Page 19 of Bound

The room stills.

Rafe’s eyes sharpen. “No?”

“It’s not Marina.”

Blaze pushes off the wall. “Looks like her creepy little arts-and-crafts signature to me.”

“It is meant to,” I say. “Carlos is pretending to be her.”

Bayne’s expression does not change, but something predatory wakes in his eyes. “Carlos.”

Rafe looks at the tablet again. “Why?”

“Blaze is right,” I say. “Hers is arts and crafts. Hand-drawn.”

Rafe studies me. “You’re certain?”

I look at the mark again. “Yes.”

“Even if Carlos made it, could Marina be working with him right now?”

A laugh leaves me before I can stop it. “She always was.”

Blaze’s jaw tightens.

“This message isn’t from her,” I continue. “And if Carlos is using her mark, then…”

I stop. The room feels like it’s tilting. No one speaks. The fire pops softly. Far away, the child laughs again, and the sound nearly breaks me in half.

Marina is too clever to be dead. She arranged other people’s deaths.

The strategy-room door opens. Lucian enters first. Erin is beside him.

Of course she is.

Her hair is slightly mussed. Her mouth is a little swollen. His hand is at her back, and something ugly, old, and unwanted twists inside me.

Not jealousy exactly. Jealousy is too simple.

It’s grief.

Once, I stood beside him like that. Then Carlos told me I was standing beside a monster.

And I decided to believe him.

I look away.

“What happened?” Lucian asks.

Rafe answers him, but his eyes stay on me. “Message came through a courier account. Isobel says it is not Marina. It is Carlos imitating her.”

Lucian says, “Why imitate her when she’s always been his willing participant?”

“What message?” Erin asks.

Rafe shows them.

Lucian looks at the photograph. The change in him is immediate and almost invisible.