Quinn looked at the knife protruding from Evangeline’s chest, his blood pounding in his ears. He licked his lower lip watching the blood drip from Silas’s hand, where he still clutched the hilt, the spines embedded deep into the flesh of his palm. He remembered that feeling, that rush of power pouring through him until he felt drunk with it. Silas gripped the girl against him, his hand petting through her hair. “Sorry, sweets, but you have something I need.”

Blood gurgled from her lips as if she was trying to speak. Silas held her as she died, crooning to her like one might comfort a child. Quinn wondered absently if it wasn’t almost obscene to comfort somebody whose life you’d just stolen, almost like pouring salt in a wound. Evangeline’s eyes were wild, darting to the others, her chest rising and falling shallowly, lungs never quite giving her the air she needed. Then, it just stopped. Quinn counted to almost thirty before the girl gave a harsh gasp and coughed, crimson misting the air as her eyes closed and she went limp against Silas.

Ember jerked towards the girl, but Kai caught her arm. “Ember, don’t.”

She fought her cousin’s grip, but Mace stepped between them. “Don’t do it, luv. This will end just as it did with Allister. Who among us are you willing to risk to bring her back?”

“Him!” she shouted, pointing at Silas, “I’d choose him!”

Silas’s eyes widened, a small smile playing on his lips. “This is all so dramatic, but save your curses for somebody who can actually die.”

Ember stopped fighting, but the tears still streamed down her face. Her voice hitched on a sob as she watched Silas lay the girl on the ground, disengaging the knife from his hand. “Why? Why did you do this? Why her?”

Silas frowned, his tone mocking, “I told you before, Ember, life is about making hard choices. I don’t like killing, but I will when it’s necessary. She had something I needed.” Ember’s mouth fell open, but Silas wasn’t finished. “Did you think I wouldn’t catch on? Did you think I wouldn’t piece together your flimsy plan to just resurrect the coven only to have the girl put them down the moment my back was turned?”

Mace snorted. “Is revenge for something that happened over a hundred years ago worth all of this?”

Silas’s smile disappeared. “Your sister believes so. I made a promise to her, and unlike you, I keep my promises.” Silas scanned the group. “Consider this the opening volley of our own little civil war.”

Silas waved a hand, and the coven seemed to just…disappear. “Quinn, are you ready?”

“What?! No!” Ember cried. “You promised.”

He tsked at Ember. “I did no such thing. You said you wouldn’t give me Quinn, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come of his own free will. Quinn wants to be with me. Isn’t that so, sweets?”

Quinn stepped closer to Silas, but Tristin made a grab for him. “Quinn…don’t do this. Don’t listen to him. Harlow is going to heal you. Just give her a chance.”

Silas laughed. “Even if she did. You have no animancer. What will you do with his newly healed soul? You’ve run out of options. Quinn belongs to me now. Truthfully, I think he’s always been mine.”

Quinn looked to Tristin and the others, a strange feeling of otherness settling over him. He knew how he should feel. He’d had seventeen years to become familiar with the appropriate responses, but Silas was right…Quinn didn’t want to be there anymore. They only wanted to fix him. Silas was the only one who realized he wasn’t broken; he was…evolving.

Silas turned to Quinn then. “I think it’s time to do away with the games, don’t you? You know how dangerous you are. You don’t understand why you’re dangerous, but you know what I’m saying is the truth. The things you’ve done…they’ll never forgive you for them.”

“He hasn’t done anything. You keep twisting things to suit you. Quinn’s done nothing wrong. He’s just sick,” Tristin said.

“Oh, now that’s not true, is it?” He dragged a bloody palm over Quinn’s cheek, and Quinn turned into it like a caress. “Did you ever figure out the clue I left you on the bodies at the restaurant?”

“You killed those three kids?” Wren asked.

“Yes,” Silas said, offhand, not even bothering to look at Wren. “I couldn’t have a bunch of children giving into their every fantasy because they lacked a soul. Killing them was a kindness, right Mace?” Mace didn’t bother to answer. “I left a clue; I was certain you would figure it out. I didn’t factor in how quickly your soul was…turning.”

“What?” Quinn mumbled, feeling jittery, unable to focus. “What was the clue?”

“The word. Did you figure out the word I carved into their chests?”

Quinn racked his brain, trying to recall the last time he’d even thought about the bodies at the restaurant, but it was Kai who answered. “Ember and I did.”

Quinn looked to Kai. “You did? When?”

Kai shrugged, distressed. “Weeks ago. I never got a chance to tell you. Too many things were happening.”

Silas floated towards Kai, and Rhys growled low, taking a step forward. “Down boy.” Silas laughed before giving Kai his full attention. “Go on then, Reaper. Tell your friend what word was carved on the body.”

“Zakar,” Kai told him.

Mace’s head jerked towards Kai just as Quinn asked, “What does that mean?”

“Remember,” Mace whispered, just as Silas stroked a finger across Quinn’s forehead.

“Exactly. You need to remember what you did. It’s time to remember all of it.”

Quinn sucked in a breath as a barrage of images assaulted him at once. The girl with the chestnut hair laughing and giggling as he pushed her against the wall and pressed his lips to hers; she’d looked so much like Tristin, he just couldn’t help himself. She’d felt so good, too, the pull of her soul leaving her body and entering his had been a balm for his fractured mind. Not like the girl with the red hair who moaned as he fed off her…At least until the end; in the end, she’d struggled, her fear intoxicating. Then, there was the boy who’d barely muttered a protest as he’d dragged him behind the dumpster behind Hallowed Grounds. He’d taken his time with him, fed off his soul with his eyes open, watching until there was no humanity left in him. He swallowed hard, hands shaking as the last of his repressed memories returned to him: him pressing his lips against Ember’s as she slept, pulling those souls from her. “Oh,” was all he could manage.

“Yes.”

“What are you doing to him?”

“Showing him the truth. It’s not his fault, really. You put Quinn’s soul in the body of a sluagh. The boy needed to eat, and so he did.”

“But that makes no sense,” Astrid said.

Silas turned to her, his eyes narrowed. “Why does it not make sense? Shall I use smaller words?”

“Astrid’s right. If Quinn needed to feed as a soul eater, there’d be more bodies…or at least more missing teenagers. Besides, Quinn’s hardly ever away from us.”

Silas grinned. “You’re always underestimating him. At first, Quinn didn’t understand; his hunger made him sloppy, careless. But Quinn is brilliant. As he began to understand what he needed to survive, he evolved. He found a more…efficient…way to feed his monster.”

Kai frowned. “Another way? What other way?”

Quinn was only half listening to Silas’s performance, eyes straying to Evangeline and all that blood. He licked his lower lip as Isa asked, “What are you talking about?”

“It happened the night Ember kissed Quinn,” Silas paused, letting that bomb detonate before continuing. “He remembered that Ember could feed Mace and never suffer any ill effects. He realized she could feed him just as she had Mace, provided she was asleep.”

“Kissed Quinn?” Tristin echoed, her gaze stumbling from Silas to Ember and then Quinn.

Mace also looked shocked by Silas’s confession, but he didn’t acknowledge it. “How?” Mace asked. “How was Ember able to feed Quinn?”

“When she slept, you two were together; when you are together, your magic works just fine. It allowed Quinn to use her to feed on all those souls just floating around in the ethos, just as you used to, once he realized the connection was still possible.”

Ember looked as if Quinn had slapped her. “You’ve been feeding off me? While I was sleeping?”

Quinn didn’t answer. It wasn’t a lie.

Silas, like any good illusionist, was playing to the crowd. “Oh, don’t be too hard on him. He has no recollection of any of it. His soul isn’t only rotting; it’s…broken.” He made a gesture as if he was snapping something in two. “I simply hid his shadow self for a time. It was how he held on for so long.” Silas looked to Ember. “But given all the secrets, I thought maybe it was time we all started telling the truth.”

“That’s impossible,” Astrid said to Silas. “No witch is powerful enough to pull off a spell that large.”

Silas sneered. “Witch? You think I’m a witch? Do you still not grasp how far my power reaches? Even after everything I made you do. I can make anybody believe anything at any time. I’m immortal. I don’t make you see what’s not there. I create things from nothing. I make things vanish with a wave of my hand. I’m not a witch, you stupid girl, I’m a god.”

Mace scoffed. “Demi-god at best.”

Silas floated closer to Mace. “Demi-god or not, I still outrank a soul-eater.”

Mace didn’t bother addressing Silas, turning to Quinn. “Whatever you think he is…whatever you think he’s done for you…it only benefits him.”

“Save your breath, Balthazar. Quinn is far too gone to care who’s benefitting from what.” He smiled. “Face it, I’ve won. I have the coven, I have your sister, and now, I have Quinn. But don’t fret. I like it here. I think I’m going to stick around and see what kind of havoc we can wreak. I promised Asa nothing less than your absolute destruction.”

“You aren’t taking him,” Tristin vowed.

“I already have him, banshee. While your new reaper powers are mighty indeed, you don’t have any time to waste on me.”

“Quinn? You can’t really want to go with him. Whatever he did to you, we can fix it. Harlow can fix it. Just stay with me,” Tristin whispered, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. Quinn frowned; how many times had he wanted to see her like this? How many times had he wished for her to beg to be with him? He’d spent his entire life longing for this moment, and here it was. He tilted his head, using his thumbs to gently wipe the tears from beneath her eyes, before pulling her in and pressing his lips to hers brutally. She fought him, shoving him away from her.

“Quinn,” she spoke his name like a prayer. “Don’t do this. This isn’t you. Don’t you want to stay with me?”

He leaned close; her fear and anguish were intoxicating. He couldn’t help himself. He ran his tongue along her cheek, shuddering at the taste of her emotions on his tongue before he pressed his lips to her ear. “No.”

Tristin’s breath hitched, and she shoved him away from her. Quinn grinned. He felt incredible.

“This isn’t over,” Mace informed Silas.

Silas smiled. “That’s very dramatic, but you’re wrong. See, you have far bigger problems at the moment. The human cops are closing in on you, the Grove knows that Allister is missing, I’ve just become the last remaining animancer, and, if you do survive the night, you’re going to have to answer for kidnapping the children of the Grove’s High Inquisitor.”

“The what?” Ember asked. “Who?”

“Us,” Mallory said. “He’s talking about us.”

It was the first time Mallory had spoken since she’d arrived.

“You didn’t think that was worth mentioning?” Isa asked.

“We thought you knew,” she said. “Josephine knew.”

Rhys growled, partially shifting; the rest of the wolves followed his lead.

Silas laughed, unfazed. “Save your strength, you’re about to need it. I know you’ve been worried about when the Legionaries would arrive, so I took the liberty of bringing the fight to you. Good luck.”