ravaged hearts

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT,

RAVAGED HEARTS | CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CONSTANZA SCOWLED, "YOU arranged this on purpose."

  Rhys raised a wry brow. "What makes you think that?"

  "The smart option would be to place you and Sanchez on watching the Falcons, because you're both wiccai. The prince does not require a bloody wiccai tracking him—Io could probably do it herself, the only reason we're not letting her do it alone is so that her personal sentiments don't get in the way."

  Excellent analysis. As expected from one of Io's students. People always still saw Io as this young child and couldn't comprehend the fact that she'd grown a lot in the past few years. Circumstances had forced her to grow up rapidly. Besides, she was twenty-five now, not twelve or fourteen.

  "And why would I arrange for her to be with Louis?"

  "So they could have time to be alone and talk. You want them to...?"

  "I think they'd be good for each other," Rhys murmured. It wasn't a lie. The rest of them had all found love. Friendship. Partners. It was just Io who drifted alone. They all wanted her to be happy, and if Asteria, Danna and Irina agreed that Louis Sanchez would be good for her...

  Rhys was tempted to believe it. It was rare enough for all three to agree on one thing. For them to take time out of their day to corner her about it together?

  When it happened Rhys had thought it was a bloody prank. Them asking her to play matchmaking might be the most hilarious thing to ever happen in her twenty-nine years of life. Rhysa Jiang. Wingwoman. Not something she'd ever expected to occur, but Rhys always took her duties very seriously, no matter how ridiculous they were. And she always, always excelled at them.

  She wasn't co-Captain of one of the most elite special operative forces in the world for nothing, after all.

"From what I've gleaned," Constanza said crossly, "the last time they got close, Io got stabbed."

  "They were children. It happens."

  Constanza looked incredulous. "No it doesn't!"

  Rhys shrugged. "Dominic and I got stabbed around each other all the time. We were holding the knives ourselves half the time."

  "You're wiccai."

  "Being wiccai does not make getting stabbed any less dangerous," Rhys pointed out. "People like to think we're gods and whatnot, but they forget that being wiccai is just being a normal human that's slightly stronger and faster and has better senses with one additional power that more often than not is quite weak. We die after getting stabbed in a bad spot, I can assure you of this." She stopped for a moment. "Besides, the Falcons are personal for me too, remember?"

  She had a score to settle with Claudio Bassanio, after all.

  "I remember when I first learnt you were once a Falcon." Constanza shut her eyes.

  "You were there," Rhys nodded. "Not in the centre of all the action, but you were there in Sai."

  "I was Danna's guest."

  "I remember you seeming very much wowed by the Scarlet Palace."

  "I spent half my life knowing the Yie Dynasty as the Court of Bones. Imagine by surprise when the palace wasn't littered with bones and corpses around every corner."

  "Still don't know where that rumour started," Rhys admitted. "Sure it was a revolution where blood had been spilled, but it wasn't that bloody either. Why would they just think we killed that many people?"