking quite comfortable.

He had to have been waiting quite a while to get the jump on me.

He’d be disappointed if he thought he was going to get anything out of me in my current state.

“Get out,” I said, pointing at the door.

“No.”

“Get. Out.”

He stood, crossing his arms over his chest. “No. I have something to say, and damn it, you’re going to stand there and listen to it.”

I balked, staring at him as if he’d grown a second head.

Then the rules of decorum closed in on me, the only thing I could turn to now.

“You’ve broken decorum.”

He arched an eyebrow. “We both know we let decorum slide when we’re alone—and maybe Nina’s rubbing off on me.”

My lips twitched, almost a snarl. I didn’t know how I felt about that.

Alex sighed, letting the easy-going expression fall from his face to reveal the more serious side of him that I rarely saw.

“I’m disappointed in you, Gray,” he said.

I tensed.

“Everything that happened between the two of you—how could you do this to her? Really, I thought better of you.” He grimaced.

“How dare you—”

“Don’t you recall that, not long ago, you were telling me about your feelings for her? Feelings no vampire should ever feel for their thrall?” He stepped closer to me, his eyes burning with accusation.

“Exactly. That’s all the proof I need of her betrayal. She used blood magic on me to make me think—feel—things that are unnatural.”

He snorted. “If you think that, you’re thicker than I thought.”

A growl rumbled low in my throat. I dearly wanted to rip off my oldest friend’s head.

“Why are you behaving this way?” I demanded. “You should hate blood mages as much as anyone. You should hate this one because of what she did to me.”

“What exactly did she do? Because if you think she was in this alone...” He rolled his eyes. “No, Nina cared about you. It was obvious to see her struggle—and it only makes more sense now that she’d go hot and cold on you. She cared about you, but she didn’t want to let herself. And why do I care? You know as well as anyone what happened to my sister. Or do I need to remind you?”

“No...”

He stepped closer. “Murdered. By hunters. Just for existing, just for being a vampire.”

“You do recognize that Nina is one of those hunters.”

“You still don’t get it, do you?”

Somehow, this turn in the conversation actually served to calm me somewhat. It was something else to focus on.

“No, I suppose I don’t.”

“Nina isn’t the hunter who killed Katerina, which means I have nothing to hold against her. But I can understand the position she’s in. She’s just existing, and you want to kill her for being what she is.”

I turned away from him. I couldn’t do this.

I couldn’t deal with this pain and confusion. All I wanted to do was be in the same room as Nina, damn it.

But I couldn’t do that.

She betrayed me. She cut out my heart.

Alex sighed. He headed towards the door, then paused. “I want you to remember this moment. This will be what you’ll regret for the rest of your life.”

And then he left me.

The moment the door shut, I lost the control I’d barely been holding on to throughout that entire conversation.

I overturned everything in the room. The chairs, the chaise, the table. I pulled the bookshelf from the wall.

Smashed the mirrors and the paintings.

When I was surrounded by destruction, I fell to my knees and let out the roar of pain I’d been holding inside.