Nuri offers me a half smile. It’s the first chink in her armor all night, and it exposes just a touch of the worried mother underneath her tough royal exterior. “Yes, I’ve suspected for a while that he was in love with Jaxon Vega.” She shakes her head. “But vampires are such cold creatures, and not a good match for our fiery dragon hearts. We love passionately, and I worry Flint will find out the hard way that they do not.”

“You’re wrong, Nuri. Vampires aren’t cold. Just because they don’t always show their love with flowery words doesn’t mean it’s not there. They don’t just love with their hearts. They love with every part of their soul—a soul they would easily sacrifice without a thought for the one they love. It’s an honor to be loved by so selfless a creature.” I throw her word back at her and watch as it hits her where it hurts. “Luca is as kind and loving as they come, and Flint is a lucky guy to have him in his life.”

“Thank you for telling me that,” she says.

“Does it make a difference?”

“I don’t know yet,” she says, but I can see she’s considering what I said. “What about what I said about Flint? Does it make a difference that he didn’t know my plans? Will you seek his friendship again?”

“I don’t know yet,” I say with equal honesty. We’ve both said a lot, and we both have a lot of thinking to do.

“Good. You shouldn’t let him off too easily.” My surprise must show on my face, because she laughs, then repeats her mantra. “Actions have consequences, Grace. You think because I’m his mother, I can’t admit that he screwed up spectacularly with Lia? He didn’t ask for help—tried to go it alone—and nearly destroyed everything.”

“Including me,” I say dryly.

“Including you,” she agrees, then hesitates, as though she’s not sure she wants to say something else. In the end, she must decide it’s worth saying. “Trust no one, Grace. Especially not Cyrus.”

“Umm, yeah, no worries there. I’d rather trust wet paint.”

“Cyrus tricked me once, and it nearly destroyed my people, nearly toppled my entire kingdom. Before it was done, we had to forfeit almost everything we had—our hoards, our belongings, even our homes—including Katmere Academy itself, which was once my family’s ancestral estate and our original Dragon Court. All because Aiden and I trusted Cyrus.”

Her eyes glow even brighter now, and as I look more closely, I realize it isn’t power making them glow. It’s anger…and hate. “He used that trust to take out the biggest threat to his domination—the gargoyles—and then, once they were gone, he set his sights on destroying us as well.”

“You helped?” I ask, the question bursting out of me in a horrified whisper before I can think twice about the prudence of asking it. “The dragons actually helped him destroy the gargoyles in the Second Great War?”

Just the thought has my stomach revolting, my entire being rejecting the idea. I know that Cyrus is evil, know that the need for power is a sickness deep within him, but is everyone like that in this world? Does no one care about anything but themselves and what they can take?

And if so, am I supposed to be the same? Will I join the Circle and suddenly only care about what I can take? Or what I can steal?

If so, I want no part of it—no part of any of this.

It’s my turn to get to my feet. I stumble toward the door—overwhelmed by what she’s told me and even more overwhelmed by what it all means. But before I can reach for the doorknob, Nuri is there in front of me.

“Now is not the time to behave rashly,” she hisses at me. “Our history is a complicated discussion for another day. But suffice it to say that no, we were not directly responsible for the extinction of gargoyles, whether that’s how that story is told in the history books or not.”

I remain standing, but I don’t move to leave.

She continues. “Now is the time to take great care, Grace. Cyrus is devious, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Nothing,” she reiterates, “even if that means killing his own sons. Exterminating an entire race. Burning the Circle and our whole world to the ground. And we are the only ones who can stop him.”

Her words explode through me like a supernova. Not the fact that Cyrus is devious, because been there, done that, have the nightmares to prove it. But the idea that she and I can stop him? That we can change what one thousand years of planning, of plotting—of murder—have put into motion?

All I did was play a game, and it nearly killed me. How on earth can I stand against this man, who makes enemies of anyone who goes against him…and then destroys them just because he can?

“How?” I ask. “How are we supposed to do that? You’ve already got Hudson in a cage because he told you to—”

“You know about that?” she asks sharply.

“Like you said, I’m not naive, Nuri. I think you enjoyed putting him in that cage because of Damien. But I don’t think you did it for that reason. You did it because Cyrus wants him there, and it will curry favor with him for you. He nearly destroyed you, and you’re still willing to do this for him, so why the hell should I believe you when you say that we can stop him?”

“Because I gave you the key to get Hudson out.” She ticks the reasons off on her fingers.

“Because if we don’t stop Cyrus now, he’s going to take everything from us. Everything. And lastly, because fear only keeps people in line if they have something left to lose. Cyrus has finally hit the tipping point—he’s taken so much from so many people that the thirst for justice is completely overwhelming the fear. All we have to do is harness that thirst, stoke it, and—when it’s time—let it loose. He won’t stand a chance.”

77

Where There’s a Witch,

There’s a Way

My hands are shaking so badly, I shove them in my pockets so Nuri won’t notice. She may think we’re on the same side, but I don’t doubt for a second that she’d exploit my weakness if she thought it would help keep Flint—or her precious Court—alive.

Looks like Hudson was right on earlier with the whole like mother, like son thing.

I don’t know how I feel about what she’s said, don’t know how I feel about any of this, to be honest. But war is coming—we all know that—and I can only imagine that it’s better to have allies than enemies.

“What do I need to do?” I ask when the silence becomes uncomfortable.

“You need to let Hudson go to prison,” she says. “He can’t hide forever. Most of the Circle will be at Katmere for graduation next week.”

“They can’t touch him as long as he’s at Katmere! That’s how it works—”

“Because Cyrus has proven himself so good at playing by the rules?” She gives me a pitying look. “Who’s going to stop him if he decides he wants to arrest Hudson? Finn Foster? A bunch of kids? The new gargoyle queen?”

“So what would you have me do? Just leave him in your cell so you can hand him over to Cyrus?”

“Not to Cyrus,” Nuri says. “To the prison. He’s your mate. Surely you think going to prison is better for him than being dead, right?”

“To an inescapable prison, where he can stay for eternity, bound by an unbreakable curse?” I snarl at her, only to pause as surprise registers in her eyes. “You didn’t think I knew about that, did you?”

She ignores my question—but I’m learning that Nuri ignores whatever she doesn’t want to acknowledge. “Alive in prison is better than dead. Even Hudson can’t defy the odds twice.”

“You think he should be locked up for an eternity?” I ask. “For defending the world from Cyrus’s machinations?”

“It won’t be for an eternity.” Nuri waves a negligent hand. “We can free him as soon as we defeat Cyrus. And defending his mate or not, he scared people. That’s the real reason he has to be locked up. He has too much power, and that scares those who will do anything to hang on to theirs.”

“Like Cyrus.”

“Yes.”

“And you,” I whisper.

She doesn’t deny it. “You saw what he could do. One wave of his hand, and he destroyed every bone in his father’s body. One thought, and he brought down a stadium. That kind of power is unfathomable…and infinitely corruptible. We already saw what he did to Damien. What else will he do if he has the chance? If he actually makes it onto the Circle?”

Nothing, I want to tell her. He won’t do anything but try to rule the best way that he can. But she doesn’t know Hudson, not the way I do, and even if she did, she wouldn’t believe me anyway. Whether doing so saved people or not, Hudson will always be the person responsible for her son’s death.

So instead of calling her on it, I focus on the next flaw in her plan. “I thought mates choose to go to prison together?”

“Ah, but you’re ignoring the key word. ‘Choose.’ Mates can choose to go to prison together. But they don’t have to.”

“I’m not sure it’s much of a choice.” I think back on poor, mad, desperate Falia.

She waves away my concerns. “You’re a strong woman, Grace. Stronger than you ever imagined. Will it be painful? Yes. But you can get through it, and when you do—when you come out on the other side—you will be unbreakable, your strength coveted by everyone who meets you. That girl, that woman, is the one who can save us all.”