Emma had totally blown my secret identity out of the water. And by the smoldering look she sent me, she didn’t give a damn.
“Are you going to tell everyone now?” I yelled. “Tell the whole world, huh?”
“No. This stays between us. But we promised not to lie to each other in this group, and I’m not playing around anymore!” Emma shouted. She gave a frustrated sigh before she stated, “I’m tired of lying to my friends.”
“But weren’t you attacked by the White Rose?” Odette questioned.
“That was me,” Delmare said. “Ethan was close to finding out, so I dressed up as the White Rose and attacked Emma as a ruse. Stefan and I have known about both of them for months. We didn’t say anything because Emma begged us to keep quiet.”
“Just how much have we been keeping from one another?” Theo asked incredulously.
Emma let out a hissing noise. “This wasn’t my choice. Ethan didn’t know I was the White Rose. Gabby took me aside at the start of the semester. She had proof Ethan was the Phantom. She threatened me— told me if I didn’t stop Ethan from being the Phantom, she’d turn him in, and he’d go to jail. She made it clear if I told Ethan the truth, she’d kill him. I didn’t think I had any other way to stop the Phantom but to become a vigilante myself. Yet no matter how hard I tried to prevent the Phantom from doing his work, he never got the message. He confronted me tonight on the rooftop of the castle. I tried to tell him it was me, but by the time I did, he’d already hurt me.”
Guilt knotted my intestines and made my blood run cold. Emma had never betrayed me at all. She’d become the White Rose to try to save me.
And I’d failed miserably to save her. From myself.
“But... if Ethan’s the Phantom and Gabby knows, then we can’t turn her in,” Odette said.
“Prison time is a trade I’m willing to make to get them off the throne,” I growled.
“That’s the least of it. You’ll be lucky to get by with a prison sentence,” Alexei argued. “Vigilantism is considered treason in Malovia. They’ll cut your head off!”
“Execution is a possibility,” Theo said, crossing his arms.
Emma’s eyes contracted. Delmare chewed at her lip nervously. “So what do we do? We can’t turn Gabby in if Ethan will be killed!”
“I will walk to the execution block with pride if it means saving my country,” I vowed.
“Like hell we’re going to let you do that.” Stefan’s eyes burned with disgust. “I can’t believe you, man. I warned you. You took this too far.”
There was no response I could give that was adequate, because he was right. My actions were uncalled for. Worse, they were that of a monster.
I hadn’t only failed my mate. I’d failed my friends too.
Yet there were no more words left to utter. An explosion set off nearby, rocking the earth beneath our feet.
The explosion was loud. It wasn’t enough to make my ears ring, or create loss of hearing, yet it was close enough to drown out all other sound. I fell to the ground, while others grabbed onto trees to steady themselves. I smelled smoke from fire, and the residue of gunpowder nearby, the fragments of a spell on the wind.
And blood. So much blood.
As I looked up, I saw red-hot embers drifting through the air. Emma’s face drained of blood, becoming pale white under the light of the moon. Screams began to penetrate the dark night, mingled with the chants of cultists beginning their sacred march.
There was no time to argue about what had been done. The palace was under attack.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emma
“Come on!” I raced toward the palace as fast as my wound would allow. The rest of the group followed me without question. We broke out of the trees, and as the wall surrounding the palace came into view, my guts twisted in horror.
Someone had set off explosives— probably dynamite— in the defensive wall. Bodies were strewn everywhere, especially those of guards. Servants ran in a panic while shifters stood in their animal forms, crying out for their mates. Shadows flickered as flames scattered across the rooftop of the palace, sending smoke into the sky.
The wall wasn’t the only thing that had collapsed. One of the palace’s towers had toppled over, leaving nothing but strewn rubble behind. Most of the building was otherwise unharmed, but it wouldn’t stay that way