“Can I say something?”

“No. I’m not done.” Anger flashed in Nick’s eyes. “Argent isn’t stupid. He wouldn’t be who he is otherwise. He knows all of this, but he’s here stirring the pot. He must be sure that he can get what he wants to risk it. That means he has a powerful backer. You.”

And now we had paranoia on parade with floats and marching bands.

Nick leaned forward. His eyes locked on me.

“You’re going to back his play. It’s a good plan. He has brawn and you have magic. A one-two punch. There was a time when Atlanta would have come together to stop you, but now is not that time. You and Argent, you must’ve hoped that the Pack would notice him by now. You need an excuse to start this war. Except, for some bizarre reason, the Pack hasn’t reacted the way you anticipated, so you leaked his name to Stella. You know of my connection to the Pack. You counted on me sounding the alarm to save the woman I love and our children.”

Oh Uncle Stupidhead...

“Tell me, what do you get out of it? What does Erra want? Is this about Kate? Do you think if you wreck the Pack, Curran will step in, and you and Argent can kill him? And then Kate, alone and grieving, will pick up her orphan son and return to her aunt like a good little prodigal daughter? Did you honestly think you people could hide your involvement in this? Or did you simply not care? Is this revenge for Roland?”

I opened my mouth again.

“I won’t allow it. This scheme ends here, with me. There won’t be a war.”

“Argent doesn’t want a war.” Yes! Finally got a word in.

Nick focused on me. He looked slightly deranged, and his icy voice just made it worse. “Enlighten me. What does Argent want?”

“He wants to find out who killed Pastor Haywood.”

Nick laughed. “You’re here for the same thing. How convenient.”

Strange bulges slid under his skin, like golf balls rolling along the muscles. The secret weapon my grandfather had grafted onto him.

Nick’s eyes told me I was about to die. Except it wouldn’t go the way he thought it would.

I couldn’t kill Nick to save Kate. It went against everything I stood for. Everything she stood for. She wouldn’t want that. If she knew I killed him on her account…

I’m so sorry, Kate.

“It’s Derek.”

Nick blinked.

“Darren Argent is Derek Gaunt. He’s here because Pastor Haywood asked for his help, but he arrived too late. He won’t do anything to endanger the Pack Curran built. As to nobody knowing about him, Ascanio has been chasing him around the city for the past three days. He probably doesn’t know Derek is Argent, but he must have recognized the scent.”

The words lay between us like heavy bricks.

Nick stared at me, speechless.

“You don’t have to kill anybody. There won’t be a war. There is no takeover. Desandra is safe. The kids are safe. Everything is okay. I won’t let anyone hurt Kate.”

Silence stretched.

“Julie?”

“Yes?”

Nick Feldman opened his mouth. “What in the fucking hell have you done to yourself?”

*

“You drank their Kool-Aid. You let them change you and twist you, and why? What was wrong with you before?”

I sighed. Nick hadn’t taken the whole Princess of Shinar thing well.

“I told you, I didn’t have a choice. The Eye changed me. I hadn’t realized the changes had happened until I woke up with a new face. All I wanted was to be like Kate and like Erra. I wanted to belong and to be strong.”

“That entire family is poison.”

That again. “There is nothing poisonous about Kate. Kate spent most of her adult life protecting this city and the people in it. If there is any kind of trouble, she runs into it, no questions asked. She cares. She always does.”

“Caring isn’t enough.”

Aha. “You worked for Roland. You let him change you. Your tentacles aren’t clean. Who are you to pass judgement on her?”

His face turned white. “I was undercover.”

“And she is Roland’s daughter. He loved her and he offered her everything, power, wealth, the family she desperately wanted, and she rejected all of it because it was the right thing to do. She’s the kind of person who lets the man she considers her brother call her an abomination to her face.”

“I have not done that in years.”

“You don’t get credit for not being an asshole, Uncle.”

“Fine,” Nick growled. “I don’t have that big of a problem with your face. You wanted to look like Kate, and I can understand that. I can even understand why you put the eye in. What I don’t understand is why you allowed Erra to indoctrinate you into being her puppet.”

“She didn’t indoctrinate me. I chose New Shinar on my own. I have my reasons.”

“The Old Shinar was a tyranny, and you’re trying to resurrect it.”

I leaned forward. I’d had this argument before. “You are judging an ancient civilization you know nothing about by applying the modern political structure to it. Shinar was never an absolute monarchy. The power of the royal bloodline was limited. It had three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. That idea is much older than the United States. To come here, I had to convince the council of New Shinar that it was ultimately in their best interests for Kate to survive.”