Everything hurt. My heart was shattered, my chest an open, aching wound. Tears I refused to shed stung my eyes. My throat burned from damming up the sobs, my head pounding with a million whirring thoughts. A vampire shouldn’t hurt this damn much. But apparently our hearts and souls didn’t heal as quickly as our bodies.

Trying not to think about Xandru’s betrayal, I sat in vigil next to Gabe’s bed every spare moment, pleading for him to wake or to show at least some signs of improvement. But if Roman had spoken the truth, Gabe wouldn’t improve until we found the Eye of Valerian and returned it to its so-called cage. Whatever that was.

Tase, the only one who knew the Eye’s whereabouts, had conveniently disappeared. Addie wasn’t able to reach him. According to her, Xandru hadn’t been able to find his brother at any of his usual places, either. At least, that was his story. He evidently had no problem lying and keeping secrets, so for all I knew, he was still protecting Tase.

As for the cage, we had no idea where it could be. Nobody even knew what it was or what it looked like. Roman denied knowing anything more about it, even when Saundra confronted him.

In the meantime, I researched everything I could to try to learn more about the artifact. Addie brought me books, but they lacked information about the Eye, and the top-secret tomes, which may have been the most helpful, couldn’t leave the Court’s restricted library. Enchanted, they couldn’t even be snuck out. So late at night, Addie came over and slept in the chair by Gabe’s side, and I bundled up and trekked through the snow to the back of the City Hall building. I spent two full nights poring over the books in the restricted section.

Not until early morning on New Year’s Eve, six days since Gabe fell ill and three days since anyone had seen Tase, did I discover what I was searching for—on a torn piece of paper taped into one of the oldest books. The handwriting on it was my father’s, the page one of those ripped from his journal, dated June 1854:

It has been confirmed. The Eye of Valerian possesses dark magic, just like the creator himself. I’ve witnessed what this kind of power can do. The blood shed. The lives lost. The souls blackened. I would have destroyed the piece by now, but it is indestructible. The power is seductive and a threat to the safe haven we are creating here. The other leaders and I have agreed that its existence cannot be known outside our small circle, but they do not know of its full power. Not even I do. It must be protected and hidden away for safe-keeping before it destroys again. I will do this, and only I will know its whereabouts, and that shall stay with me until the day I die and beyond.

Yeah, right. Should have done better, Dad.

I noticed he mentioned nothing about a cage, though, making me wonder if Roman had made that part up.

When I returned to the inn as the sun rose, Mammie was floating by the front parlor’s window, the first time I’d seen her since Christmas. Since before Gabe went down.

“Where have you been?” I asked. “I’ve needed you.”

She turned from her gaze out the window with eyes full of sadness. “I’m so sorry, dear. I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

She glanced away, frowning. Her image faded out, then back in again. “I’m having trouble. Being here.”

“Here? As in our world?”

She nodded. “I’m trying, but . . . it’s taking more energy than before. There’s a darkness . . .”

“Is it what’s affecting Gabe?”

Her eyes widened. “What’s wrong with Gabe?”

She didn’t know? “He’s been in some kind of coma.”

“Oh, no. Oh, dear.” The news hit her hard, and her image disappeared.

“Mammie?” I called after a minute or two had passed.

“I’m . . . I’m here.” Her voice came from a distance before she slowly reappeared. “I don’t know . . . for how long . . . I can hold it.”

Then I was running out of time. “What do you know about the Eye of Valerian?”

If a ghost could visibly pale, she just did. She clasped her hands together and held them under her chin as she shook her head. “Oh, dear, you do not . . . you do not want to discuss that.”

“I need to know everything I can, Mammie. It’s doing this to Gabe.” I gestured in the general direction of the cottage. “Maybe to you.”

“But . . . that’s impossible. Your father—”

“Buried it under the conservatory to hide it. Gabe found it.”

She gasped, then faded in and out again. “You are sure? But even so . . . it was . . . protected.”

“How?”

She shook her head. “I don’t . . . know. Only your . . . father does.”

Of course. And my father was dead and inaccessible, even by Eloise Sinclair. Even after what happened last time, she’d tried again, before visiting Gabe, but to no avail.

“Roman Bishop called it a cage,” I said, “like it’s a physical object. But if that’s true, apparently the Eye was removed from it. We don’t know how. We just know that Tase has the Eye, or at least knows where it is.”

Mammie’s eyes widened with unmistakable fear, and rather than fading, she became more like a strobe light, flashing in and out. “Oh, no! That . . . no good. No good! Michaela . . . must . . . find . . . Protect . . . again! Oh no, oh no, oh no.”

She drifted back and forth, blinking in and out, panic filling her voice.

“Tell me what you know,” I begged, desperate at the thought I was going to lose her. “Why’s it so dangerous?”

“I . . . not know . . .” She blinked out, then in again. “Only Mihail . . .” Out and in. “He’d . . . never tell . . . protected me . . .”

“I need to know what it’s doing to Gabe!”

“My boy,” she cried out. “My boy . . . my boy . . .”

Her voice faded away, her image diminishing into nothing.

“Mammie?” I turned in a circle, searching. “Madame Luiza? Please! Come back. I need you!”

But she didn’t. Maybe she couldn’t.

I rushed through the inn, looking for her by all of her favorite windows, all the while wondering what boy she’d been crying for. Gabe, who was almost like a son to her? Or her actual son, who died two hundred years ago?

“Damn it, Mammie,” I cursed, and then I apologized. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. Please, come back.”

More guilt and sadness swamped me, piling on to the load I already carried. What if she’d never be able to return? I didn’t know what I’d do without her. But throughout the day, as I distracted myself with work, Mammie never reappeared.

Once Sindi woke for the night, she relieved me of my inn duties so I could go back to Gabe while she managed the New Year’s Eve party I had no interest in being a part of.

“If you see Mammie, please tell her I’m sorry.”

She squeezed my shoulder in a very un-Sindi-like gesture. “I’m sure she’s fine. Are you going to be, though? You don’t even want a glass of bubbly at midnight?”

I frowned. “I’m not in a bubbly frame of mind.”

“How about some Jack or José?”

Despite everything, a soft chuckle escaped me. “I wish. But I need to be in my right mind. Just in case something happens.”

Because eventually, something had to happen. Whether it was Tase or Gabe, someone would eventually give. I could only hope it was Tase.

Putting all of my hope into Tase Roca was stupidity at its finest.

But the alternative was unacceptable.

The closer we came to midnight, the more my mind drifted toward territory I’d been avoiding for days. The partiers at the inn grew louder, and I couldn’t help but wonder what Xandru was doing. The revelers started the countdown, fireworks boomed overhead, music played, and people sang and cheered.

I sandwiched Gabe’s hand between mine and leaned my forehead against the edge of the bed, tears rolling down my cheeks and plopping onto the carpet below.

I shouldn’t have been sitting here with my unconscious brother, trying by sheer will to keep him alive. This was not how we were supposed to spend New Year’s. We all should have been at the party, together. Xandru and I should have been sharing a midnight kiss at this moment, Gabe and Aurelia groaning in the background. Our friends should have surrounded us, champagne glasses raised as we toasted in the new year.

Instead, I no longer knew whom I could trust. Sindi and Addie seemed to make up that entire list now. Not that the list had ever been long, but there at least had been one other name that made up for the lack of numbers. I sobbed, a fresh wave of pain racking through me from Xandru’s betrayal.

“Maybe we should leave town,” I whispered to Gabe after I’d regained control. “I probably should have taken both of you far away last summer, and none of this would have happened. We can still go, though. I mean . . . what do we have to stay for?”

Fresh tears rose. The life I’d created was a ruse, built on a foundation of secrets and lies. It was not the life I wanted for Aurelia and Gabe. And for the first time, I could somewhat understand why my parents had sent me away. This was exactly what they’d been trying to protect me from—the dangers of living in this town.

The dangers of loving a Roca.

Swiping hard at the tears, I drew in a shuddering breath. “But I need you to fight this, Gabe, before we can do anything. I need you to come back to me. Please.”

Silence answered my plea.

Hours later, a commotion outside the cottage woke me. I hadn’t realized I’d dozed off, hunched over the edge of Gabe’s bed. Blinking away the haze, I walked out to the living room, grabbed my coat off the rack as I shoved my feet into boots, and went outside to see what the ruckus was. I found Sindi standing at the bottom of my steps with her back to me, arguing with Addie and Xandru, who stood in front of her.

I sucked in a breath at the sight of him, feeling like I’d been sucker-punched in the gut.

His gaze flew up to me. He looked as broken as I felt. And yet, those eyes—they nailed me in place.

Always the fucking eyes.

Sindi glanced over her shoulder. “Damn it. Now look. We woke her up.”

“Kales, we need to talk.” Addie moved for the stairs. She was all bundled up in a beanie hat, black down coat, gloves, boots, and a thick scarf wrapped around her neck, as though she’d been out in the cold for a while, or planned to be.

Xandru moved, too, but Sindi stepped in front of him, shaking her head. “I told you. Addie, yes. You, no.”

Scowling, he shoved his fists into his coat pockets, his gaze riveted on my face.

“We don’t have time for this!” Addie snapped. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen worry etched so deeply into her face as it was now. And was that fear in her eyes?

“What’s going on?” Zipping up my coat, I went out to them, since Sindi was trying to protect me from Xandru, and Addie apparently wouldn’t talk without him.

“I was with Harper Sinclair tonight,” Addie said, a tremble in her voice so slight, I only detected it because I knew her so well. She glanced at the sky, which was starting to show a hint of lighter blue over the eastern mountains. “Well, earlier this morning, anyway. She scribed a message.”

I tilted my head. “Like Eloise does? I thought—”

She cut me off, urgency filling her voice. “She’s still learning to use her powers. They’re a little different than Eloise’s, but that’s not important right now. I know what we need to do for Gabe, and we need to do it fast, or our whole town is at risk. But we need Tase.”

“No shit,” I muttered. “But he disappeared four days ago, remember? And what do you mean, our whole town is at risk?”

“We hoped he’d be here,” Xandru said, ignoring my question.

I squinted at them. “Why the hell would he be here?”

“I’ve been doing locator spells ever since I left Harper,” Addie explained, her words pouring out in a rush. “Xandru and I have been trying to hunt him down. If we don’t find him and the Eye of Valerian . . . it could be bad. Very bad. Bad like what caused the curse on all of you in the first place.”

I gasped. “What? As in another massacre? How do you know this?”

“I just do! I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to find Tase before it’s too late!” She paused, gathering herself. “Every time we get to where he is, he’s gone again. He’s always one step ahead of us. So we’ve been blowing up his phone with messages to meet us here.” Dropping her gaze, she kicked at the snow. “I just hoped . . . I hoped maybe he’d actually do the right thing.”

Tears pricked my eyes again, at both the heartbreak clear in Addie’s voice and my own disappointment. A small part of me also hoped if Tase knew what was at stake, he would have stepped up. I’d tried so hard to believe in him.

I thought we’d made big strides at the cemetery, but apparently, he was just that good of a liar. Even when he’d seemed interested in helping Gabe at Thanksgiving, I now knew he’d had an ulterior motive—to corner my brother into handing over the artifact. As much as I’d wanted to believe that he’d done everything for the inn because he felt he owed my family, I’d always suspected there was another reason. I’d been right.

Tase only helped Tase. That’s just who he was.

“So what, we try to trap him?” I asked.

“It won’t be easy. He has this idea that the Eye of Valerian will end his curse,” Xandru said quietly. “It’s a moroi artifact. It goes back to the creation of our kind—both the moroi and the strigoi sides.”

“And what creates may also end.” I exhaled slowly, my breath puffing out in a white cloud. How had we not considered that before? “And that’s what you mean about things going badly? Because it’ll make him go strigoi faster?”

“Alina, too,” Xandru added. “She’s been exposed.”

“And possibly Gabe,” Addie said softly.

“Oh my god.” The air whooshed from my lungs. Gasping for a breath, my gaze darted around, as though answers would appear in the snow-covered lawn. “So what do we do? Call the Court?”

“No!” both Xandru and Addie nearly shouted.

“You know what they’ll do to him,” Xandru said. “Maybe to Alina and Gabe, too.”

My chest heaved again, my stomach plummeting to my feet.

“I’ll do whatever I have to,” Addie vowed, “whatever magic it takes, to get that artifact from him.”

“If he gives it up to anyone, it’d better be me,” an unfamiliar female voice called out from above.

Addie and Xandru both spun around, and my gaze snapped up to find a woman standing on the peaked roof of the inn’s tallest turret—the one above the conservatory. She was tall and thin, dressed in a long black cloak, cinched at the waist, and black boots that reached up under the billowing hem of her cloak. Her face was hidden in the shadows of her hood.

“Question is, will he? He cares only for himself, and you know it,” she said.

“Who the fuck are you?” Xandru demanded. “What do you know about my brother?”

She laughed. “He owes me, and I seek what is mine. Since he fails to honor his end of our bargain, I will take what I am owed—one brother for another is a good start.”

A swirl of black smoke appeared from nowhere, circling her. When it dissipated, she was gone.

“Did that just happen?” Sindi asked.

“Who the hell was that?” Addie demanded. “She sounded a little familiar.”

“I’ll look for her.” Xandru blurred from sight.

“What did she mean, one brother for another?” I asked. “If she was looking for Tase, do you think she meant Xandru?”

“Or Adrian or Andrei?” Addie asked, but neither of them felt right. Why would she have come to us about either of them?

Addie’s gaze locked onto mine, and we both gasped.

“Gabe!” we said in unison.

Spinning, I ran inside, Addie and Sindi on my heels, and burst into Gabe’s room. His bed was empty for the first time in a week. It took one second to search the bathroom and kitchen.

My hand flew to my chest, my lungs struggling for air. “How? Where? Why?”

Addie immediately started pulling objects out of her coat pockets and laying them out on the coffee table. “I’ve been doing locator spells all night. I can do another.”

Sindi and I rushed back outside while Addie did her witch thing.

“I’ll take the inn,” Sindi said. “You look out here.”

Xandru suddenly appeared, shaking his head. “I checked everywhere. There are no tracks anywhere. No footprints. She literally vanished.”

“She . . . she took . . . Gabe,” I choked out.

“Or she distracted us while a partner did,” Sindi accused, arching a brow at Xandru. “Maybe your brother?”

He grimaced. “That doesn’t make any sense. If she’s who I think she is, my brother wouldn’t have gone near her. He has what she wants.” He moved toward me, his arms open as though to embrace me. “Kales, we’ll find them. I promise.”

I shoved him away. “You already promised you’d find Tase, and you broke that one. Now look! How do you expect me to trust you? Your promises mean nothing to me!”

His expression morphed into the same one he wore when I first broke up with him. Pure devastation. Good. He had an idea of how I felt.

Yet . . . my heart still felt a stab of guilt for hurting him.

Stupid heart.

“What do we do?” Sindi asked.

“Found him,” Addie called from the doorway.

“Gabe?” I asked at the same time Xandru said, “Tase?”

All guilt for him vanished.

“Gabe,” Addie said, throwing a violent look at Xandru.

“We need them both,” he murmured. “I’ll keep looking for Tase.”

“You need to go with us,” Addie said. “You’re Tase’s blood. Maybe . . . maybe it will serve some purpose with this bitch.”

“Go where?” I asked.

Addie glanced down at the map in her hand. “The old Thawer Mines.”

“Seriously? How?”

During the early years of Havenwood Falls, gold and silver had been discovered in the area, and several mines had contributed greatly to the wealth of the Old Families. Except for one that had become a museum and tourist trap, they were all now defunct, including the Thawer Mines, which happened to be the oldest and hardest to reach.

“I’ll make a portal,” Addie said. “We’ll be there in no time.”

“I’ll stay here,” Sindi offered. “Just in case . . .”

“If Tase shows up—” Xandru began.

“I’ll kick his ass into submission,” Sindi said. She shrugged at the look he gave her and smirked. “He’s not strigoi yet, which makes him still mortal. I’m not. Which means I’m stronger than him.”

Addie hurried inside to collect her tools and ingredients, and we followed her in so she could make the portal sheltered from any prying eyes, human or otherwise.

“Does this seem too easy?” I asked her before stepping through the portal.

“Yep. She’s practically invited us in, not trying to cloak him at all.”

I tried peering through the portal, but it was just a swirling mass of air. “Well, I don’t have a choice.”

“We don’t have a choice.” Xandru moved next to me, his hand brushing against mine. I fought the urge to curl my pinky around his.

With a deep breath, I stepped into the swirling air. Addie, Xandru, and I left Sindi in my living room and now suddenly stood in the snow, the front of a boarded-up doorway leading into the side of a mountain before us. Using brute strength, Xandru tore off the wooden slats blocking the mine’s entrance, but then Addie waved her hand and mumbled something, and the entrance completely cleared. She produced an orb of light that flew up and led our way down the mine’s tunnel.

Knowing the tunnels ran for miles down into the mountain, my heart sank. How deep had she taken him? Would we get there in time? Would I ever see my brother again?

Fortunately, we found them in the first widened area we came to, the space lit up with torches, throwing flickering light on the walls. Wooden beams crossed overhead and against some walls, supporting the mountain surrounding us. Railroad rails ran through the room, branching off to three other tunnels that disappeared into darkness. A rusted-out piece of machinery sat near the far wall. The wind whistled through the tunnels, whipping up a musty, slightly metallic odor.

Gabe lay in the middle of the room, on the hard stone floor. The woman stood over him, the hood of her cloak lowered to reveal a mop of dull brown hair and a plain face that appeared to be about forty years old, although looks were deceiving when it came to the supernatural.

“Good. You found us.”

Too easy. Way too easy.

“Magda?” Addie asked with surprise, and I recognized the name—the witch who’d paid Tase to turn me. The witch who’d been turned away by the Luna Coven because she practiced black magic.

The woman smiled. “Alive and well, as you can see.”

“What do you want with my brother?” I demanded.

She stepped over Gabe’s body, turning her pale eyes on me. “I want him dead,” she deadpanned. “And you, as well. My goal has been to destroy all of the Petrans. So here we are.”

Xandru stepped protectively in front of me. “Over my dead body.”

She sneered. “Oh, that’s part of the plan, too. After what your kind did to my family, all of you filthy moroi will die. Tase was supposed to take care of that by triggering a Petran kid, but the fucking Lunas interfered. So it looks like I have to do it myself.”

The more she talked, the more I noticed a faint accent—the same as Mammie’s.

Also, the more she talked, the more time we had to formulate a plan. So I tried to keep her going.

“Who are you?” I asked, my gaze roaming the space, searching for any signs of a prepared spell or hex she could hit us with, but too much of the room lay beyond the flames’ flickering light. “Why are you doing this? Why the grudge?”

She gave an evil smile. “I’m so glad you asked. I want you to know why I’m ending all of you.” She paused for dramatic effect. “I am finally getting vengeance for my loved ones, who were slaughtered two hundred years ago outside a small town in Romania. Ring a bell?”

Oh, fuck, I thought as Xandru said the same words aloud.

She glanced at him, then focused back on me. “That’s right. I descend from a line of mages who put your brothers and cousin down, but not before they murdered most of our coven. The witches who’d been part of creating the curse on all of you moroi.” She jabbed a finger in my direction. “You shouldn’t exist. Neither should he.” She flipped her hand toward Gabe. “And I’ll take care of your sister when we’re done here, just to be sure her gene’s never triggered. But first, I need the Eye of Valerian.”

My gaze snapped back to her, my mouth gaping in disbelief. “Do you really think we’d hand it over after you just threatened to kill us all?”

“Oh, please. I know you don’t have it. Tase knows where to come. But will he show? Will he give it up as long as he believes it’ll benefit him? That artifact has the power to convince him that he can be king of the world. It did this to your little brother, because he exposed himself to its power for too long, then tried to deny it. See how the Eye fights back?” She glanced down at Gabe’s still body, then up again, a gleam in her eye. “I wonder what it’s doing to Tase right. Now.”

Xandru growled.

“What do you know about the Eye?” Addie demanded.

“Enough.”

“What do you want with it? It’s a moroi artifact,” Xandru bit out. “What can you do with it?”

“You want to make them go strigoi, don’t you?” Addie accused. “That’s how you’ll end them?”

She tapped a finger to her cheek. “Good idea. But unfortunately, no. I’m just a buyer for someone else.”

“Who?” all three of us asked.

She studied each of us in turn, a knowing glint in her eyes.

“The Collector,” she said curtly. “And before you ask, I don’t know who he is. Never met him. Don’t care to. I only took the job because it meant taking all of you down, too. The joy of finally being able to destroy the Petrans and the Rocas is my payment.”

The thrill in her voice sent chills down my spine, and my entire body tensed. Xandru also stiffened as he stood slightly in front of me, his hands curled into fists. Angry heat waves came off his body.

“A collector of what?” Addie remained calm compared to the two of us.

“The Collector,” Magda corrected harshly, as though it mattered greatly to her, regardless of how much she tried to say otherwise. “Of magical artifacts—dark ones, cursed ones, powerful ones. He wants them all. Like the Blue Dragon Dagger, the necromancer’s athame, a fae lantern, the Eye of Valerian . . . Your town is full of such objects . . . at least, what Tase and the Bishops haven’t smuggled out. Of course, they smuggle just as many in, so maybe it’s a wash. I don’t know. I don’t really care. I just want my payment.”

“You’re not getting it,” Xandru growled, leaning toward her.

Magda rolled her eyes, dismissing his threat. Addie stepped up in the woman’s face, crossed her arms, and stared her down. “He’s right. You’re not.”

The older woman flinched, fear flickering in her eyes. Was she scared of Addie? Why?

Another plume of black smoke appeared, but Addie’s hands shot out, dissipating it. Rather than vanishing this time, Magda hung in the air, a knife in her hands aimed at Addie’s throat. The older woman spun away, producing more smoke as she did. Addie cast another spell.

Now Magda was on her knees in front of Gabe’s body, the knife poised a foot over his chest.

“Come any closer, and I’ll do it,” she threatened. “Tase’s time is almost up.”

Desperation tainted her voice, the smell of fear pouring off her. She was afraid of Addie.

“But Tase won’t come, will he?” The quaver in her voice faded as she mustered up some kind of bravado. She lifted her chin and squared her shoulders, glaring at Addie the whole time. “He thinks it will fix him. And he wants nothing more, does he? Now that he knows he has a son.”

I blinked, shocked at this news, and glanced sideways at Addie. Her face paled, but she otherwise didn’t respond. She wouldn’t. Not right now. She wouldn’t show weakness.

Xandru showed no surprise. Of course. He’d already known, hadn’t he? He didn’t deny or question the claim, so it must have been true.

And so much made sense now.

Magda smirked, her courage returning. “Oh, maybe that was supposed to be a secret. Oopsy.” She rolled her eyes before her pale gaze returned to me. “So what do you think, Michaela? What is Atanase Roca willing to sacrifice? His life? His son’s? Or a Petran? I think we already know the answer.”

Grinning wickedly, she lifted the knife higher, and her hands flinched.

Then they plunged.

Addie shouted a spell.

Magda cried out.

The knife’s point poked the fabric of Gabe’s hoodie, but stopped.

I flicked my wrist, and the metal blade flew out of her hands.

She flicked her own, and a new one replaced it, its long, razor-sharp edge held at my brother’s throat.

“My blades are laced with black magic. He won’t be able to heal from even the smallest nick,” she taunted.

Addie’s head tilted, her eyes narrowed.

“I have what you want right here,” a familiar voice called out from the darkness, stilling us all, even Magda.

Her gaze swept over the entrance, searching the shadows.

Tase emerged, sauntering into the room, flipping a round object between his fingers, the firelight bouncing off the silver and moonstone. At the same time, my throat felt like it caught on fire with a need for human blood. My mouth salivating, I swallowed, trying to calm the burn.

Was Magda doing that?

No.

The Eye of Valerian. It whispered to me, calling on my bloodlust.

Magda watched Tase like a hawk until he stopped a few yards in front of her.

“You won’t give it up,” she accused. “Not if it’ll cure you.”

Tase’s green gaze passed over Xandru and me, lingered on Addie for a moment, then slid to Magda.

“So you’re saying that I’m right. It can break my curse. I just want to be sure we’re clear here,” he said with a cocky flair, making me growl.

Magda swallowed slowly, seeming to delay her answer. What angle would she take? Truth or lie? I was riveted to her moving throat, my ache for blood growing.

“There are ways,” she finally replied. “Give it to me, and I will help you.”

Tase tapped his finger against his lip. “I don’t believe you. It’s a moroi artifact. You can’t do shit with it.”

“It’s a tool. One with many powers. I know how to access the one you need. And you don’t, do you? Otherwise, you would have done it already. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. You owe me!” she yelled.

Her hand moved the slightest bit, the knife’s blade ever closer to Gabe’s throat. If I tried to move it, it could easily slice his skin. Even at the angle she held it, bending it could still scrape him.

I glanced at Addie. She glared at Magda, her eye scanning everything about the other woman, but she shared my dilemma. Any movement by Magda or the knife could end my brother’s existence.

“We can work together,” Magda offered to Tase. “Deliver it to me, like you’ve been paid to do, and I will help you.”

One side of Tase’s mouth curled up in a cocky smirk. “Nope, that’s not how this works. You see, you don’t get to give the ultimatums.”

Are you fucking kidding me? She held a poisoned knife to my brother’s throat, and Tase was being an arrogant ass!

Growling, I coiled to spring at him. Xandru was faster, though, wrapping his arms around me. I tried to elbow him in the ribs to break free, but he was too strong. Or I was too weak from the bloodlust shooting through my veins.

Magda was right.

Tase had proven over and over that he would always choose himself.

Especially over a Petran.

He didn’t care about Gabe or me. I didn’t even know if he cared about Addie or Xandru, the rest of his family, or even this son he supposedly had.

He cared about Tase and Tase only.

Right this very second, he was probably devising a way to sweeten the deal for himself.

As though reading my mind, Tase turned his green gaze to me.

Smiled.

Winked.

“I’ll give it to you,” he said to Magda while watching me. I fought harder against Xandru’s hold, but to no avail. “But on one condition.”

“I already said I’ll show you how to use it,” Magda snarled.

“That’s not my condition.” His stare pierced into me. My heart raced. “I’ll give it to you . . . if you let the boy go.”

And now my heart stopped.

“You’d trade your life for a Petran’s?” Magda asked. “Now I don’t believe you!”

Tase’s gaze remained locked with mine.

“Yes, I trade my life for a Petran’s.” He flipped the pocket watch in the air, tossing it toward Magda. “Because we’re family, and that’s what family does.”