“Oh! My bad,” she said with feigned innocence. “I must’ve tripped. Didn’t mean to. Wait—are these from Jonathan? Why are you burning them? Did it finally hit you how irrelevant you’ve always been to him?”
My jaw tensed. “Come again?”
“I mean, it’s kind of obvious, isn’t it? You couldn’t even keep your mother safe. She died because you were too weak to stop it.”
My breath caught. “Don’t you dare speak about my mother with that filthy mouth.”
A fury hotter than the fire before us ignited inside me. Before I could even think about it, my hand moved on its own—I slapped her. Not hard, but just enough.
She stumbled—and fell straight into the fire.
I blinked, startled by the unexpected movement. Before I could even process what was happening, someone sprinted forward and slammed into me, forcing me to the ground. At the same time, he caught Janine in his embrace, shielding her.
Just when I thought my heart couldn’t possibly endure more heartbreak, it crumbled further—especially when Jonathan spun toward me, his expression twisted in rage.
“What the hell is the matter with you, Natasha?” he growled, his golden irises shadowed with fury, lips pulled back just enough to reveal the tips of his fangs. “Janine just came here to greet you, and you pounced on her like some deranged rogue?”
I slowly stood up, brushing the dust from my clothes. My eyes never left his. “She insulted my mother,” I said through clenched teeth. “Do you really think I’d stand there and stay silent? And you...” I exhaled, trying to keep control of the storm inside me. “You never told me the full story of what happened to her. All you ever said was that the healers failed. That’s it?”
His face faltered for a heartbeat—his eyes wide, just briefly, before he schooled his expression into something colder, more distant. “We already talked about this, Natasha. Her injuries were too severe. The healers did all they could, but it wasn’t enough to save her.”
He was lying. I could sense it in the subtle shift of his scent, in the faint skip of his heartbeat. But now wasn’t the time to expose him. No, I needed to plan carefully—vengeance wasn’t something to waste in a burst of emotion.