Violet’s P.O.V.Delaney—I mean Alice, raised her eyebrows. Her lips tipped up in joyful surprise.“Naughty, naughty Violet. Why didn’t you tell us you got your memories back?” she sang, “So, how’d you do it?”A layer of ice encased my beating heart. It smothered the fear, the unending terror that I was likely on my way to meeting Dominic and left me only with the sharp sting of betrayal. Was there anyone I could trust? Delaney had been my friend, one of the first people at Darkling to actually show me kindness.…and it had all been a lie.“Why the fuck would I tell you that?” I snarled coldly.All of the people I’d met since moving here flashed through my head. I knew I could trust Hael. He’d proven that more than once, and I felt the rightness of it deep in my soul, but what about everyone else? What about Olive, or Sylvia?Even Beta Macon and Carmen, Sylvia’s assistant, had their own ulterior motives.Maybe Hael truly was the only one I could trust. Alice whistled. “Oh, touchy. I w

Hael's P.O.V.“Talk about trying to find a needle in a haystack.” I muttered past the consistent throbbing in my head.An hour had passed of me helping Cole sort through a mountain of footage. There was now a drum circle taking up residency in my skull, each beat pulsing behind my eyelids and across my temples. Fuck, I didn’t know how he’d been doing it for so long.Scratch that. I knew exactly how Cole had managed to survive the week staring at a tiny television screen. The mountain of empty coffee cups, cans of caffeinated soda, and half eaten boxes of cereal, which he only requested to get under Violet’s skin, surrounded us. It was like a trash bomb had gone off, sparing only the center of the room.I gave him as much time as I could manage before leaving to meet up with Marcel. We sat in the living room of my mother’s estate, which I’d chosen over my father’s considering I still couldn’t stand the place.A stack of files lay sprawled out on the coffee table. One for each and every

Violet’s P.O.V.I knew we were screwed when Delaney’s car roared to life.The dull squeak of the garage door lifting was the last thing we heard before the rumble faded into the distance. Blood continued to ooze from my thigh and the stumps where Olive’s fingers had once been. Just the whisper of movement sent white hot pain sparking through my leg, so strong that the shock of it had me trembling.Olive had lost a good amount of blood, but her enhanced healing at least closed the wounds that came from her missing fingers. They were still raw and red, the bone slightly exposed. Until we got that silver wire off of her, she wouldn’t be able to heal any further.“Violet,” she rasped.“What, Olive? What is it?”Her head lifted in my direction and my heart clenched painfully. Sweat coated her brow, clinging to her hair and smearing what remained of her makeup. Somehow, she managed to tilt the corner of her lips up in a weak smirk.“Your half-sister is a fucking bitch.”It was stupid. So st

Violet’s P.O.V.The eyes I stared into were Elijah’s, the same man who had raised me these past ten years, but his face was no longer his own. Now that I had seen the mask fall, I’d never be able to go back to who I’d once been.It tore my heart in two to know that the man who had written those terrible letters to my Mom was also the man who had bought me my first cookbook. Elijah—it had been Elijah all along. Behind those soft eyes and his kind smile was the darkest kind of monster.No matter what I felt for him, I would not let him take me. If that meant playing into his sick fantasy, then so be it.I inched my way across the carpet, as far away from my vomit as I could get. The stench alone would make it impossible to speak without gagging. Elijah hovered over me, still on his knees with his hands out in that placating gesture. The sight of it made me sick.“I don’t understand how this is happening. You—You had us both. You had me at the cabin and my mother…” There was no need to f

Hael’s P.O.V.You’re never going to see her again.The fuck I wouldn’t.I scrambled off of Holden’s body, kicking the bastard in the head for good measure. He had said his name was Noah—the Noah. Absolute fury rushed through me, all of it directed at myself. How many times had he been within sniffing distance of Violet? Too many to count.He tried to kiss her. His fucking half-sister. Man, the guy really was messed up. Should’ve trusted my gut about him, but it was much too late for that.Marcel groaned as I turned him over, his face slathered with his own blood. With my fingers pressed against his throat, I felt around until I registered a small flutter. Atticus’s Beta had taken half a dozen bullets for me. The feeling it left me with was uncomfortable as fuck.“You stupid, lucky asshole. I really hate owing people.” I muttered as I swiped his phone off the floor.The first call I made was for an ambulance, while the second was to Cole. Thank fuck I’d memorized his number considering