Chapter 185

Despite what Nicholas had said, by the time Julian came rushing back with an onslaught of guards, Nicholas and I were back in his rooms. Nicholas had gone into the bathroom to shower and change. I sat just outside, a towel in my hands, wiping the blood off of my face.

Julian stayed with me while the guards descended into the open passageway. He took one look at me, shook his head, snatched the towel from my hands, and more forcefully wiped at my forehead.

“There,” he said, and handed the towel back to me.

“Thank you,” I said softly. My hands were trembling. I still felt somewhat in shock.

Julian noticed. He stepped closer. “Piper…”

The bathroom door opened, and Nicholas appeared. He glanced between Julian and me, but didn’t seem jealous this time.

Instead, when he looked back to Julian, gratitude was plain on his face. “Thank you, Julian. Without your help… well, I don’t want to think about what would have happened.”

“Piper’s the one who found you,” Julian said. He half-turned away.

I wouldn’t let him escape credit so easily. “I wouldn’t have known anything was wrong at all, if you hadn’t intuited it,” I said.

Julian pushed a hand through his hair. “Give me a break.”

He was embarrassed, I realized then. It was such a rare sight on Julian that I almost didn’t recognize it.

I knew then, with absolutely surety, that despite the brothers many problems, fights, and disagreements, they did actually care for each other deep down. At the very least, they would come to the other’s defense if their life was on the line.

That counted for something. Even if neither brother seemed willing to admit it yet.

“So what did Jane want with you anyway?” Julian asked. “I don’t suppose she revealed any hint of her plan.”

Nicholas shook his head. “She only said that she wanted to hurt Piper.”

A shiver rushed through me. She very nearly had hurt me. Taking Nicholas, hurting me with my own wolf… All of it cut me so deeply. That it had been my own twin sister that had hated me enough to commit these acts…

“It can’t have been just that,” Julian said. “With you in their pocket, a lot of people would have done just about anything to keep you safe. Piper. Our father.” Julian sighed. “You know that. You should have been more careful. How did they possibly capture you anyway?”

“Uh…” Nicholas’s gaze slipped sideways. He refused to look at either me or Julian. That seemed rather suspicious.

“Nick?” I asked, and he swallowed.

Suddenly, Julian’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t!”

“It wasn’t like that,” Nicholas said quickly.

“Like hell it wasn’t. How else would you let your guard down?”

“I don’t understand.” I looked to Julian for explanation.

His lips curled up into a smile. “Your prince locked lips with your evil sister.”

This time, my eyes bugged. I searched Nicholas’s face, hopeful for an indication that Julian was just trying to stir the pot like always. Instead what I saw was guilt.

Nicholas lowered his head. “She pretended to be you, Piper. I… didn’t notice as quickly as I should have.”

My heart cracked in half. Jane had come here, pretending to me, and Nicholas had… let her?

“I had been so desperate to see you, and I thought…” Nicholas cleared his throat. “But I told her to stop right away. She was different. She was moving too quickly and my wolf didn’t trust her.” He looked at me, eyes sad. “I’m so sorry, Piper.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said at once, because it wasn’t, even though it hurt me. Nicholas had been tricked.

Hadn’t I been tricked too? I had been so desperate to see Nicholas that I had followed a note straight into potential danger? If Nicholas had a twin brother, wouldn’t I have fallen for the same trap?

I shook my head. “What we need to focus on is stopping Jane once and for all, and getting my wolf back.”

“Then let’s go,” Julian said.

“Go where?” Nicholas asked.

But I knew where he’d meant. “Veronica.”

By the time thee three of us knocked on Veronica’s door, it was close to 3:30 in the morning. Yet she opened the door like she’d been expecting us. She was still wearing her clothes from the day before. Maybe she hadn’t been to bed yet.

She stepped back, giving us room to enter. “Come in.”

Her lights were on. A pile of books was stacked tall on top of her desk, with a second pile beside it.

She looked between the three of us. “Something happened.”

Quickly, I gave her a brief account of events. Julian nodded along, chiming in where he could. Nicholas stayed behind, frowning at her. He hadn’t liked being kept out of the loop with Veronica’s identity. I supposed I couldn’t fault him for not trusting her right away, considering.

When I reached the point in the story where Jane shifted into my wolf and attacked me, Veronica perked up. When I said, my wolf held back, she stopped me.

“It was going to kill you,” she said.

“I think so, yes,” I said. I was proud of myself for keeping the tremor out of my voice. It quaked my hands instead.

Nicholas finally stepped closer. He came to my side and took one of my shaking hands in his.

Veronica didn’t so much as bat an eye at his movement. Her full focus was on me now.

“But then it backed off,” she said.

“Yes.”

Suddenly, she clapped her hands together. “That’s it!”

I’d never seen her emote so openly, so I watched in shock for a minute. Julian did too, though he recovered quicker.

“That’s what, Veronica?” he asked.

“The wolf never fully bonded with Jane,” Veronica said. She spoke quickly with excitement. “It still belongs to Piper in its heart. Else it would have followed blindly and killed Piper without a second thought.”

“And that changes things?” Julian asked.

“That changes everything.” In a flourish, she turned toward her desk and rushed over. “That makes all of this so much simpler. Whoever completed the ritual must have been such an amateur, or they were rushed, or… no. Likely the receiver of the wolf was not an adequate candidate.”

She glanced over her shoulder at me. “Did Jane have her own wolf?”

“A weak one,” I said. I’d always wondered what had happened to it, since she had claimed mine now. Surely there couldn’t be room inside of her for two different wolves?

“A foolish mistake,” Veronica said. “Instead of trying to cultivate the strength of her own wolf, she stole someone else’s. To do that, she would have had to sacrifice her own.”

I gasped. “Is it dead?” She could have given it to another.

“Most likely.”

I wasn’t sure why I was surprised. Someone like Jane, with such a limited moral compass, might not see anything wrong with sacrificing that part of herself to make room for something she considered better.

“Your wolf never trusted her,” Veronica said. “It must have retained some of its memories. Ah, this is fantastic. You must have had a strong bond. This will help us.”

I could hear what Veronica was saying but I was afraid to surmise further. I didn’t dare hope.

Nicholas had no such inhibitions. “Does this mean you can give Piper her wolf back?”

“Yes,” Veronica said, so simply, like that didn’t change my entire world. “All we have to do now is trap Jane. And I can return Piper’s wolf.”