Page 149 of Devoured

Vanessa must sense the same.

“It wasn’t Evie,” Vanessa says now, addressing both Cora and Sin. “It was me. Every act of treason—all of it—was me.”

My heart twists at the lie, but it does its job.

Amethyst curses. “What do you mean?” Her voice thunders over the field. “Cora said—”

Vanessa snarls. “I know what she said. She’s wrong. And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Not only has she disbanded the court and its voices, forsaken the gods, and turned us all into mindless sycophants, but she is also impulsive and easily provoked.” She looks directly at Kaax now, her fangs extending as fury blazes in her violet eyes. “And now she would kill Evie in front of you—the sole heir to the Asian throne, but more importantly, the woman you were supposed to marry. Is that the queen you should trust, Kaax? Is that the queen you sacrificed everything for?”

He abruptly pulls his claws from my waist. I stagger at the sudden spurt of blood, the gnarled pain set deep in my hip, but Calix catches me with a swift arm. He keeps me upright as my body heals itself.

Kaax glances down at me, his face a sudden pallid green. “I didn’t… I…”

But I’m too repulsed by him to care what he has to say. The brute impaled me. The brute bought me as if I were for sale. He deserves this.

Calix steadies me on my feet as Sin pulls Vanessa away from Evander.

“Are you okay?” Calix asks me quietly.

“I’ll survive.” I gesture to Vanessa, who snaps at Sin, at Cora too, my insides twisting as I press a hand to my bloody waist. “We can’t trust how Cora will react to this. Protect her, Calix. Don’t let her get hurt.”

He swears viciously, then pushes forward. Through the crowd, through his cousin, to stand just between Vanessa and Evander. His knuckles crack. Tension reverberates through his muscles. Pulling her arm from Sin, Vanessa glances back at Calix and grins. It’s a small grin. A grateful grin. It’s… more than that too.

I find Portia only a few bodies away now, and she nods once. Right as the Antarctic prisoners march out of the castle led by Princess Valja Dahlström. The princess storms through in her wolf form—larger than the door itself, having to twist, maneuver, in order to pass through it—and emerges in ten feet of fur and fangs and claws. She wears a pendant around her neck. Not quite a collar, but a remembrance in the bone-white shape of a carved D. Tribute to her fallen sister who lost her head.

Valja howls, and her soldiers snarl.

Cora freezes. Her fangs and claws unleash, but she doesn’t otherwise move. She’s surrounded. Antarctic soldiers behind her. Faerie soldiers in front of her. And thirty of us—thirty of her own werewolves—on the other side. Thirty of us, including Amethyst. Including Citrine. Including people I poisoned.

They have watched their friends die just as we have. They have cleaned blood from the floor, washed the stains from their own hands, and they are tired of it.

We are so fucking tired of Cora Severi.

“This is treason. This is madness.” Cora retreats into the protection of her pack—of the hundred remaining soldiers behind her. She jabs a claw toward Vanessa, whose lip curls over her fangs. “Vanessa is the one who killed your sister, Valja. She is the one who let Dalla take the fall!”

At the sound of Dalla’s name, Valja roars.

“It was you who didn’t give her a trial,” I say, slipping through the crowd. Rising out of the masses. “You killed Dalla just as you killed Queen Jae and King Zhiyu, just as you killed the Crown Prince of the Asian Court.” Eric. “Just as you killed my—killed a distinguished member of the Asian Court.” Nettie. “Just as you killed a noble daughter of Europe.” Katerina. “Just as you killed your own fucking sister.” Sybil. “You claim to want equality? You killed the others too. You killed instructors.” Shepherd. “You killed maids.” Oona. “You killed generals.” Allard.

At each statement, the crowd shifts, rumbles. And I continue to list them all. Even her newest werewolves. Even the ones mangled by her soulless bites. Even the ones who were aggressive or sadistic. She made them that way. It wasn’t their fault.

We are all just Cora Severi’s victims.

Cora snarls in turn. “If you’ll recall, I saved your life—”

I remove my hand from my waist, revealing the stain of blood to the watching crowd. “You kept me like a doll. You sold me and then planned to sacrifice me!”

“I was making you great. I was making all of you great—saving you. Rescuing you. And this is how you repay me?” She shudders, and a bone in her forearm breaks. She grits her teeth, fighting the transformation. If she transforms now, she knows she will be vulnerable. We will be able to kill her swiftly. She shakes her head and bares her teeth. “I will kill you for this. Each and every one of you will suffer.”

Amethyst and Citrine exchange an incredulous glance.

Another convulsion wracks Cora’s body. “Do you know what I went through to be here? They cast me out. My own sister threw me aside because I bedded a human. I survived it. I survived, goddamn it! You can’t take my crown now!” Her voice reaches a hysteric crescendo, and the entire field—every guest and soldier—holds its breath. She slides backward through her soldiers, toward the castle door, as Valja herself prowls aside to reveal it. As if to challenge Cora to try leaving, she bares her teeth on another chilling growl.

“It’s over, Cora,” Vanessa says. “You’ve lost.”

Sin stares at her. In disbelief. In awe.

When Prince Evander snaps his fingers, one of his soldiers snatches the crown from Cora’s head. She whirls around, claws out, and slashes at the man. But her claws do not penetrate his armor.