“Whoa.” Kori stepped away from me, eyes narrowed on me in suspicion. “You never said Kenley was the one who bound your brother.”

“I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell you any of this while you were still bound to Tower.” And now Kenley was suffering the resistance pain I’d tried so hard to spare Kori.

“He works for Jake?” Kenley frowned in both confusion and pain. She hadn’t caught on yet to the truth already surfacing through her sister’s ambient anger. “Because I haven’t bound anyone to anything except service to Jake in six and a half years.”

“This would have been sometime before that,” I said, watching Kori even as I answered her sister.

“Why are you here, Ian?” Kori demanded, her voice as soft and dangerous as I’d ever heard it. “Why are you really here?” Her hand hovered at her hip, ready to draw on me like a Wild West outlaw. A tiny, scary, blonde outlaw.

“Kori, wait…”

“At least have the balls to admit it. You didn’t come for her help. You came here to kill her,” Kori said, and Kenley stared at us both, pain and confusion warring for control of her expression. “That description you gave Jake—that wasn’t me, it was Kenley. You requested her so you could get close enough to kill her.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Kenley said, hunched over now from the pain in her stomach. “I didn’t bind your brother. I’ve never even heard of him.”

Kori drew her gun. “Kenni, go to your room.” Tears filled her eyes, but her aim didn’t waver. And I didn’t draw against her. I couldn’t.

“I’m not going to hurt her.” I held my hands up, palms out, demonstrating how harmless I was. “I gave you my word.”

“What good is your word, if you’ve been lying the whole time?” Kori demanded, rage flashing behind her eyes, fueled by something even stronger. Something she didn’t want to admit to.

“I had no choice!” Anger rose through me slowly, winding its way up my spine. “You’d do anything to protect Kenley. So how can you blame me for being willing to do the same for my brother? I didn’t know her.” I spared a glance at Kenley, who still watched us in shock. “I didn’t know you. All I knew was that killing her would save Steven, and he’s my brother. We shared the same fucking womb! But then I met you, and you were horrible, in the most wonderful way.”

“Don’t…” Her aim held steady, but her eyes were watering again.

“You were tactless, and scary, and funny, and easy to provoke, but I knew from the start that you were so strong. You’re a fighter, and I loved that about you from the beginning, and I knew I couldn’t hurt you, even to save my brother. So I found another way, and I had to do it without telling you. To protect you. I did what had to be done, and if you’ll just put the damn gun down and think about this for a second, you’ll realize that you would have done the same thing.”

“No, I wouldn’t.” She lowered the gun. “I would have gone through with it. I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill your brother to save my sister.”

For a moment, we stared at one another, a silent brutal understanding passing between us. Then she blinked, and one more tear rolled down her face. “And I would do the same for you.”

My chest ached like someone had tried to pry my ribs open and pull my heart out through the gap.

“I don’t know what’s going on here.” Kenley sank onto the couch, drawing both her sister’s attention and mine. “I don’t remember binding anyone named Steven Holt, but if this doesn’t stop, I’m going to ask you to reconsider shooting me.” Her face was twisted with pain, her arms clutching her stomach in obvious agony.

“Come with me.” I dropped into a squat in front of Kenley, to catch her gaze. “If you can break Steven’s binding while Meghan has anything left in her, she can help you, at least long enough for us to work on your binding.” I glanced up at Kori, appealing to her mercenary logic. “We can’t stay here anyway. Tower’s probably already sent men after us.”

“What about Van?” Kenley demanded, and I recognized the angry flush in her cheeks—she looked just like her sister in that moment.

“I’m not going to let the princess die in the dungeon. Kori and I will go after her as soon as Steven’s unbound.”

“But…” Her foot began to jiggle—a very bad sign. And every minute she didn’t turn herself in to Jake, it would get a little worse.

“No more arguments. We’re going. Ian, get the lights.” Kori wrapped one arm around her sister and carefully pulled her up from the couch while I crossed the room to flip switches in the kitchen and by the front door, where I had to step over the dead guard’s body. When the room was dark enough to travel through, I took Kori’s free hand and gave her the address. She spared a moment to visualize the general location and search for a pocket of darkness. Then she stepped forward and Kenley and I went with her.

Two steps later, I banged my shin on the toilet in the house Meghan grew up in. They’d kept the house when they moved out a few years earlier, but it was currently unrented, which made it a decent hideout. Though Tower’s Trackers would find us, if we stayed too long.

Kori’s foot hit something and she cursed, while I felt around on the wall for the light switch.