Page 6 of Devoured

I grip the edge of my chair, breathing desperately as one, two, three claws break loose.

Dad will die. Everyone will die. Or, worse, she’ll transform them. She’ll force them to live here, to play these bloody games until they succumb. And they will succumb.

No one, except Cora, has ever left Castle Severi alive.

“That’s ridiculous,” Calix says.

The roughness of his words, the harsh growl of his voice, pulls me from my panic enough that I turn. I finally look at him. He looks back at me. Not at Cora, at me. As if he knew, in this moment, I needed a distraction. His eyes gleam red, however. The same color as Celeste’s blood.

I look away quickly.

I can’t trust anyone. Not even him.

“Dearest Calix,” Cora croons, craning her neck to smile at him with genuine delight. As if she wanted him to speak. “Sweet little nephew. Is there a problem?”

Even from here, I hear his jaw crack. “Aside from the other six courts that must be out for our blood? We don’t need to worry about the humans—or vampires, sirens, and faeries. Most of them are extinct, while there are werewolf courts who want you dead right this very second.”

That sense of restlessness only grows, but Cora doesn’t bat an eye. “I’m taking care of that.”

Calix scoffs and pushes his chair back. He leans forward, bracing his elbows on his knees as a lock of black hair falls over his brow. “There is no taking care of it. The Asian Court won’t be reasoned with. You slaughtered their dynastic lineage and kidnapped their only heir. Unless you release Evie, and even then, the various packs and dukedoms of the North American Court will be smashing through our door any day now.”

“Evelyn has not been kidnapped,” Cora says tightly, her grin vanishing as abruptly as it appeared. Our new queen is volatile, and it’ll take only one wrong word to incite another bloodbath. Calix must know this. Evie too.

“I’m a bargaining chip,” Evie hisses, as if oblivious to the muscle throbbing in Cora’s cheek. “We all know it.”

Cora ignores her. “Even if dukedoms and packs and courts come to fight us, they will not win.” Her claws cut into her palms. Blood wells on her skin. “We will have the numbers, and we will not be confined by their laws. We. Will. Win.”

Her anger chills the hall, an icy gust of bitter wormwood cutting through the noxious smoke. I glance at Sin, imploring him to stop this fight before it escalates into more death. But he won’t meet my eyes. He’s too busy staring at his hands.

“There won’t be fighting,” he finally says. “They’ll join us. All those former laws ever did was hurt us, but in freedom and unity, there can finally be peace.”

“That’s horseshit,” Calix growls. “And you know it.”

Useless. I force my claws to recede through sheer strength of will. Sin is useless. Evie is useless. Even Calix is useless right now, picking a fight when he’s surrounded by enemies who would only ever answer to Cora.

“The gift.” I shoot up and out of my own chair, stumbling slightly and knocking against the table. My plate clatters, a goblet nearly tips over, but Sin steadies both with a firm hand. I smile at Cora, even as she frowns back at me. “You said you had a gift for us.”

“Vanessa,” Sin growls, frustration snapping his tone like a rubber band, “you don’t want—”

“Please.” I blink at Cora, wringing my hands. We need to be cleverer than this. We need to beat Cora at her own game. If Calix argues, if Sin fights, if Evie and her stake become any more noticeable, we’re doomed. And I refuse to die now.

I refuse to die before they all die first.

“Please,” I repeat. “I want to know.”

Cora purses her lips, nostrils flaring, and smooths her hair with a retracting claw. Her black gaze doesn’t soften, but I don’t expect it to. I just want her to stop paying attention to the others. She glares at me—through me—her pulse ticking rapidly in the veins along her throat. “Very well, Vanessa.” Another glance outward. “As I was saying, we are part of a new regime. An eternal regime.” Her eyes flick back to Calix. “This court will not bend nor break for anyone. Though I certainly challenge the six courts to try. If they do not assimilate, we will handle them as we did the others. They can have peace with us, or death with the rest.”

Calix stares straight ahead, his gaze distant. Almost unseeing.

Just like Evie. Just like Portia and Lyra. Each of them looks despondent now, as if this conversation has sliced an artery. As if this conversation is bleeding them of any remaining hope.

They won’t assimilate, and Cora is going to slaughter her way through the human realm. If her numbers grow the way she hopes, she’ll do the same to every werewolf court on the planet. She’ll do the same to everyone, everywhere.

Sin is a goddamned idiot if he thinks there is any hope for peace now, and I wish I could tell him that. I wish I could believe in him the way I used to. Wish I didn’t look at him now and see the dismembered body parts of four dozen werewolves.

I hear those death knell words—his words—as a haunting echo. “This court would have torn you to shreds. You weren’t going to survive it. I told you: I would damn it all for you. For you, Vanessa, do you understand me?”

My skull aches, pounds. I didn’t want this. How could anyone want this?