The words hit Lilith like a physical blow. She stumbled backward, would have fallen if the chair had not caught her. "No. That's not....they wouldn't do that. They wouldn't,,,...."
"Wouldn't they?" Victoria demanded. "You've been with them for what, weeks? A month? And you think you know them? You think you understand what they're capable of?"
"They're investigating my father's death," Lilith said desperately, clinging to the one truth she thought she knew. "They told me they were looking into it. They said..."
"They lied." Victoria's voice was flat, absolute. "Everything they've told you is a lie designed to keep you compliant while they use you to break their curse."
Lilith's vision was blurring with tears and she could not breathe properly and the bonds were screaming at her....Nicholas's presence pulling at her, Sebastian's warmth trying to comfort her, both of them feeling her distress even from miles away.
