But when it came to how we got the upper hand in the fight, I was one hundred percent honest. I didn’t hold anything back.

“You did what?” Tessa’s eyes were as wide as saucers, like two pools of sapphire. “So that’s why you passed out? You used your forbidden power?”

I nodded.

“But you’ve never used that around other people.”

I shrugged. “It was the only way to free him and save you and us.”

“Tala.” An ache formed in her voice. “You did all of that for me.”

“Of course, I did.”

She reached for me across the table and drew me into an awkward hug. “What would I do without you?”

I scoffed. “Probably lead a very interesting, dangerous, and impulsive life.”

She laughed, and the tinkling sound was so familiar that some of the unease over all that had happened lifted. “It would certainly be impulsive.” She released me, her eyes still questioning. “What happened to the others down there?”

I frowned, vaguely remembering the cages and the supernaturals they’d held. “I don’t know. We didn’t get to that.”

“I hope Katarina’s okay. She was in the cell next to mine. She was even younger than me, only a teenager.”

I stilled, but my sister didn’t notice as she continued.

“And on my other side there was a man named Oscar. They captured him a few days before me. Did you know that he can levitate? He has that much power. There’d been other supernaturals, too, across from our cells, but they’d been there longer than the three of us, and they were—” She shuddered. “I don’t know what they were doing to them, but it left them—” She paled. “It changed them.”

My brow furrowed at the horrors she’d seen, even if she hadn’t directly witnessed whatever had been done to them.

But once again, the name Katarina had arisen.

I tried to speak casually. “Did Katarina ever talk about somebody named Matija?” Some part of my brain remembered Sinister Fairy Dude asking the Fire Wolf about him. Something about a huge payment from Matija, or something like that. Thirty thousand? Or forty thousand dollars?

Tessa nodded, her blue eyes dazzling in the morning sunlight. “Yeah, that’s her father. How did you know that?” But she didn’t wait for my answer and instead plowed on. “Katarina said her dad would come for her. She was so sure of that. I guess he’s some rich supernatural in Europe—incredibly powerful—and Katarina’s magic is amazing. She’s, like, the most powerful teenager I’ve ever met.”

A sinking feeling formed in my stomach as my earlier suspicion seemed more and more correct. Was that who the Fire Wolf had been calling in his man cave when I’d come out of the bathroom? He’d said it’d been an overseas call. Was he reporting to Matija? The stone ball in my stomach sank more as the missing puzzle pieces locked together.

Because the Fire Wolf had shown up in my apartment out of the blue after that incident in the Shadow Zone. He’d been so eager to take my job all of a sudden, after initially completely shunning me, and that interest had only been born after I’d mentioned Star Tattoo Guy’s tatt right before the Fire Wolf had disappeared into his self-made portal—a tattoo that everyone in that club where the supernaturals were held captive had sported.

But I still didn’t know for sure. Only one puzzle piece was missing. “Say, do you have any idea if the dude who took Katarina had a weird star constellation tattoo on his neck?”

Tessa’s eyes widened. “How did you know that? Katarina told me that when we started comparing details. She said her abductor had that tattoo as well.”

My heart beat harder. “Did anyone see her abduction?”

Tess nodded, eyes wide. “Her father did. I guess the guy who took her snatched her right from her home. Her father was across the room when it happened, but they knocked him out with a super powerful potion. Or something like that.”

My stomach sank to the floor.

Bottom line? I’d been played. The Fire Wolf had been hunting for Katarina when I’d met him. He’d already been on that job when I’d told him about Star Tattoo Guy. The only reason he’d broken into my home and said he’d take my job was because of Star Tattoo Guy, not because he’d had a change of heart.

The feeling of betrayal flashed through me, but despite my anger, my practical side kicked in. So the Fire Wolf had been hunting for Katarina from the beginning and then after realizing that the same people had taken Tessa—the tattoo obviously clueing him in—he hadn’t turned the business opportunity down. Because logic deemed that it was possible Katarina and my sister were both being kept in the same place. And if Katarina’s trail had grown cold, but Tessa’s trail was hot and fresh, well, he could then rescue both of them.

Essentially, he could kill two birds with one stone and make double the profit. Anybody with good business sense would have done that. I would have done that.

So why did it hurt so much?

Because he wasn’t honest.

“Do you know why they took you?” I asked Tessa as I blinked rapidly again. “And do you know who Jakub is? Or Damascus?”

Her brow furrowed. “I heard them talk about someone named Jakub a few times, but I’ve never heard of anyone called Damascus.”

“What about why they chose you? Did you ever get any inkling about what prompted that Star Tattoo dipshit Guy to abduct you? It’s the one thing I can’t figure out.”

Her head dipped, her cheeks flushing.

I knew that look too well. “Tessa?” I said sternly. “What did you do?”

She peeked up at me beneath her lashes, but that cute look wasn’t going to work.

“Spill it. Now.”

She twisted her hands. “I may have told him—Preston—about your . . . um . . .”

My jaw dropped. “Wait, Star Tattoo Guy’s name is Preston? How do you know that?”

That guilty look on her face increased. “Because I met him a few weeks ago.”

My jaw dropped. “What did you tell him?”

Her face fell as she dropped eye contact again.

“Tessa,” I said in another warning tone.

She wrung her hands. “Don’t yell at me! I’ve been through a lot.”

“Then tell me what you did.”

She pouted, her lower lip sticking out, but she eventually said in a reluctant tone, “I told him about your forbidden power.”

My breath sucked in. The world stopped. If I’d felt betrayed by the Fire Wolf, it was nothing compared to how I felt now. “You didn’t!” I shot to standing. “How could you! That’s the secret Mom told me to keep. The one she told both of us to keep. How could you tell?”

“But I didn’t tell him it was you,” she countered. “I told him I had that power.”

“When? How? What the hell, Tess?”

She had the decency to look at fault, as she damn well should. I was so livid I was shaking.

“It was when I met him a few weeks ago,” she said in a rush. “When I was out shopping in the marketplace with Brandy. We bumped into him, and he said he’d heard of me, about the powerful witch who owned a magic shop, and well—” She raised her hands in surrender, as if that explained this stabbing betrayal.

“Why would you tell him about my hidden power, and then lie and claim it as yours?”

She crossed her arms. “Because he already knew about me and assumed I was as powerful as everyone around here claims.” That flush stained her cheeks again, because we both knew the truth of why she was so well known in our local community. “He said I intrigued him, and he was so good-looking, Tala. You have to admit that.”

I made a face. “Then why did you act like you didn’t know him in the store when he stopped by?”

She shrugged. “I was playing coy. I hadn’t seen him in a while, so I pretended I didn’t remember him. Acting like that works well with men. It makes them more interested.”

A disgusted sound tore from my throat, and I abruptly began to pace. “So he took you because you told him about my forbidden power? But why?”