chapter 8
Gemma
I’m speechless. Struck dumb. I don’t even know what to say. I think of Nicholas and the countless times he came on to me. The time he bargained a kiss in exchange for his help. It had felt wrong. It was wrong, but there’s no way Nicholas could have known… or does he?
“Yuck.” I shudder, wanting to take a shower more than I have in my entire life. “B-But, how?” I’m flustered. “I mean who—who knows about this? Does anyone? I know you said it was a secret, but some people have to know because secrets are rarely secrets.”
She scans me over curiously as if she senses my concern is for another reason. “Nobody else knows about it, Gemma,” she assures me. “It’s been kept a secret very well. Your father and I know, though, and now you do. Well, and of course Luna knows, too.”
So Nicholas had… has no clue. “Thank God,” I say out loud and she pulls a confused face. “Never mind.” It was all just an innocent mistake, at least I hope it was. On the bright side, maybe this will make pervy Faerie boy back off.
“Well, Helena knew somehow,” I tell her. “And obviously she wanted the pendant for something.” I eye her over with suspicion because she keeps avoiding eye contact with me. “You still haven’t explained to me how you got the Cornu Lepore pendant.” I walk towards her as she stares at the floor.
She flinches. “Luna offered me the pendant that day,” she reluctantly answers, lifting her eyes to mine. “She told me that although I wasn’t pure Royal Fey, I was still part of the most important line of the Fey blood and that the Cornu Lepore was rightfully mine. And even though it is just a trinket, I should always cherish it, and I have.” Shaking her head, she pushes past me and sinks down into the kitchen chair. “But then Helena stole it from me.” She eyes the pendant in my hand.
I can tell she’s lying, and I quickly close my hand around it as I move around the table. “You’re lying and I want you to tell me the truth. It’s important.”
“Gemma you have to believe me… What I say is the truth. There’s no other reason. The necklace isn’t powerful, just pretty to look at. And sentimental.”
“Helena wouldn’t have stolen it from you if it wasn’t,” I argue, sitting down in the chair across from her. She’s starting to cry, but her tears are plastic—not real. She’s acting like she’s upset, but I can tell she’s not. “There’s no way in hell it could be worthless if she wanted it… It has to have some kind of value… some kind of power.”
A smug look rises on her face. It was an act, just like I thought. “Well that’s the only answer you’re getting from me, Gemma. That is all you need to know.”
I’m getting riled up and fully pissed off. I want Helena to pay for what she did to Alex. To Laylen. To everyone in the world that she hurt. I’ll do whatever I need to get my answers. Rage fires inside me, the kind controlled by hurt. I’m losing control of myself and I don’t care. All I care about is wiping that smug look off Nalina’s face.
“I’m sorry, but if you’re going to refuse to cooperate, then I guess I’m going to have to help you change your mind,” I tell her, realizing how much I’m starting to sound like Alex. With his threats and blunt remarks. I kind of like it. In fact, I love it and I’m going to hold onto it because then I can keep part of him with me forever.
“You’re bluffing.” Her eyes flicker up and down as she scans me over. “There’s nothing you can do to me. You are just a little girl.”
I have had enough of this crap and her attitude. I jerk the collar of my shirt down from my shoulder, angling my neck to the side as I rotate in the chair, showing her the Serpent’s mark. Surprise and understanding register on her face—she understands what I can do now. Part of me is ready to invade her mind, but the other part of me wishes she’d just give me the answers without me having to use the power because I’m afraid that once I decide to go down this road, I won’t be able to turn back.
That I won’t want to turn back. That I won’t be myself anymore because really, what do I have left?