Richelle Mead

ʺSince . . . since when?ʺ I finally managed to ask.

ʺSince . . . forever.ʺ His tone implied the answer was obvious. ʺI denied it when I was restored. I had no room for anything in my heart except guilt. I especially felt guilty about you—what Iʹd done—and I pushed you away. I put up a wall to keep you safe. It worked for a while—until my heart finally started accepting other emotions. And it all came back. Everything I felt for you. It had never left; it was just hidden from me until I was ready. And again . . . that alley was the turning point. I looked at you . . . saw your goodness, your hope, and your faith. Those are what make you beautiful. So, so beautiful.ʺ

d my card for the room, I realized, again tipping off our location. No one else was linked to my or Lissa’s cards, but the ease with which he’d tracked us made me nervous.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I growled. “We might be together, but there are boundaries you’ve got to respect. This is none of your business.”

“It’s not like I was reading your diary! I just wanted to find my girlfriend and—” It was a sign of Adrian’s distress that his mind was only now beginning to backtrack and put pieces together. “Oh lord. Rose, please tell me you guys aren’t the ones who busted him out? They’re all looking for two human girls and a dhampir guy. The descriptions don’t match at all . . .” He groaned. “But it was you, wasn’t it? Somehow, you broke into a maximum-security prison. With Eddie.”

“Must not have been all that secure,” I remarked lightly.

“Rose! This guy has fucked with both of your lives. Why would you free him?”

“Because . . .” I hesitated. How could I explain this to Adrian? How could I explain that which, by all evidence in our world, was impossible? And how could I explain what goal in particular was driving this? “Victor has information we need. Or, well, he has access to someone we need. This was the only way we could get it.”

“What on earth could he possibly know to make you do all this?”

I swallowed. I walked into prisons and nests of Strigoi, but saying what I did next to Adrian filled me with apprehension. “Because there might be a way to save Strigoi. To turn th

this was pushing the crazy line.

“I thought Victor Dashkov was an only child,” Christian said.

I shook my head. “Nope. His dad had an affair, so Victor’s got an illegitimate half-brother. Robert. And he’s a spirit user.”

“Only you,” said Christian. “Only you would find something like this.”

I ignored what ap‍