Chapter 20
TWENTY
The map spread across the table was a recipe for disaster.
A recipe for death.
Their deaths.
But maybe, just maybe, it might be someone else’s too.
It was a map of the old Nostrom estate, where the real Monica Valan had died. Where all of this insanity in Nadi’s life had taken a very unexpected turn.
And now?
Now, it was going to be where all of it came to an end, one way or another. She had seen it once before, but now? Now… it was going to hold a very different meaning.
Now, it was meant to host a party for all of the richest vampires and elites the city had to offer.
Nadi studied it in the dim light of the watchtower, tracing the lines of the building with her fingernail while Ivan pointed out guard positions and patrol routes. Azazel stood at the window, his orange eyes fixed on the city beyond, though she suspected he was listening to every word.
“Why drag everyone out there to the old estate?” Nadi shook her head.
“It’s a power move.” Azazel sighed. “Like everything else. ‘Look how safe we are from the fae, we can march right out into the Wild now.’”
Nadi winced. “This still smells like a trap to me, but once word reaches them that we escaped, we may not get a second chance like this…”
“Exactly. And if it is a trap? Well, it’s going to work.
” Raziel sighed. “They’re all going to be there.
And that far removed from the metropolis, all arriving by boat?
They’re going to only be able to do so much to lock the place down.
” He stood across from Nadi, his arms crossed, his crimson eyes fixed on the map with an intensity that bordered on hunger.
“We don’t have a choice. We won’t get another chance like this. ”
“It’s not going to matter. You’re two people. Against how many?” Azazel turned from the window, his expression grim. “Walking in there is fucking suicide.”
“Then it’s great that we’re already as good as dead.” Raziel’s smile was sharp enough to draw blood.
Nadi ignored the dark humor, focusing on the practical details. “How do we get there?”
“I have transport arranged. It won’t be luxurious, but it’ll get us there fast. If we’re lucky and the tide’s in our favor, we’ll get there just after the party starts.
” Ivan pulled a folded paper from his pocket and slid it across the table.
“I got the guards’ schedule from a contact in the Rosov household staff.
Cost me, but it’s accurate as of yesterday.
They’re already locking down the perimeter of the estate, boss. ”
Raziel grunted. “Entry points?”
“Broken wall on the east side is your best bet. Kitchen staff comes and goes all night during big events. Two guards, usually bored, usually distracted.” Ivan’s jaw tightened.
“But that’s assuming you can get past the outer security in the first place.
Which you can’t. Not without a distraction. They’ll be watching.”
Raziel and Nadi exchanged a glance.
“About that.” Raziel straightened, uncrossing his arms. “Ivan. The message I asked you to deliver. Was it?”
Ivan’s expression shifted—something complicated moving behind his eyes. “Yeah. I found the contact point you described. Left the message exactly as you wrote it.”
“And?”
A pause. Heavy. Weighted with meaning Nadi couldn’t quite parse.
“Nothing.”
Nadi watched Raziel’s face carefully, but he gave nothing away. Just a slight tightening around his eyes, a nearly imperceptible tension in his shoulders. Whatever the message had been, whoever it had been meant for—he’d been hoping for something. And he hadn’t gotten it.
“I see,” was all he said.
“Raziel—” Ivan started.
“You going to tell me what that’s about?” Nadi arched a brow.
“It doesn’t matter.” Raziel’s voice was brisk, businesslike. The mask snapping back into place. “We proceed as planned. The distraction will come from another source.”
Azazel pushed off from the window, frowning. “What other source? You haven’t told us—”
“And I’m not going to.” Raziel met the other vampire’s gaze steadily. “The less you know, the less you can reveal if things go wrong. Trust me.”
“Trust you.” Azazel let out a humorless laugh. “Famous last words.”
“Might be.” Raziel turned his attention back to the map, dismissing the argument with practiced ease. “So, what’s this transportation?”
“Fishing boat they upsized the motors on to run drugs. I’ve… eh… called in a few favors to borrow it. I can get you close,” Ivan said. “Quarter mile from the estate, I’ll drop you there on the coast and wait. When you’re done…” He trailed off, the unspoken if hanging in the air between them.
“When we’re done,” Raziel said firmly, “we’ll signal. Three flashes from the eastern tree line. You’ll have the motor running.”
“And if the signal doesn’t come?”
Raziel’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Then you turn the boat around and don’t look back. Find somewhere Mael can’t reach. Start a new life. Forget you ever knew us. Or go into the Wild. Ask for a fae named Kalo. Tell him we sent you.”
The silence that followed was thick enough to choke on.
Nadi pushed back from the table, suddenly unable to look at any of them. This was real. This was happening. In a few hours, she and Raziel would walk back into the abandoned Nostrom estate with nothing but stolen uniforms and a prayer—and there was a very good chance they wouldn’t walk out again.
“We should go,” she said quietly. It was best if this didn’t linger. “If we’re going to walk into this stupid trap—if we’re going to do this—we need to leave now.”
Raziel nodded, rolling up the map with practiced efficiency. “Get the car ready, Ivan. We leave in ten minutes.”
Ivan didn’t move. He stood there, his massive frame somehow looking smaller than Nadi had ever seen it, his face creased with an emotion she couldn’t name.
“Boss.” The word came out rough. Cracked. “I—”
“I know.” Raziel crossed to him, and for a moment, the mask fell away entirely. The sardonic smile, the cold calculation, the armor of wit and cruelty—all of it vanished, leaving behind something raw and honest and terribly human. He clasped Ivan’s shoulder, his grip tight. “I know.”
Ivan’s hand came up to grip Raziel’s arm in return. They stood there for a long moment, these two men who had survived so much together, saying everything that needed to be said without words.
“You come back,” Ivan said finally, his voice thick. “You hear me? You come back, or I swear to every god that ever existed, I’ll find a way to drag your sorry corpse out of whatever pit you end up in and kill you myself.”
Raziel laughed—a real laugh, not the sharp thing he used as a weapon. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Azazel approached more hesitantly, his orange eyes bright with something that might have been unshed tears. “For what it’s worth,” he said quietly, “I think you’re both nuts. But I hope you make it.”
“We will.” Nadi surprised herself by speaking. Mostly because of how much she honestly almost meant it. “Either way, we’ll see you on the other side.”
Azazel nodded, then turned away quickly—but not before she caught the glint of moisture on his cheek.
Strangely, she hoped she saw him again. And maybe, just maybe, lived long enough to make good on that time she once said she wanted to be his friend.
The drive to the waterfront was conducted in heavy silence. Ivan kept his eyes on the road, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. Nadi sat in the back with Raziel, close enough that their shoulders touched, drawing what comfort she could from his presence.
The fishing boat was small. Nondescript. And fast. It was perfect for what they needed to do. The trip along the dark waves was silent save for the loud, droning roar of the engine as it carried them up the coastline of Runne, far faster than the Nostrom yacht could ever hope to be.
The leisurely trip that had taken them a day or two in the yacht only took them a few hours in the fishing boat. Nadi was glad—she didn’t want to be left alone with her thoughts for any longer than she needed to be.
It wasn’t hard to spot the Nostrom estate this time. It was lit up on the cliffside like the glowing towers of the metropolis.
Ivan pulled the boat over to the shoreline, into the shadows of a large rock, and killed the motor.
“I’ll wait here.” His voice was steady now, professional. The bodyguard, not the friend.
Raziel silently jumped from the boat to the shore without a backwards glance.
Nadi paused before climbing out. “Ivan?”
“Yeah?” The big man sniffed.
“Thank you. For everything. I’m… glad I didn’t kill you.”
Ivan’s jaw tightened. He didn’t even look at her. “Just come back. That’s all the thanks I need.”
Nadi followed after Raziel. The silence after the roar of the engine was eerie. A reminder of what was to come. Raziel led the way up the rocky embankment, trusting her to be able to handle the climb on her own.
When she joined him, crouched behind a fallen tree, looking off into the distance at the glimmering corpse of a building that was the Nostrom estate, he finally spoke.
“Ready?” Raziel asked.
She took his hand in the darkness. Squeezed once.
“Let’s go kill your family.”
The Nostrom estate blazed with light.
It was impressive what could be done in a relatively short amount of time with enough money and enough hands thrown at it.
Not so long ago, the place had been an absolute abandoned wreck. Vines had overtaken the building, windows had sat dark and vacant like the sockets of a skull. Doors had been hanging from their hinges and left to rot wherever they had last been placed.
But now?
The place looked like, well, a reverse-ghost of its former self.
Nadi could almost imagine what it had looked like in its prime.
The exterior walls had been cleaned of the overgrowth and scrubbed of the damage and age caused by the weather.
New glass panes had even been installed on most of the windows, and those that couldn’t be fixed had been delicately cleaned and decorated with curtains.