“Get off her!” I kick Li as the rebelling kitchen Nightsides beat on Li, but they might as well be beating on a boulder. She's strong. Impossibly strong and resistant. Zaza leaps on a kitchen Nightside who’s trying to help, and the two go down. Riley’s fighting another man ten feet away. He can’t help.
And Li falls on and bites Lily, who holds in a scream.
“Lily!” Mike Rivera appears with a chair, beating savagely on Li's back, driving in the knife and fork.
I go to dive in, but then a rage overtakes me. Why aren't the other High Council members stopping this? Why are they just watching? I eye them, forgetting about Lily, and—
Lily can't hold back. She screams. Li is not making it fast.
No. The killer is trying to control me.
And then the other hunters shout, leaping into action, charging into the fray.
Lily. Lily. Lily.
I turn to her and let my full power rise. Blood runs down her neck and drips onto the floor as Li feeds.
And I let the rage—my rage—fly.
A tiny hole of distraction has opened in Li's shield, and I pierce it, going straight to the impulses in Li's twisted, power-hungry mind. I stab with all my might, and she stiffens, taking her fangs from Lily's neck, and straightening enough for Mike Rivera to strike her in the face with the chair.
“Take me, you bitch,” he growls as she falls back.
I don't let go. The hole opens further, and Lily rolls away, cradling her neck. I keep Li still, seizing her, keeping her there as Lily's father wraps his hands around her throat. But the foreign rage returns, and I turn away, facing Stella. She's doing nothing. Neither are the men on the lower podiums. They need to be eliminated—
Arms wrap around me from behind, and I go down to the floor, meeting concrete. My vision flashes yellow and then dims, making everything dark and distant. The sounds of the fight fade into the background. Riley punches another Trueblood. Walton keeps holding his own. And Lily seethes from pain.
Zaza appears above me, holding a long, wicked kitchen knife stolen from a worker.
“You're not getting out of here alive,” she hisses, lowering the knife to the back of my neck.
I can’t get up. I blink, and colors keep exploding. Cold sharpness slides against my neck—
The lounge door bursts open.
The curtain of filmy darkness retreats as more people burst through, joining the fray.
Dominic Beaumont, holding a long, ornate sword. Addie Beaumont. Other members of the exiled coven. They pour in, fanning out behind the High Council.
Zaza removes the knife. She straightens in shock.
Stella gasps and Enrico whirls.
Mike pauses, still on top of Li.
Riley and Walton stop fighting and whirl, and everyone else goes still.
And Dad, wearing a bulletproof vest and a snarl so severe it could melt steel, bursts through the door last.
They're storming the Convening.
I throw Zaza off with panic, confusion, and a flood of anger.
“Stop!” Dad shouts, lifting a pistol in one hand. “All of you. Stop! We know who the first Nightside is, and we're here to stop the overthrow of the High Council!”
Li rises, shoving Mike back, and yanks the knife from her back, not wincing from the pain. “Kill them,” she orders, eyes widening in panic.
Huh?
What the hell is going on?
I push myself up so I’m standing. Around me, the fighting slows and stops as everyone stands there, stunned.
“Duke Carrington, the first Nightside, is in this room, and he planned to use us all to overthrow the High Council,” Dad shouts. “Any anonymous notes came from him. And he's disguised as a woman.” He points to Trish. “Why don't you stop being a coward and hiding behind everyone else, and fight like a real man?”
CHAPTER TWENTY
I whirl to face Trish.
Trish stands there, holding a chair like a shield, her eyes widening as every gaze in the room falls on her. Riley blinks at her as he backs away from the Trueblood man he's been fighting. He has a scratch down the side of his face, and blood stains his suit cuff, but he's otherwise unhurt. Riley is still alive.
And in the background, Mike lifts Lily, wrapping his arms around her. She gasps, weak, but she's alive, too.
But I have no time for relief.
“Why don't you show yourself?” Dad shouts, still standing beside Dominic.
They're working together.
They've joined forces against a common enemy.
How the hell?
“Yes, Carrington,” Dominic says, emerging from behind Ursala's podium. He faces Trish head on. “That's probably your best disguise, I have to admit. You fooled even me. But hiding behind a young Nightside girl to meet your ends didn’t work in the end. My former servant saw the truth, so you were never that powerful, were you?” He smiles at her, all calm and infuriating.
“I don't know what you mean?” Trish asks with a shrug.
Or he. Or whoever Trish really is.
“What the hell?” I burst.
Li shakes her head, gets her bearings, and snarls at Dominic. “He's a traitor,” she snarls at Dominic. “If anyone is here for an overthrow, it's him!”
Shouts ring out. But Dominic calmly turns to Li, as if he's accepted his fate. “Why me? Most of us know of your corruption and your power grabs. Don't you know Carrington will stab you in the back? Oh, I see you already got stabbed twice tonight. Three is a magic number.”
More shouts ring out, and Truebloods talk to each other in confusion. The High Council draws together, leaving Li out of the huddle.
A hand clamps onto my shoulder, and I turn.
It's Dad.
He's back. What the hell is happening?
And Riley.
He’s got his fangs bared, and his eyes are red with fury. He hovers over me, running his finger down the front of my throat. But the wounds have closed and no more blood seeps out. “Olivia. She hurt you. And you.” He glares at my father, whose hand shakes on my shoulder. “How dare you show your face again!”
“I cut a
