“Aurora Yuki, you have a lot of explaining to do,” my mother says with a deadly calm that preludes the unleashing of her wrath. I’m not looking forward to it.
“About what exactly?” I ask to buy time. I have to come up with a pretty good excuse to avoid telling her the truth. She can’t know under any circumstances that Saxon is my mate.
“About what?” Her voice rises to a shrill. “You were spotted behaving in the most disgraceful manner with that blond vampire in the middle of the Nightshade Market. You’re engaged to be married in nine months. Do you know how badly your rebellion reflects on me?”
My blood’s temperature is rising to a boiling point. She doesn’t care one bit about us. All that matters are what our actions will do to her reputation. I’m about to blow the lid off this can and tell her my engagement to Calvin can go to hell, but the words get stuck in my mouth. It takes me a moment to understand the blood vow is what’s making me tongue-tied.
“Rora did nothing. This whole fiasco was all my fault.” Miranda steps forward with her chin raised high.
What is she doing?
Mom raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Is that so?”
“It’s kind of embarrassing, really. I needed an ingredient for a love potion and went to the Nightshade Market to buy it. I met Aurora and her friends there by chance, and thanks to my clumsiness, Aurora and Saxon ended up covered in Venus Dust.”
I don’t miss the traded glance between the two warlocks who brought us here. I can’t begin to imagine what they must be thinking about this situation. From killing demons to witnessing a scene straight from a daytime soap opera. What a change.
“And you expect me to believe that’s what happened?” Mom asks.
“She’s not lying, ma’am,” one of the warlocks chimes in.
At once, we all turn to stare at the man. I try to school my expression into a neutral one, but I’m completely astonished by his bald-faced lie. Why would he do that?
“Are you saying you were there? You witnessed with your own eyes those events?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I think Mom still suspects Miranda’s story isn’t true, but like me, she probably can’t fathom why the warlocks would lie to save my ass.
“Very well. You’re all dismissed, except you, Miranda.”
She lowers her gaze to the floor, but I catch the grimace on her face just the same. Shit. I hate that she’s going to be punished for something she didn’t do. But if I tell the truth now, it won’t save her from punishment, it will only make matters worse for everyone.
“We’ll take you back to the institute,” the tallest of the warlocks says.
“Oh hell no. I’m not traveling like the first time again,” Saxon protests.
“Fine. You can walk from here. We don’t care.”
“Sax, just shut up and let’s go home,” Lucca says. “We have much to discuss.”
The warlocks use their magic again to send us back to Bloodstone, but this time, I land inside my apartment alone. Well, not alone. One of them came with me. The second trip was just as jarring as the first one, so before I do anything, I pull up a chair and sit down.
“The dizziness should fade in a moment,” he says.
I bite the inside of my cheek to speed up the process. Glaring at him, I ask, “Why did you lie to my mother?”
“For the same reason we came to Salem.”
“What reason is that?”
“We know about the deal you made with Elena Montenegro and what she covets. We can’t allow her to have it.”
23
Saxon
“What in the fucking hell!” I stagger to the nearest chair as the world around me spins out of control.
Not far from me, Lucca and Rikkon grunt as well. It takes me a few seconds to notice Aurora is not in the room. I pivot around too fast and end up losing my balance, crashing against the second chair next to me and then falling straight to the floor.
“Careful, you shouldn’t move too fast after traveling through a wormhole,” says the asshole who brought us back.
I jump back onto my feet, ready to tear him to pieces if he doesn’t tell me where Aurora is in the next second. But Ronan, who must have been in his room, sneaks up behind the warlock and presses a blade against his neck.
“Don’t fucking move, motherfucker, or I’ll slit your throat before you can say expelliarmus.”