Yes, Melly knew her sister loved her. That was why her emotions were in such a tangle.

Bailey pulled back and searched Melly’s face with a frown. Melly knew her expression had to be as stiff as the rest of her body.

After a hesitation, Bailey asked, “Are you all right?”

Melly said abruptly, “You need to know Julian and I are back together.”

All the confirmation she needed was there in her sister’s face. A combination of dismay and guilt darkened Bailey’s gaze. “How can you consider getting back with him? He treated you so badly when you broke up.”

Melly gave her a steady, cold look. “Well, he had reasons, didn’t he?”

Comprehension flashed across Bailey’s expression. Her gaze fell. She muttered, “I – I don’t know what to say.”

“Admitting the truth would have been nice,” said Melly, taking a step back. “Anytime, say, over the last twenty years. Of course it would have been so much better if you hadn’t done anything to begin with, but that water is long under the bridge, isn’t it?”

A dark flush of color washed over Bailey’s cheekbones, and wetness glittered in her eyes. “I wanted to tell you. I thought about telling you so many times. If I could have taken it back, I would have. It was a stupid thing to do.”

She bit out, “You think?”

“Ferion and I were hanging out, talking about all the shit that was going to happen if the Light Fae and the Nightkind demesnes came together. We cooked the whole thing up when we got drunk – and you wouldn’t listen whenever I tried to point out what an asshole Julian was, and how you deserved so much better than him… And I didn’t realize how much it was going to hurt you. I didn’t know how deeply you’d fallen in love with him. You’d only been together three months.”

“Bailey,” she interrupted sharply. The stream of words pouring out of Bailey’s mouth cut off. “I didn’t ask you for excuses or justification. The only thing I’m interested in hearing you say right now is I am really so fucking sorry. If you can’t do at least that much, we have nothing more to say to each other.”

They stared at each other.

Bailey whispered, “I am really so fucking sorry, Melly.”

Now wetness dampened her gaze too. She pressed her lips tight.

After a moment, she nodded. “Okay,” she said hoarsely. “I love you, and I promise, one day I’m going to forgive you, and you and I are going to be all right. But I’m not there today, and we’re only going to be okay if you promise to get over how you feel about Julian and accept that he’s in my life. You got that?” She stared at Bailey hard. “Because if you can’t do that much, I don’t want to see you again. And the thought of that really breaks my heart.” Her face clenched. “Don’t break my heart, Bailey. Not again.”

“I wouldn’t,” Bailey said, very low. “I won’t. I love you too.”

She nodded again and wiped her eyes. “Okay,” she said again. “We’ll put this behind us. For now, go home. I’ll get in touch when I’m ready to talk again. Don’t expect to hear from me for a couple of months. I need some time.”

Bailey took a quick step forward, her face crumpling. “Don’t send me away. I’ve been in hell. I only just found out this morning that you were okay. Let me stay to help.”

“Not this time, kiddo,” she said quietly.

Bailey’s obvious distress finally loosened Melly’s limbs, and she felt able to pull her sister into a hug. Bailey clung to her.

“I really hate this,” her twin muttered.

Yeah well, you should have considered that before you stabbed me in the back.

Melly thought it, but managed not to say it. As Julian had said, relationships are breakable.

She pulled away. “There’s a reason why I need to take some time.”

“Fine. Damn it. I understand. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.” Bailey swiped at her nose with the back of one hand. “Mom sent Shane, and he can captain the other troops. They have your gear with them.”

“All right, thanks,” she said.

Reluctantly, Bailey backed up. She whispered, “I really am sorry.”

Melly had to turn away from the pleading in Bailey’s gaze. Her emotions were too powerful and contradictory.

“I hear you,” she said. It was the best reply she could offer.

“Melly,” Julian said from the doorway.

He strode into the room, sweeping past Bailey without acknowledging her presence or giving her a second glance. Bailey hesitated only briefly before leaving.

Julian strode across the room toward Melly, his face and body tight with fury.

“What’s happened?” Her heart kicked. She searched his face. “Justine’s done something else, hasn’t she?”

He shoved his phone into her hands. She looked at the screen.

There was a text message highlighted, from Gavin.

A single word.

Help.

Staring at it, she shook her head. Her thoughts felt slow moving, like a mudslide. “I don’t understand. Gavin’s the Nightkind government IT guy, right? Isn’t he in Evenfall?”

“Exactly,” Julian growled. “He’s in Evenfall.”

He spun to go back the way he had come.

Shoving the meeting with her sister aside until she could think about it later, Melly followed on his heels. Back in Julian’s office, Xavier paced stiffly as he spoke on his phone. Tess sat at Julian’s desk, tapping furiously on the keyboard.

When Xavier caught sight of Julian, he clicked off his phone and pocketed it.

He said, “I can’t confirm one way or another. One of the helicopters sighted this morning in the city could have been Dominic’s, but it might not have been. And nobody’s answering either of the secure lines at Evenfall.”

As Tess stared at Julian’s desktop screen, she spoke up. “The server appears to be down, which isn’t exactly news with the blackout in place. Most likely, Gavin sent that text using a hotspot in his phone.”

Xavier said quietly, “It’s possible the telecommunications cables have been sabotaged.”

Tess swiveled away. “The simplest way to create a blackout is to power down the servers. If they’re turned off and unplugged, they can’t be used or hacked, but that’s an easy fix. If somebody has cut the cables, then it will take a couple of days and repairmen to bring them back online.” She sounded frustrated. “Which is a shame, because if they were operational, I could try to patch into security footage to get some visuals from the camera feeds inside the castle.”