Page 85 of Fated to the Traitor

Lorenzo nodded. “I don’t know how I’m going to tell her all this.”

“You don’t have to tell her you knew. Start from when I got back. Let me be the bad guy.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever be that for her, not really.”

“And for you?”

“Let’s just start with this. My name is Lorenzo DiPace, adopted member of the Lombardi Pack, husband to Cin DiPace.”

Heath swallowed. “I’m Kieran of the Shadow, but I like to be called Heath, Unseelie, and Fated to Princess Asherah Danaan of the Sea.”

“Damn. Princess, huh?”

Heath smiled. “Silva’s sister.”

Lorenzo whistled. “Nice. Want a beer?”

“I’d kill for one.”

A beer … and maybe the first step to gaining back his friend.

He could only hope.

Skuld screamed into her scrying mirror and threw it across the room, only partially satisfied when it shattered to pieces.

They are together.

The Sun and Moon. Asherah and Kieran.

The Tethered. Pasquale and Giuliana.

The Blood Pact. Dominic and Zoey.

Ales and her Cosantiór. Kalinda and Niamh.

They even had the gift of Life. Romano and Zoey.

If Skuld didn’t do something, and fast, all she’d planned would be for naught. She would not die. She would one day see herself in what may be. Time in the In Between moved differently than that of the Fragile, and it allowed Skuld to monitor things more closely, but she’d never seen Kieran being able to come to Asherah.

She’d been blinded to how he got there.

“Urd.”

There was no one else who could hope to challenge her. Verdandi was nothing more than a flighty twit living in the present moments.

It didn’t matter. Skuld would reign supreme. She would kill the exiled Queen and her sister. She would destroy any chance of the future remaining the same. Without these pairings, none would have any chance to stop her. And Skuld would remake the earth in her image.

“They will all bow to me.”

But first, she had to wipe out those who would stand against her. Skuld conjured her darkness, wrapping it around her body, spewing more power into it.

“Rise, my servant. It is time for you to feed.”

Rage. Despair. Terror.

They’d all die.

Fabiana splashed black all over her canvas, mixing it with the red bodies broken and littering the floor. Dead. They were all dead. Silva. Kalinda. Romano. Dominic. Zoey. Everyone. Death was coming, and no one would be spared.

She fell to her knees, exhausted, tears sliding down her face.

Everyone was going to die—except Fabiana.

“Come to me. It’s time.”

Carlo sat up in bed, chest heaving.

“Mine.”