Page 71 of Till Death Do Us Part

So once again, I put on the mask. And once again, my senses sharpened like a blade when I did, and I’d been able to recognize the wedding band from across the room.

I’d stopped at the table in shock, staring at it. The two of them, dancing in the middle of the room, one small glimpse of the ring. They both had their mouths uncovered, but one of them had a mask that would have covered all of Vera’s scar.

Impossible.

She’s alive?

They’d completed the wedding some time ago now. I’d tried to grab Elaine and get her out to safety, but Vera and Petra together were more than I could handle.

I’d written her off as dead. It was ironic to be worried about her—we’d been trying to kill her before the Blackbirds could get their hands on the inheritance, stall the process long enough that Horizon would fall through, until Vera had set herself up to receive the inheritance.

But if she was still alive, Vera hadn’t killed her to receive the inheritance. Was Elaine working willingly for the Blackbirds now? At threat of death?

It would be a huge threat to the Whitecliffs if so. But more than that, there was something about Elaine that was hard to shake.

The way she’d looked straight down the length of my blade and hadn’t flinched when I’d lunged for her.

I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.

I know when someone is willing to hurt someone, and when someone is only hurting themselves.

I’d gripped my pendant tightly, my mind spinning as I watched them dance. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the man in the lion mask heading to the private room, and both of them watched him go before Elaine went to the adjacent room. I didn’t doubt Vera would be able to see through my disguise—I’d used a lot of them through the years—so I waited until she was occupied before I snuck after Elaine, finding her kneeling with her ear against the wall, listening through.

I pressed the edge of the knife I’d taken from the tables against the back of her neck as she stood up, and she stood firmly, not turning to look at me.

“Yulia.”

“She didn’t kill you,” I said. She touched her ring.

“She… changed her mind.”

I frowned. “Changed her mind? What are you talking about?”

She turned, slowly, carefully, to look at me, eyes gleaming from under her mask. “We chose a different path.”

There was no chance Vera Farkas, the Wolf herself, had turned on the Blackbirds. This was a trick, and I wasn’t about to take my chances.

I grabbed her by the wrist, spinning her around and twisting her hands behind her back, and she gasped, struggling against it as I drew a cord from my sleeve and knotted it around them, but before I could pull the knot, the door slammed open and metal gleamed through the air. I jumped backwards just as Vera’s knife streaked towards me, striking the corner of my mask instead, and Elaine slipped out of the bindings, sprinting for the door. Vera stepped in front of her, drawing another knife.

“You’re persistent if nothing else,” she said.

“Don’t compliment me too much.”

“Vera—” Elaine leaned in and whispered something in her ear, and Vera nodded, her expression tightening.

“You talk to the others. Get it handled.” She gripped the knife. “I’ll keep Mikhailovna busy.”

“But—”

“Go!” Vera pushed her out the door, and I gripped my knife tighter. I could hear movement from the Centauri room. It should have been soundproofed. I guess they’d sabotaged it.

“Why didn’t you kill her?” I said.

She smirked. “You take me for a terrible wife.”

“Frankly, yes.”

She threw another knife, and I leaped to the side, but she lunged in and grabbed me. I twisted with the momentum, throwing her past me, and she let go and skidded across the floor, picking up one of her knives and throwing it after me. I surprised her—sprinted towards her, turning to avoid the knife, and she couldn’t move out of the way fast enough to avoid as I tackled her, knocking her off her feet and sending us tearing through the curtains.