Page 13

Mack muttered my name in warning.

Jacqueline’s expression remained perfectly composed. “You need someone. Your maker discarded you, your human life is over, and you lack the control to walk past a playground without hearing twenty heartbeats.”

Every word was true.

That made them unbearable.

“You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

“I know what you are.”

“Do you? Because I sure as fuck don’t.” I shoved myself upright and nearly fell against the workbench. Tools clattered to the floor, each crash announcing my humiliation to anyone who might have missed it. “Three days ago, I was human. Now everyone looks at me like I’m a bomb with teeth, and you stroll in here dressed for a funeral to tell me how lucky I am that your coven might tolerate me.”

“That is not what I said.”

“It’s what you meant.”

The temperature in the garage dropped.

Mack stepped between us. “He’s scared. Give him a minute.”

“Fear does not excuse disrespect,” Jacqueline said.

“And a fancy title doesn’t make you my fucking keeper.” I snatched my duffel bag from the floor. “Take your guidance, your charity, and your small-town witch bullshit and shove it.”

Silence swallowed the garage.

Even the fluorescent lights seemed to stop buzzing so they wouldn’t miss my murder.

Jacqueline studied me. There was no anger on her face. Somehow, that was worse.

“You mistake compassion for weakness, Mr. Richards.”

“No. I mistake control for control.”

Her gaze moved over me slowly, lingering as though she were committing every miserable inch of me to memory.

Then she smiled.

It wasn’t a pleasant smile.

A chill slid beneath my skin, so faint I blamed it on the hunger, the exhaustion, and the fact that I’d just told a powerful witch to shove her charity up her ass.

That was the last clear thing I remembered.

Afterward, there were only fragments.

Jacqueline pulling on one black glove.

The sharp click of her heels crossing the concrete.

Mack saying my name from very far away.

The floor rushing toward me.

Then nothing.

The memory vanished beneath a wave of static.