Tension crept into my shoulders. “You’re right.”
Her smile turned smug.
“But you’re also wrong. I’m neither good nor decent since I’d rather see you dead than punished.”
Veses’ laugh was like wind chimes. “I see jealousy makes you say terrible things.”
The embers stirred in my chest as anger continued to flare. “I know.”
Her head tilted. “About?”
“About the deal you made with Nyktos.”
Veses’ smile faded.
Mine returned. “Kolis seemed disappointed in you for not telling him about my presence in the Shadowlands. How do you think he’ll feel knowing that you made a pact with his nephew to keep any knowledge of me hidden from him?”
Astonishment briefly lit up her features. “He told you?” Her eyes met mine as a cunning smile replaced her previous astonishment. “Did he tell you how eager he was to strike the deal? How much he enjoyed—？”
“Spin all the bullshit you want about yourself.” A rush of rage caused the embers in my chest to go crazy. “But don’t even try doing that to him, you sick bitch.”
Veses sneered, baring her fangs. “How dare you speak to me in such a manner?”
“How dare I? What in the gods’ names is wrong with you?” I struggled to keep the pulsing embers down. “There is no way you don’t know how disgustingly wrong what you’ve done is. You cannot be that demented.” The moment the words left my mouth, I realized that Kolis was that demented, so Veses likely was, too. I shook my head. “Clearly, what happened the other night in the Council Hall wasn’t the first time. You know what that feels like.”
“I already told you, I enjoyed—”
“I don’t care what you claim!” I shouted, and her eyes widened as a burst of energy left me, blowing Veses’ skirt back and causing the chandelier to swing. “You know what it feels like, and you still did it to someone else—someone you were once friends with. Yes, I know you two were close at one time. But that didn’t matter, did it?”
Her eyes widened as her gown settled around her feet. A moment passed. Then another. “It’s not like I hurt him.”
“You didn’t…？” My hands curled into fists. So help me gods, I was going to kill this bitch. I would find a way. “What did Kolis say? That despite how beautiful you are, you say such ugly things?”
Her chest rose with a deep inhale.
“He was right.” My body trembled with rage. “He just forgot to mention how ugly you are on the inside.”
Silvery essence poured into her veins. “You know nothing about me, little girl.”
“Little girl? I thought I was the fat girl,” I retorted. “And I know enough about you, Veses, to know just how depraved you are on the inside.”
“I’ve tried to protect Nyktos!” she shot back. “And I’ve done so at great risk to myself.”
“You tried to protect him by forcing him to allow you to feed off him? By getting off on it?” My heart thundered as I tried to rein my anger back in before I lost control completely. The last thing I needed was for Kolis to sense me using the embers. Damn it, he could’ve already noticed. “You’re a godsdamn mess.”
“And what are you?” Veses demanded, eather snapping into the air around her. “That’s a rhetorical question. I know what you are. A whore.”
I huffed out a dry laugh. “You really need to work on your insults, Veses. They’re truly pathetic.”
“It’s not an insult when it’s the truth. You had Nyktos. Was he not good enough? You had to take Kolis?”
“Take Kolis?” I cut myself off before I said anything she could use against me. I briefly closed my eyes. “Why are so many of you out of your minds?”
“That’s an offensive question.”
Head aching, I let it fall back. I stared at the bars above me. “I don’t understand most of the Primals, but you? I think I understand you the least.”
“You’re likely not intelligent nor worldly enough to even begin to understand me,” she quipped.
I sighed. “Again with the silly insults. You can do better.” I met her stare. “You want Kolis, but since you can’t have him, you go after his nephew—who also wants nothing to do with you. You seize the first opportunity to turn whatever friendship or companionship you once had with him into a nightmare, yet you claim to protect him? As if you care for him?”
“I do care for him,” she argued, her cheeks flushing. “He hasn’t had the easiest life for a Primal.”
“And you really did your level best to make it worse for him, didn’t you?” I had to count to five before I continued. “Is it because they share similar features, and you can pretend you’re with the one you really want?”
Veses looked away, her jaw flexing.
Dear gods, could it really be that? What Ash had claimed? Telling her she was messed up didn’t even capture what was going on in that head of hers. “That is even more pathetic than your insults, and I actually mean that in the most unoffensive way possible.”
Veses’ head snapped back to mine. “I can’t wait to see you die.”
I didn’t even acknowledge that. “Since Kolis has no idea about the deal you made while you were supposed to be keeping an eye on Nyktos, it’s not because you want to make Kolis jealous.”
“Kolis may not know about the deal, but he believes I’ve kept a very, very close eye on his nephew for him. He thinks we’ve been intimate.” She smiled tightly. “Something Nyktos hasn’t made any effort to deny.”
“So, it is to make Kolis jealous.”
She shrugged. “You have nothing to say about Nyktos not swaying Kolis’s belief?”
“No.”
“Come now, you may be in this cage, and Kolis may call you his graeca, but I know where your interests truly lie.”
I arched a brow. “I know why he wouldn’t attempt to change Kolis’s mind.”
“And you would know that because you love him,” she said, her stare unflinching. “Kolis may not know any better and may even believe that you just harbor a fondness for his nephew…”
Fucking Callum.
He hadn’t been in the chamber when I struck the deal, but he’d somehow found out, either by eavesdropping or from Kolis himself.
“But I know better.”
“You don’t know anything,” I sneered.
“Did you forget that I was there when you had your little breakdown after seeing Nyktos and me together?”
All the air went out of my lungs.
“Nyktos and Rhain were far too focused on getting to you and thought I’d left as ordered. Of course, I didn’t, nor did I fully realize it was you causing the entire palace to tremble at first. But once I saw you use the embers, I knew it had been you.” Her eyes gleamed. “And no one who harbors just fondness for another reacts that way. I would know. I leveled nearly half my Court when Kolis brought Sotoria back to life.”
My lips parted.
“So, our…violent reactions regarding the ones we love is something we have in common.”