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“No? But you called me with blood.”
Eva looked at the cut on her hand. Oh, hells. There were rituals that
used blood and they were deeply binding contracts with the Fae, but
she hadn’t invoked one of those. Except…the tree she had stumbled
against. Gods and saints. What kind of tree had it been? “I have to point
out, the cut happened after Giancarlo screamed.”
“I didn’t scream. I yelled.”
She glared at him. “Fine, you yelled. The point being that he yelled
because you appeared so I could not have summoned you with blood.”
“But you did.” Nita’s face twisted into a scowl, sharpening the inhuman
lines. “Not the piddling amount dribbling from your hand but with the
blood of my family.”
“I—I’m sorry. What?”
“You gave Cennetig the tools to kill my family.”
“Nita…I don’t know what happened, but please believe me when I say
that I had no part in it.” Eva held her hands out in a placating gesture,
aware of the knife she wore.
“Did you not? Did you not send Cennetig with meat cooked on iron?”
Her mouth pulled back to reveal her teeth, sharp like a bear’s. “Did not
my husband and my son eat this tainted flesh and die?”
Eva pressed her hand to her mouth in horror. Cennetig had asked for
hot dogs to take with him, but— They hadn’t affected him. She had no
reason to think that they were dangerous.
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