heard the White Rose cry, and she flung out her fingers. I turned at the last second, and didn’t have time to throw up a shield to block her casting. As her spell wrapped around me, I immediately knew it was a binding hex.
My limbs froze up, becoming paralyzed. I fell backward like a statue, collapsing onto the roof. My eyes were the only part of me unfrozen as I glanced around, looking for a way out of this.
The White Rose stood over me. Her lips were dispassionate as she uttered, “I’m sorry. This was the only way.”
She fled. I wrestled with her magic, but I couldn’t move. By the time thirty minutes had passed, I gave up. Gabby was long gone by now, and even if I got out of this, I had no way to tail her without getting caught.
I lay on my back for hours, frozen by the binding spell. While I was there, I had time to think. Why was I so useless at fighting this woman? It was like my body rebelled at the thought of hurting her.
And that was the problem. The idea had crossed my mind before, but I’d thrown it out and ceased to consider it, because I knew how ridiculous it was. But now, there was no denying it.
At this point, I was certain that Emma was the White Rose.
The White Rose shot blue balls of magic at me— the same kind Emma had used in the duel during the King’s Contest. Not to mention the White Rose and I shared an attraction. She knew how to fight me— she knew how to beat me. She anticipated my every move without fail. She knew wherever I was at most times, and she also knew my name. How else could she have all that information and be a stranger to me?
No. It wasn’t possible. She’d shown up in seconds once I went after Gabby. What other alternative was there?
But if Emma was the White Rose... why was she protecting Gabby, and the Black Claw? This went against everything we’d been working for. Was she playing both sides?
Either way, if Emma was behind all this, she knew I was the Phantom, and that we were fated mates. She knew I’d been lying to her for months. Was this her way of getting back at me? And if that was true, what was the deal with all the fooling around we’d been doing? How could we share such intimate moments in the carriage one minute, then try to kill each other the next?
I had no answers. But I intended to get them. To do so, I needed to confront Emma.
Chapter Sixteen
Emma
I had been planning to come clean, and tell Ethan about the White Rose. Then Gabby had poisoned Alexei. That had changed everything.
I wanted to find out what Gabby was doing as badly as the rest of us did, but I knew if I let Ethan get too close, Gabby’s warnings would cease, and she’d take action. She’d turn him in, if she didn’t kill him outright. Alexei’s near death was proof she wasn’t fucking around.
I’d left Ethan on the rooftop and planned to follow Gabby myself into the woods, but I’d lost the trail early on. Our fight had taken enough time for her to escape.
We still had another opportunity at the next full moon. We had to wait a month, but that would give me time to work on a plan, so we could spy on Gabby without her working out I was betraying her.
It felt like I was playing both sides of the chess board, and it was maddening. I couldn’t do this for much longer. It was driving me insane.
Gabby cornered me in the hall after I left Protection Against Dark Magic. She put up an arm, blocking me from going forward.
I sneered. “What do you want?”
“Good job on stopping Ethan the other night,” she said. “I knew you had it handled.”
I stepped back violently. “Not like I wanted to.”
“It was a good thing you did. I had several cultists waiting for him. If you hadn’t prevented him from following me, he would’ve run right into a trap, and gotten a couple of crossbow bolts right through the torso,” Gabby purred. “He wouldn’t be getting up from that.”
My heart stuttered in fear. Gabby was serious. She’d planned to kill Ethan that night if I hadn’t stopped him. I no longer regretted my decision to prevent him from following her.