Pure Requiem - Aja James Page 0,59

they’ll celebrate my departure with cake and balloons. They’ll thank me for it in the end.

I don’t deign to reply and dismissively turn my back.

He’ll never know what it cost me to keep up the nonchalant façade while I was breaking inside.

I take a deep, bracing breath and get back on topic.

“So. Shall I draw you a map so you can plan the attack?”

“How do we know you haven’t already revealed our location to Medusa, and she’s planning her attack right this moment?” Sophia says, narrowing her eyes at me.

“It’s possible,” I allow. “But she risks exposing Immortal Kinds to humans if she attacks the heart of New York City. Medusa has a vast network of control, but she doesn’t own everything. She’s not strong enough yet to keep humans in line if they find out about us. She’s not about to repeat the mistake of the Great War and the Purge of the Aftermath when Dark and Pure Ones underestimated humans as a force to be reckoned with. If she attacks the Shield, she will have to plan it out, which buys you some time to fortify defenses.”

“And the same is not true for her?” Ishtar counters.

“Her new lair is in the Adirondack Mountains,” I reveal. “She moved it from the Catskills where you were held, Sophia.”

At the reminder of my part in her capture and imprisonment, anger simmers in Sophia’s deep brown eyes.

Good. She needs to be reminded of her hatred of me.

“It’s where she can practice and hone her powers in monster form.”

“You’ve seen it?” Ishtar asks.

“No. But I have two fragments of her soul inside me. I can sense her movements. The extent and magnitude of her newfound powers.”

“She is very fearsome, then?” Sophia says.

“Very. As fearsome, if not more so, as the green dragon that rescued you all in Egypt. But Cloud Drako can only take his form once, isn’t that right? Medusa’s form is permanent. She’s been planning for this since the beginning of time. I only put the pieces of the puzzle together recently.”

To my chagrin, I’m being truthful just now.

“Wouldn’t she expect you to betray her to us? You’ve been with us for several months now.”

I shrug.

“Probably. You should be prepared for a trap if you decide to take her in her own court. On the other hand, it’s been years since you started this dangerous tango with the serpent. You never launched offensives, only the once in Boston. And only because I took you, Sophia. I’m starting to see a pattern here.”

Her eyes darken further at that reminder, when I was responsible for the deaths of three of her Dozen, her friends and family.

That’s right, young queen. I’m your enemy. Remember this well.

“Why would we take the risk?” Ishtar challenges. “What would we have to gain?”

Must I spell everything out?

I tick off my fingers as I speak. “One, you get first-hand knowledge of your greatest enemy—”

“And might not live to tell about it,” Sophia grunts.

I ignore her.

“Two, if you’re lucky, you’ll take her by surprise. If Medusa has one fault it’s that she thinks too highly of herself. She thinks she has you and the Dark Ones by the balls. She’s just taunting you now, playing games. And she’s extremely patient with her prey. But she’s over-confident. A predator will never think that the prey might strike back. She doesn’t think you have it in you. Ramses’ court, maybe,” I allow, speaking of the first-ever Dark King of the New England vampire hive.

“But not you goody-two-shoes Pure Ones,” I finish with a derisive curl of my lips.

“I mean, come on. You had many chances to end her.”

I look at Ishtar.

“When you first became the Great White Beast and Challenged you sister for the right to Claim Tal.”

Ishtar glances at her Mate at that. Tal has stayed silent all this time, simply looking at me with his strange blind eyes.

“And when you fought her again after she captured you both a couple years back. I saw it happen. I watched it all. You’re way too merciful for your own good, Princess. You should have killed the snake when you had the chance.”

I don’t divulge that I could have done the same after they left Medusa to wallow in her wounds.

Perhaps if I knew who Tal and Ishtar were at the time, I would have been driven to do violence. Enough to take a life by my own hands. But they were nothing to me at the time. And Medusa…despite everything, had been