Chapter 16

Something in him was more off-balance than it had ever been.

It was instinct. Pure dread.

He knew Fiona wasn't someone who gave up. She was mad. Fully mad.

She was going to do something.

That night I was at dinner with a friend in a French bistro downtown. She was an old friend from the time I'd studied abroad. She'd flown in to stand with me for the second hearing.

After dinner I went to the restroom.

The air was faintly floral. The light was soft. A low chandelier overhead.

I'd just finished washing my hands and was reaching for a towel when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Long time no see, Selene."

I spun.

The face was the same and twisted.

Fiona. Hair a mess. A thin, mean smile. In her hand, the bright flash of a silver paring knife.

I stepped back by instinct. My back hit the counter.

"How did you get in here?" My voice was level. My eyes went sharp.

She tilted her head, coming slowly closer, almost like a cat. "You think you really won? So what if Damien knows everything now? You took him from me. You ruined my life. You owe me."

"You're mad." I kept my voice low. I was working to stay calm. "You think killing me brings anything back? You think he'd love you if I was dead?"

She laughed. Tears dripped off the corner of her eyes. "You don't understand. You don't know what I paid for him. He was the only light I had. He was the reason I was alive. What gives you the right to take him? What right?"

I looked at her. "What you call love is a delusion. It's a sick need to own him."

Her eyes went vicious. She lunged.

I twisted to the side. The blade skimmed my shoulder. I could hear it cut the air.

I didn't dare scream. I was afraid of her snapping further. I was afraid of anyone outside spooking her.

We fought in the narrow space. I wasn't her match. My legs gave. She shoved me to the floor.

She pinned me down and lifted the knife overhead.

"You're dead, and big brother only has me," she whispered.

The blade flashed silver as it came down.

"Sel!"

The door kicked open.

Damien came in like the wind, not a second's hesitation, and threw himself between us—

The point drove into his stomach.

"Damien!" I cried out.

He made a muffled sound and fell back over me, blood already blooming across his shirt.

Fiona froze. Her eyes went wide. She hadn't expected him to take the blade for me.

"Big brother… why…" Fiona stepped back, trembling. "You said I was the closest one to you. Why did you save this woman?"

Damien lifted his head. His face was white. His eyes were sharp. "I should have known. You were never my sister. You're a monster through and through."

She let out a long, ugly scream and bolted for the door, where she ran straight into the enforcers who'd just arrived.

She thrashed, cursed, screamed. They pinned her down.

"You all deserve to die! You all deserve to die!"

The siren cut through the night.

I was holding Damien. I couldn't make a sound anymore.

"Don't close your eyes. Stay awake." My hand was pressing hard over his wound. The blood kept coming.

"Sel…" he whispered. "I thought I'd lost everything. But you're still alive… that's good…"

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

His voice was shaking. His face was full of regret. A single tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

"I didn't believe you… I didn't believe in our Evie… but now… I'll pay with my life."

I looked at him. Everything in me was pulled apart. My chest was breaking.

This was the man who'd thrown me into the pit, and he was the one taking the blade for me.

His blood kept falling through my fingers.

The red and blue lights of the enforcer cruiser flashed through the dark. They lit up Fiona as she was pushed into the back.

She kept struggling. Her face was all twisted smile.

"You think you've won? Selene, I won't let you go even in death. You'll regret this. You'll be unhappy your whole life."

She was still screaming, cursing, calling me names. Calling me a temptress, saying I'd seduced Damien, saying I'd ruined her life.

Screaming and screaming, like an animal being dragged into an abyss.

I stood outside the line the enforcers had set. I didn't move. I didn't look away. I just watched her coldly.

She opened and closed her mouth, spilling words that couldn't hurt me anymore. I didn't answer. I only said, flatly, three words.

"You deserve it."

The Pack Enforcers filed charges: attempted murder and patricide by sabotage.

The patricide charge came from the statement Damien had given before he passed out, and from the evidence drive. The reinvestigation of his parents' accident finally had an answer.

The forensic reconstruction confirmed someone had tampered with the brake system. Fiona's fingerprint was on one of the altered parts.

Every unanswered question from all those years ago was finally answered.

Fiona had shed the skin of the sweet, fragile little sister. What was underneath was a monster wearing a wolf's shape.

The Crescent Council handed down life confinement in a silver-lined cell.