Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Edric and I rounded the corner.
“Never!”
I leaned heavily on Edric, my head pounding. “We have to go... out to the gate. Meet the officer.”
“You need to lie down. Let me help you to your room, and then I’ll talk to the—”
“Save it,” I snapped, and regretted it. It felt like there was an open wound in the back of my skull and everything was falling out. No one said this is what it felt like when a bond broke. No wonder wolves weren’t eager for the experience. “I can hear your thoughts, remember. You plan to betray me the second you get them alone.”
He shrugged, not even bothering to deny it. “Like I said, it’s not a betrayal if I’m saving you from yourself.”
“You’re an ass and I’m in too much pain to argue with you. Just get me outside.”
Edric did what I asked without further discussion. Together we made it to the front gates. Two figures were waiting for us.
“Oh, gods...”
I straightened, my face shuttering closed. I wasn’t about to let this man see me in pain.
He gazed at me as I approached the gates, his lips peeled back in a perpetual snarl. Beside him, a woman wearing the insignia of the secret police stood shoulders back and fists balled.
“Hello, Daciana.”
I shivered. Something about the way he said my name would always unsettle me. “Hello, Councilman Tahan.”
“Father?”
I turned as Badr blew out the front doors, striding down fast. “Father, you’re here. Thank goodness.”
Cygnus Tahan’s frown deepened. “You will address me properly in public, boy.”
The snap made his second, disfavored son clench his jaw. “Of course, sir. Sorry, sir.”
“And you”—Castor’s father fixed on me—“will open these gates.”
I didn’t move. “I told Sunella only one person would be allowed past these gates, and that’s her.” I pointed to the officer. “We had a deal.”
“Sunella promised you a number of things without consulting the rest of the council. She had no right to do so, and you have no right to make deals with the council. You will let me in, and I will tell you the terms as decided by us.”
I felt Badr’s smirking satisfaction oozing on me. Someone had finally come to deliver the vengeance he’d been waiting for.
I just smiled—though it may have been more of a grimace with the pain in my head. “Fine, but you understand that if the council isn’t holding up their end of the deal, there’s no way I’m holding up mine.”
“Open the gates.”
Reaching out, I brushed a finger over the lock, and it fell away—gates swinging open to Cygnus’s flash of surprise. These gates were the creation of a famous, powerful, and ancient metal wolf. They opened only at the headmistress’s command, and for all of Cygnus’s superiority complex, he just saw that was me.
The officer stepped forward first, standing between me and Cygnus. She clutched a large case in her left hand. “My name is Arabella Costas,” she stated, showing me a badge to prove it. “You will show me the crime scenes, and then you’ll stay out of my way. I will question who I please. I will go where I want. No arguments.”
I jerked my head at Badr, and immediately regretted it. “Badr will show you.”
“Fuck that.”
“Really?” I taunted. “You’re going to miss your chance to whisper in her ear, influencing her investigation to lead back to me.”
Badr and Costas shot back at the same time.
“No one is influencing me.”
“I go where you go.”
“Go with Inspector Costas, boy,” Cygnus sliced in.
“But, sir—”
Cygnus slid a withering look at his youngest child. “Did that sound like a request?”
Badr flashed him a glare with just as much loathing. For all that I despised the man, Badr wasn’t some soft bitch who took it lying down. A part of me—the part with fur and claws—found that very sexy.
Get over yourself, I snapped at my wolf. You took one for yourself. You’re not getting any more.
If my wolf was a separate person with her own thoughts, I would’ve sworn she replied, Try and stop me, bitch.
“You go with them as well,” Cygnus told Edric. “Daciana and I will speak alone.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, sir,” Badr said, ever the stubborn one. “She’s dangerous and she has allies hidden all over the academy. We had no idea all the epsilons were under her spell until they tied us up and threw us in a broom closet.”
“Gods, are you still whining about that?” I rolled my eyes. “We let you out, didn’t we?”
“I will be quite safe,” Cygnus said, looking nowhere but at me. “Run along.”
“Now,” Arabella barked when no one moved. “Two people have been murdered and enough time has been wasted. Show me the first crime scene.”
Stiffly, Badr and Edric peeled off, leading the way into the school. Badr didn’t take his eyes off me or his father until the doors swung shut.