“What are you doing here, Sabine?” Roark asked in a low voice, expression betraying nothing but contempt.
“Me? You were about to let this human,” she turned her head to look at me, her lip curled, “slide a dagger into your heart.”
“I was.”
Apparently, Sabine hadn’t expected him to answer so candidly because she took a step away, her head jerking back. “B-but why?”
I had never seen her so taken off guard, and the look in her eyes almost seemed lost, but then I guarded myself against whatever sympathy was trying to build.
“It’s not your concern,” he bit out. “Since I will be dying momentarily, if you’re lucky, you will have but a few days to live before you follow, thanks to your little dark meld. Let us be, before I kill you myself.”
I’d completely forgotten about what the connection meant. She would be dying, too. At least there was one positive in this shitstorm.
She shook her head slowly, and I wanted to pounce on her when her gaze softened. I saw it, then. I saw the thing that drove many women crazy.
Love.
In her twisted way, she loved him.
“You,” she hissed at me. “Those mutts should have killed you by now.”
I blinked, shocked as I processed her words. The werewolves incessantly coming after me suddenly made sense. “You gave them my top,” I accused.
“Yes. I told them that your death would unleash magic.” Her grin widened. “I also told that gargoyle you were its mate. The mindless brute didn’t hesitate in coming after you.”
Rage made me take a step forward, but Roark’s arm held me back, clutching me to him. My hands clenched. “He took my sister.”
“If only I’d known you had a sister, I would have used her to get to you,” Sabine sneered. I pushed against Roark’s hold, wanting to claw her eyes out. “What are you going to do to me, Rae?” she mocked.
“I’ll kill you, you psycho bitch.”
Her neck craned as she busted out laughing. My chest billowed with my locked down magic. I inhaled sharply and clutched my chest, needing to get it back under control before I imploded.
“I don’t know how Roark could have lowered himself to someone so weak.” A sly expression crossed her face. “Or maybe he’s just using you? That would make the most sense since he doesn’t feel a connection to you. He is pulled to me and only me.”
My heart dropped. I knew he was tied to her, but having it rubbed in my face stung. I wondered if he was still attracted to her. I struggled to swallow… No, she was trying to get in my head. I knew Roark wasn’t using me, but it was the other part that made me tense.
I shoved out of Roark’s arms. “Are you pulled to her?”
The entire time he’d taken me with utter passion, had he been thinking of her? My memory chose to remind me how savage and animalistic he’d been when he screwed her in the tent. He didn’t desire me like that. The sky overhead began roiling to mirror my pain. I wanted to curse. Looked like I’d lost my handle on it.
My stomach roiled, and I clutched it, cringing when he reached out. His face tightened with rage. “Even now, you drive a wedge between us.”
Sabine looked at me, and the evident hate made me swallow. I took a deep breath and narrowed my eyes right back at her. She may be stronger than me, but I wasn’t human anymore. I would put up a fight, and I’d make sure she wouldn’t get out of it unscathed. I narrowed in on the dagger that had flown to the side.
“I’ve had enough, Sabine. I have repaid my debts. I’d rather my mate be safe from you even for the short amount of days you would outlive me.” In the next moment, he palmed a dagger. I’d always thought he pulled the blades out of some hidden compartment on his clothing like he had when he gave me mine, but I watched it appear in his hand as he manifested it.
As he was about to charge, Sabine looked nervous for once. “If you kill me, if you kill us, you will never be able to save your siblings.”
He froze. “My siblings?”
She nodded frantically. “I was trying to find leverage against you so you wouldn’t hurt me. They’re alive. I will tell you everything I know if you let me go.”
He tensed, and I couldn’t lie and say I didn’t understand. My sister was everything to me, and he was finding out that his might not be dead. But I didn’t trust Sabine. Not even a little bit. I wanted to kill her, but she dangled an enticing prospect in front of him. Something that would be necessary for him to be alive to fulfill. But him being alive would kill my sister.
My heart raced. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to push him to kill her because it would kill him. But my sister…Rain began sleeting down, soaking me. I clutched my head as a pulsing ache started up.
“No,” I heard Roark say, and then a thump.
I gasped and looked up at the knife protruding from Sabine’s chest. She looked down, shocked, and then up at him with betrayal. Yeah, betrayal hurt, huh, Sabine.
Roark looked down at me, and as he did, she pounced and punched me square in the face with an inhuman hiss.
She whirled on Roark in the same motion. “Do not move.”
I blinked the dizzies away in time to see Roark freeze his quick movement toward her. She’d used her persuasion on him!
Ducking to avoid her next attack, I threw myself at her midsection. I jerked my knee into her thigh and numbed myself to the spear of pain it shot through my leg. I dug my fist into her stomach and satisfaction breathed through me at her grunt. I did it again and again, putting anger behind
