I knew I wasn't supposed to like her because she was 'dangerous' and all that, but I owed Oakley big time.

What was originally a regular trip to Dr. Moore's office outside the castle somehow turned into a small outing in the streets of Volterra.

The others were unable to come up with an excuse as to why I couldn't explore the town center without giving away why I could be so valuable to Razin. So, Percy and Prosper compensated for the outing by bringing Heidi, as she was most familiar with not attracting attention from the city's human population. He chose wisely, as she offered herself as a wall between Oakley and me. Talib stayed behind, as the four vampires would likely attract enough attention. Plus, I think his distaste for Oakley was almost enough to outweigh his duty to protect me. Not actually, but it could be a close tie.

Even I was slightly concerned by the number, but those doubts vanished when we joined the crowd. Our group received a few glances, and only some people were distracted and drawn to their presence, so the lack of sun and dozens of distractions had Prosper wishing he'd brought Talib as well. He made sure to mumble it under his breath every five minutes.

Whether Oakley had known it or not, the timing of our adventure was ideal. The citizens in Volterra were enjoying their weekly farmer's market – much to my excitement and my guards' dismay. I ignored their negativity, and oddly enough, Oakley matched, if not heightened, the grandness of the day with an unexpected positivity.

I accepted a free strawberry from one of the vendors, who gave me a kind smile and an Italian greeting.

There were aisles of booths set up along the town square. Each booth had its own theme or item for purchase and a vendor with a silvery tongue to entice the people idling along. The majority held various food items, from fruits to bread and wine. Several shops had set up tents on their storefronts to attract customers inside, boasting the city's acclaimed alabaster workshops, handmade jewelry, and bronze work.

We passed an art gallery early on, and I had to force myself not to enter. This wasn't exactly the group that had the patience for an activity like that. Maybe individually, but Oakley set off the whole dynamic, and Heidi would likely feign interest before talking herself out.

We ventured down one of the uneven cobblestone streets, where family-run restaurants and more trinket and artisan shops operated out of the buildings. Many held items and services similar to those in the town center, but the amount of wine-related activities and creations increased significantly. I hadn't forgotten Felix and Demetri's promise to let me drink enough of an alcoholic beverage to make my brain a little fuzzy. But I'd had the wine at church services, and I don't think any aged grape would ever be appealing enough to drink an entire glass. I started spitting out the wine from communion in one of the few potted plants someone decided belonged in the church. Surprisingly, I was never caught.

"Oh! This is adorable!" My arm was suddenly gripped in a steel embrace as Oakley slipped some kind of colorful bracelet around my wrist. The beads jangled as I brought the chain to my eye line to examine the hideous thing.

I smiled politely as she turned away to avoid being rude, but I needed it off as soon as possible. It shook and dangled off my wrist like a bell. Pickpocketing was hardly my usual game anymore, but such ornamentation felt like it hindered my ability to breathe, let alone steal from a vendor. Not that I wanted to. I just liked to know that I could.

Actually, I hadn't even seen Oakley pay for it.

I glanced over my shoulder to see Percy hanging back, counting a few coins and waiting to offer them to the woman running the booth. The woman was chatting excitedly with another customer, and I was surprised Percy had the patience or care to even pay in the first place.

All else was well until Heidi was called back to the castle.

Oakley linked her arm with mine the instant Heidi disappeared in the crowd, much to Prosper's annoyance. It was as if she were waiting for this moment as she wasted no time delving into her search expedition.

"That doctor of yours wasn't looking too well."

She was right. Doctor Moore had accepted this 'position' of being my personal doctor with six months to live. He had about two and a half remaining, and I don't think anyone gave any thought to the quality of those last few months. I felt guilty because he looked like he should be the patient over me. He'd tried to ease my mind, calling today one of his bad days. He promised he had more good than bad. I believed him.

I shrugged, as I could tell she didn't actually care. It allowed her to continue with her real questions.

"So, what can you do?"

I frowned, letting my head turn to get a longer glimpse at one of the passing vendors. "Sorry?"

"Well, if Aro's keeping you human, I'm assuming you've got some sort of power worth waiting for?"

She had a point. Why keep me for any other reason? But then, could they know for certain that I would be gifted as a vampire? "If he thinks so, he's kept it to himself."

"He does that." She harrumphed, and I was taken aback by the sound. "So, you're just in the castle. Waiting?"

"You'd have to ask Aro," I said as blandly as I could.

She ruminated over my word choice. Prosper sent me a look, but I always referred to the Kings by their names. Something about having a master didn't sit right with me. Or maybe he wanted me to lie better.

"I think it has something to do with not wanting a newborn around while they're dealing with a potential threat like Razin."

Oakley giggled, "That would make sense. You're about the twins' age, I assume?"

I shrugged, "Something like that."

Her face lit up again, and she didn't bother asking before she pulled me over to an open air cafe/pizzeria with a sign above it that read, Trattoria Il Poggio. The outdoor seating occupied the sidewalk outside the store, and the setup was rather charming. The tables were metal with a matte black paint that would have been blistering hot on a sunny day. I followed Oakley, weaving between chairs as she chose the furthest table from the door and right up against the building, like a teenager picking the furthest seat from the front of a classroom. The table she chose had two chairs, so Prosper was left frowning and standing awkwardly in the street as he watched her get cozier with me.

"I hear the twins were uncontrollable as newborns." She began gossiping, and I nodded along with my eyes on the passersby. "I think it's how they've always been, but the others assume it's just because people tried to burn them at the stake and – what's wrong with you?"

My chest tightened, and my tongue tasted like sandpaper. I barely managed to whisper, "They were what?"

"Yeah! Hasn't anyone mentioned?" If she hadn't been suspicious before, she certainly was now. "I'm pretty sure it's the most common topic surrounding the Volturi, like a ghost story among vampires." She eyed me with darkened eyes. "It's where they got their title: Witch Twins."

"Enough." Prosper stood above us. I hadn't even heard him approaching. "Time to go."

Oakley sighed dramatically, leaning back with an easy tilt of her lips. "Relax, Prosper. Get the human a drink for storytime."

Prosper went to argue, but I cut him off. "Water, please, Prosper." He gave me a look that expressed he was none too pleased with me, but I didn't care. The line would take him ages to get through. Long enough. We stared each other down before he, to my great surprise, gave in and disappeared inside the busy restaurant.

Oakley grinned at me, "You're bold, little girl."

"Tell me," I demanded.

She obliged.

I wish I could say it hadn't occurred to me that this was what Alec wanted to tell me himself. His story. But it did. And I chose to be selfish because everyone knew. It was not some secret they wished to keep private. Though, to be honest, and looking back, I don't think Oakley would have given me the choice.

By the time Prosper returned and Percy realized what was going on, the damage was done. And they did nothing to stop it.

"The twins were always…off. Their neighbors and friends had always been suspicious of the coincidences that followed them. The morning of their last day, Alec went out with the hunting party, and when they returned, the grown men whispered about how Alec tried to skin a wounded rabbit while it was still alive in his arms. When one of the older boys ordered him to kill it because it was suffering, Alec acted as if the idea hadn't occurred to him, but he agreed that it would be easier if the animal was still.

"That afternoon, the same boy complimented Jane, and she attacked him. She pushed him, and the boy collapsed in pain, hysterical and wailing that she had burned him. Jane observed, pleased with his 'punishment,' until her brother arrived. The boy's friends called her a witch, saying they were spawns of the devil himself, and when no one stood up for them, the twins sought revenge.

"Jane and Alec set fire to the three boys' homes that night, and with this crime and the accusations, they were condemned to burn at the stake. They were bound back to back on the pyre. Jane screamed and cursed the town for her pain while Alec retreated into himself to escape it. That's where their gifts originate." No one ever told me that. But then, I never thought to ask. "Aro saved them in the flames and turned them immediately."

Her eyes never left my face during the retelling, and I tried to figure out what she was looking for, but all I could see were the images that appeared in my head to detail the twins' backstory. I knew they were known for their cruelty, but could they really have committed arson over a few comments? The twins were somewhat sadistic, but I usually considered them to be rational. But then, who was I to judge or presume? I wasn't there, and they did what they could to survive. Jane had made that clear.

But Oakley wasn't done. "And when the transformation was complete, they slaughtered the entire village. Every last man, woman, and child." She was smiling casually despite her story.

I didn't want to believe her, but it was the one detail, "spawns of the devil," that I clung to. Of all the insults I sent at him on my first day in the castle, it was "devil spawn" that Alec reacted to. And he did so violently.

I swallowed, tearing my gaze from her empty burgundy stare. Neither Prosper nor Percy stepped in to correct anything she'd said. Which meant that, for the most part…

She was telling the truth.

I felt sick.

And I was pretty sure Oakley's a freaking psychopath because she wouldn't stop fucking smiling at me.

Yeah. I was gonna be sick.

I downed the last of the water bottle Prosper had handed me. I'd been sipping it anxiously throughout Oakley's retelling, and I squeezed the bottle, accidentally crushing the plastic. She giggled, disturbingly satisfied with my reaction. "Creepy, right?"

I returned a somewhat placid laugh and agreed. My eyes trailed over a pizza on someone's plate, and the blood led my mind into drawing another image from her words. This had to stop.

"What about you?" She knew what I was asking. She waved me up and crossed in front of my guards to continue walking through the town center. "How were you turned?"

She linked her arm with mine again as if we were old friends. I was able to ease my breathing more as she continued talking. I'm sure she loved nothing more than the sound of her own voice at this point. So, I fed into her ego so I could pull myself together. If I continued to be affected by this, I had no doubt she would use it against me and the twins.

"I am sure you've picked up from the others that Garrow and I are cousins." I nodded to confirm, but I don't think she actually cared. "We were from a small noble family with high expectations. Neither of us was very obedient, and around my fourteenth birthday, Garrow disappeared. Our families assumed he ran away to join some band of forest thieves or some silly thing when really he had been bitten and turned immortal. I didn't know it at the time, but he began keeping watch over me, his favorite little cousin."

I interrupted, her story conflicting with what little I knew. "As a newborn?"

"As well as a newborn vampire could." She huffed but shrugged, giving me a tug to keep us moving. "It took him a few years to get his bloodlust under control, but eventually, he was controlled enough to check in with me. Once a year, I'd say."

She gracefully separated from me, her hand interlocking with mine to be raised as a makeshift bridge as some children came darting under it. "I was quite young, naive. I thought every man was in love with me – and there were several."

Her pace slowed as her eyes dulled, staring straight ahead. I saw Percy and Prosper exchange a look over my shoulder, but I was nervous to break Oakley's trance. My lack of knowledge and attention was fueling her ego. I could see it in every Colgate smile that never reached her eyes.

"Have you ever met a man and you knew instantly that there was a connection?" It was the way she used the word, man, that had me masking my gut reaction of something resembling nausea – again. The male gender was not often referred to as 'men' at my age, and while Oakley was older, she did not look more than five years so. Young and naive, she'd said.

She took no notice of my true opinion, contentedly conceited as she talked about herself. Though, I was still curious. "And then, after my twentieth birthday, I met him. He was different from the others. I knew he couldn't love me within a few hours, so I found comfort in the briefness of our encounter. Hookups, as you know them, were not commonplace when I was human. But, I wanted to feel loved, so I was easily seduced, and in the throes of passion," Ew, "he bit me. Before the vampire could finish me off, Garrow broke in and attacked him, then got me far away while I underwent the change."

"I never knew that," Percy commented, a tinge of an unidentifiable emotion in her tone. There was an air of familiarity in the way she addressed Oakley. From what I'd observed, she had been much less confrontational with the cousins than most of the others.

Prosper interrupted, overtly uninterested in Oakley's tale, as he returned his phone to his jacket pocket. "Heidi is sending Alec to replace her."

This made Oakley pause and forget all about me. A Chesire smile began to slowly rise on her face, more befitting her true colors. "Now, why would Alec be joining us?" Prosper only glared at her with a darkness even I had to look away from. She only pushed. "He has better things to do, no?"

Prosper shut her down with a, "Believe what you wish."

I glanced around at the shops lining the street. If Alec was to arrive at any moment, I figured distance was best. I tried not to connect my new knowledge with this decision.

"Can I go in there?" I pointed at some random store beside us called Libreria Migliorini Gian Piero. I didn't care to know what the store sold, but it was beginning to be a bit much with this group.

Prosper pursed his lips before nodding to Percy. I'd never seen him in such a negative mood before, but I wasn't about to pry.

A windchime announced our entrance, and as soon as the door closed, I turned to Percy. "Why is –" She shook her head, silencing me. Right, they would still hear us from outside the shop. And no doubt, Oakley was keeping an ear out. "Dog with a bone, huh?" Percy had not been present for my conversation with the other guards, but she gave a loaded exhale and repeated a phrase I'd begun to hear more and more these days.

"You have no idea."

I think I was about to.

Lucky for me, I'd picked a bookshop. There were two levels, with stairs to the left and right of the entrance. The second floor had less space, as the banister circled around the sides of the shop, leaving most of the main level to be an open floor plan with the high ceiling.

And it was a mess. Books were haphazardly resting on shelves and stacked on top of each other along the floor of the aisles. It was not the type of store to find recent releases or pop culture stories. I ran my fingers over the binding of several, and most were missing a sleeve while others were bare where the title had long since been worn off by frequent use. The beloved old book smell overwhelmed the shop like a cheap musk, and I crinkled my nose as I brushed off another layer of dust from a random book.

This was precisely the type of shop I would expect to find in a town like Volterra, and I wished I could be more present in the city to explore its history and secrets. While I was still human.

Percy followed me as I browsed the front of the store without aim, but I couldn't keep from glancing at the door every few seconds, waiting for Alec to show up. The compulsion annoyed me, so I chastised myself, heading to the upstairs section instead. The space was even more cramped than it looked from below, with a single bookshelf per row.

I headed straight to the back, holding onto the railing as I went. There were large columns every few feet, and the stone feel didn't match the city's architecture, but it looked nice in this small and messy bookshop. The second floor was much neater than the first, however, and leaning over the railing, I could see that my assessment was more than accurate.

I stopped at the furthest section, slipping behind one of the bookcases. Here, the bell would be my only hint of new patrons. And there were several others around the store, so I forced myself to focus on something else instead of wondering about every sound. Or rather, instead of wondering if every sound was Alec.

Percy, however, must have decided we were far enough from the others, or her curiosity got the best of her. Neither she nor Talib had ever once asked a question about Alec and me, much less about topics as personal as she was proposing now.

"Did you really not know?" She said with a gentle but un uncharacteristic timidness. I tilted my head, not quite sure what she was talking about. She adjusted her collar somewhat anxiously, glancing behind her. "How they were turned?"

My mood immediately dipped. "Oh." I felt a rush of embarrassment at knowing less about the person considered to be my 'soulmate' in vampire terms than the entire world of vampires. It felt bitter, like there was a terrible pressure on my chest and a constant whisper in my ear of all the atrocities I could possibly catastrophize. I had been fine giving him space until he was ready to tell me. And now, with all Oakley told me, I knew why he was still avoiding it. But the fact that Percy felt the need to comment, that her surprise was so evident, quickly shifted my embarrassment into frustration. "This really is common knowledge, isn't it?"

"Saffiya," Percy was great, but apparently, she was somewhat stiff with addressing the obviousness of the matter. "They're called the Witch Twins for a reason. Although she offered you more details than I even knew. She may have been lying, but…"

Part of me was grateful that her thoughts mirrored my own enough to question Oakley's reliability. The other part of me caught her drift and sourly acknowledged, "But if it's true, Alec probably told her himself."

"Or Jane." She tried to help, even more uncomfortable. I bit my tongue, not trusting myself to maintain the illusion the twins wanted me to present if I said another word.

I returned to the books, but I couldn't concentrate on a single title. I didn't know what section we were in – if there even were sections. It was a little like the Volturi's library – except for the wreck.

Percy's phone beeped, and my head turned on a swivel. She laughed softly. "If it wasn't putting you at risk, I'd say your slight obsession with each other was cute."

If I could have blushed, I would've. I tried to look busy with the shop again, but it made her teasing grin grow.

It disappeared, however, as she glanced down at the message.

"He's here…" she trailed off, her face shifting with confusion as if trying to solve a complex math problem.

Great, now I was nervous again. "What's wrong?"

She didn't answer at first. "He doesn't know," she tried again, "he is asking where we are."

I glanced around. "Just say we're in the back." She stayed still. "Percy?"

She nodded a few times, re-checking that math problem before making a decision. "We should meet them outside."

I copied her head nods, agreeing. But I needed a second. "Just give me a minute?" She hesitated, so I tugged on her sympathy. "I just need to process before I see him." Her face contorted into a pitying expression, and I hated it, but it worked.

"5 minutes." And then I was alone.

I leaned against one of the columns and exhaled softly. Unconsciously, I glanced over the baluster towards the front door as if I'd catch a glimpse of the boy I could pick out in a crowd. But there was no mop of midnight hair that I could see. The disappointment settled. How long was five minutes?

"Looking for the human?" I turned around, thinking Oakley had snuck up on me. But I was still alone, and her voice seemed to be further away. I paused, knitting my brow and waiting for her to say something else before it clicked.

She was below me.

Cautiously, I rested a hand on the copper railing and spotted her instantly. If she so much as stepped back or looked up, she would see me on the edge. However, her attention was preoccupied with someone standing under the overhang, and I couldn't quite see them. Not that I had to think too hard about who it could be. A table stuck halfway out, decorated with small trinkets like writing utensils and notebooks. She stepped forward, leaning against it. It wobbled slightly, and one of the pens fell.

Alec caught it without looking away, but he sidestepped her, half coming into my view as he recreated the distance she'd closed. His voice was gruff, an implied inconvenience, "I hear this excursion was your doing."

I bit my lip to keep from making a sound, spinning around to press my back against the stone column and out of their sight. But they made no move that suggested they knew I was there.

I squeezed my eyes tight, trying to breathe before my heartbeat could give me away. I knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but it was like I was tied to the column, held down by this rock in my gut that told me I would regret walking away.

"The girl needed a little fun. Especially after the way you treated her this morning."

"Why do you care, Oakley?"

"Oh, I don't," she admitted bluntly. "But you clearly do."

Alec grunted, sounding like he was ready to walk away. "I have no time for your games."

"And yet, you ventured into the city to do…what, exactly?" She had him there, and that sickly sweet arrogance seeped into her tone. She spoke calmly and patiently, but every timbre, every sway of her voice was toying with him. It was as if she were searching for the perfect words to make him break. "Protect the human from wayward fruit?"

Neither made any attempt to whisper, though their conversation remained private by the delay of customers upfront. Okay, semi-private, seeing as I was the only person on the upper level. "I do as I am told. A skill you would do well to learn."

She dug in, unperturbed by his comment and attempt to sway the conversation. "You despise humans more than anything in the world."

"I am incapable of so intense an emotion for a species I consider so little."

Oakley ventured further, "And yet, there are no signs of discipline on her brain or her body." No defense was offered, and she finished with a cheeky, "I checked." Was that why she kept linking arms and touching me? I was an idiot, a professional pickpocket, but it had not even crossed my mind that she had a physical ulterior motive. I'd been too focused on her words.

"Aro wishes to turn her. She will be a member of the Guard, a position you never held." Oakley was unbothered by the reminder, and it only made Alec's inconsistently guarded emotions more prevalent.

"You're all a bit too stuck up and serious for my tastes."

Alec decided not to christen her words with a response, but the silence was eery, and a jolt of nerves flipped my stomach. I was stuck between worrying I'd been caught and wanting to take another look.

"You're almost protective of her." Alec's continued silence wasn't quite what she was looking for. She clicked her tongue and tried again. "Really, Alec? Another human?"

My heart stopped.

Alec's composure seemed to return, walls of diamond rock restored as he stated plainly, "I am sure I've no idea what you are talking about."

She hummed, and I almost missed the sound. "Interesting," she purred, and I couldn't help it.

I inched to the side, trying to peer over the banister. They had not moved from their previous positions, making me grateful as it allowed me to lean out a bit further. It was the wrong move, timed perfectly as Oakley closed the space between them with a seductive idling. She rested her hand on his bicep, slowly sliding it up to the back of his neck. He immediately snatched it from his body, gripping her wrist.

"That's new." Her confidence only slightly faltered as she murmured in a smoky rustle, "You weren't quite so confident when we –"She gasped in surprise before she could finish, and I heard the crack before I saw it. Her porcelain skin had a bold, unshapely seam running from Alec's tight grip and along her forearm, as if ready to split open under the slice of a surgeon's knife. My eyes widened, fully expecting him to shatter her wrist. She pouted, but it was overexaggerated and just as much of an act as her personality. "You used to like it when I touched you."

Alec hissed lowly, and I could see two humans a row over pick up on the sound. They exchanged glances before turning to leave, and I wondered if they had also felt the haunting tension that Oakley was stoking.

I strained to hear as Alec lowered his voice, seething, "Do so again, and I will starve both you and your cousin in the cells. Do I make myself clear?"

She tilted her head, leaning in as if she were going to kiss him. "I had a different punishment in mind."

Alec scoffed, shoving her away. "You embarrass yourself, Oakley."

She was enjoying this.

And Alec couldn't seem to win. Sister Misha once told me that the best thing to do when encountering a bully is to walk away. But Alec couldn't, not only because they would be returning to the same place, but she was also physically in his way.

If he were to physically remove her, it would, as he had just proven, only encourage her to jump over the baseline and search for another nerve. And she was profoundly good at aiming for the throat.

"I do see why you're fond of her. She is sweet, polite, bit of a brat, though." Rude. "We had a nice long talk–" The satisfaction in her voice continued to taunt him. "We talked about boys – she asked for my story, which was very courteous, and…oh, what else?" She pretended to recall our last topic, and my own betrayal at his expense began to pull at my insides as she exposed my opportunism. "The backstory of the Witch Twins' mysterious reputation. She's a curious thing, isn't she?"

I could not see his face, but his rising fury was practically boiling the air like an empty kettle over an open flame. Whatever secrets we'd been trying to keep may as well be plastered on the nearest newsstand. He'd kept his cool against Vladimir, but whatever threat he thought Oakley posed was worth the risk of disobeying the Masters. And that was if he was even thinking straight right now.

"What the fuck did you tell her?" He snarled, and though it was posed as a question, the threat underlying it was vibrant, self-sufficient.

Oakley tilted her head to the side and tutted, speaking to him as if he were a child. If I didn't know better, I'd be comforted by the genuine touch in her tone. "Oh, sweetie. Everything."

He reached for her again in a flash, missing the fabric of her dress by a few inches.

"Tell me," she backed away from him as he began to vibrate, a low growl humming in his throat. Oakley reveled in his rare instability as she pursued her overarching objective. "Will you kill this one, too?"

I hardly blinked before his hand wrapped around her throat, and he tugged her underneath the overhang where I couldn't see them. I lowered myself to the floor, using the column to support my back as I tried to quell the shaking in my hands and legs, straining to hear.

"You stand on the edge of a precipice, Oakley." He provided her ample time to respond with one of her antagonizing phrases, but the numb, disembodied voice that spoke from his throat had left her speechless. It was bitter and hollow, and I pulled my arms over my chest. It reminded me of his gift and of the blackness that swallowed the world the first, and only time I had been subjected to it. The unspoken implications hung between them like a charged current, and even as an observer, I felt weighed down by the push and shove of their history.

"And here I thought we might have a happy ending." Her confidence was blown, and I almost believed her sadness.

"Meae Sanies. You are of my venom." He hissed at her. "But I will rip your throat out with my teeth if you ever speak to her again."

There was a small bump before Oakley stumbled out from under the balcony, her expression desperate, like a housepet cornered by a wild animal. Like he had reminded her of real evil, besting her silly game of manipulation. She stared with a new fearfulness as if he would grab her again, but he did not move into my line of sight. She watched him cautiously…waiting.

Then, Oakley's eyes flickered up to me, and I twisted back behind the pillar, but I was already caught. I shut my eyes tight and silently filled my lungs as I waited for her to expose me – had she known I was here the entire time? I was compelled to look back to find out. Her lips curved up in decorated arrogance, and she dropped her gaze before Alec could pick up on the reason for her partly regained smugness.

"Let me know when the human gets tired on her knees."

Then, she was gone. I could see Alec clearly now, as if he'd intended to follow her but stopped. There was a snap and a curse that escaped from his lips. He turned over his shoulder, facing opposite my direction, and dropped the object in his hand. It was one of the pens from the knick-knacks displayed, and I watched helplessly as it clattered on the table and rolled onto the floor. The pen must have snapped under pressure from his thumb, an outlet of his anger, as ink had flooded over his fingers and now, onto the wooden table.

I wanted to reveal myself and offer some support if I could, but the fear that his anger would transfer to me popped into my head. It took me a few seconds to banish the ridiculous concern, but in that time, Prosper walked around the bend on the main floor.

His expression was blank, but I had no doubt he had been as much a witness to the conversation as I. Did he already know their history, or was this all news to him as well?

He approached Alec and reached for something on one of the shelves I couldn't see, taking advantage of the trinkets section they stood in. He silently tore open his selected package, and I briefly wondered if we were going to pay for it. However, he tossed it to the side, near one of the many piles of books, and offered Alec the object inside.

Alec accepted the towel after a moment. "It is not as you think."

They let the disavowal hang in the air as the towel became stained with the ink from the pen. It looked like bile, an obsidian darkness that made it warp and twist in my brain till it resembled a bloody rag. I swallowed another bout of nausea, and I wish it was from the comparison. It was not.

"I think it is none of my business." Alec didn't acknowledge him, content until Prosper continued. "Your mate might like to know, however."

Alec's head snapped up, ready to censure Prosper's criticism before he followed the other man's line of sight. And suddenly, Alec's eyes were on me.

~•~•~•~

A/N: Saffiya's definitely got a lot to process after this.

All of your comments and feedback from the previous chapter so far have given me so much clarity and focus, it's sort of incredible. Thank you for your honesty and for sharing. I am honored to have each and every one of you as readers. Feel free to speak up as we continue. I have SO MANY Alec and Fiya scenes that I want to share with you, but in my attempt to do so, as I feared, it's been stalling the story. This chapter is roughly tying up some loose ends so that we can do what we need and continue forward. I am still reading and processing your feedback, but with your support, I was able to finally accept the next challenge:

So, for real this time, I would like to inform you that there are roughly 6 chapters left. There's action, there's romance, there's drama, and Part II could quite literally be the end of it all.

And if you're scared...you should be.

Ro

P.S. Also, the chapter title makes me giggle.

1) Tumblr's List of Volturi Vampire Phrases

Meae Sanies -Of my Venom. Used by vampires to refer to others they have turned, commonly a negative association, used to distance ones-self from the vampire in question. Most commonly used by Coven heads and Leaders of nomad groups.