I sighed. “Lucille believes Lilith is controlling him with my feather. If that’s the case, we need to get it back. And if we save the pe—prince along the way, so be it.”
“Excuse me? I know she’s your cor?—”
My shadows flew out, tightening around his neck. “Careful.”
He gave me a sharp nod, and I released him.
Alexei cleared his throat. “This could be a trap. We could all end up burning here.”
“No. Lilith wants me whole. There’s no trap here. But there could be one on the other side of the portal,” Lucille admitted.
“Then why go through with this?” Alexei pulled a dagger from her belt, nerves clearly fraying.
That same urgency flared in her. I didn’t understand it.
“I have no other choice,” she said quietly.
“We have to save my sister too,” Oliver added. “But we don’t know where she is.”
Alexei stole another blade, flipping and catching them repeatedly while fanning his wings.
MJ’s wings burst free, perfectly dry, and she laughed at Alexei’s distress. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
Alexei whipped around. “Youwouldthink this would be fun! We don’t have any battle gear. My wings are almost steaming as they slowly dry. I’m about ready to say screw it and jump back in. We’re not even close to the Hellfire fields—and there’s most likely a trap waiting for us inside that godforsaken kingdom! And what about the fact that we’ll die if we don’t have Ember Metal?”
“There will be some in the caves,” Lucille said.
“Your trusty prince tell you that?” Alexei snapped.
MJ wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “We’ll strategize along the way. It’ll make you feel better.”
“Hard to strategize when we don’t know what we’re getting into. No maps. No backup. We’ll be sitting ducks walking through that portal. No powers. Might as well just slit my throat now.”
MJ rolled her eyes. But Alexei had a point.
“We’ll run through every scenario we can with the resources we have before crossing the portal,” I said. “We’ve been through worse.”
Alexei scoffed and pointed a dagger at Lucille. “Beautiful, I better not die rescuing that scumbag.”
Chapter
Forty-Seven
LUCILLE
Ronen radiated threat as his shadows plucked my knife out of Alexei’s hand. “Don’t.”
Just one word—yet Alexei straightened and dipped his head in compliance. If I didn’t know better, I’d think Ronen reigned over this circle. He stood like he commanded the land itself. The perfectly tailored dark suit hugged his body in all the right ways, and the gold accents highlighted the uniqueness of his eyes. His shoulders were pushed back, his shadows curling around his hands. The lethal male was temptation wrapped in a mind-altering bow, begging to be untied and discovered.
Oliver elbowed me hard in the side. “You look like you’re about to eat him. Focus!”
I found it ironic—and a little concerning—that the one person who would absolutely join in on the ogling was chastising me. I took his shaky hand in mine, and he squeezed it.
The heat punished my face. My hair stuck to my forehead. Sweat soaked the back of my neck and trickled into my uniform. The Immolation Circle practically suffocated me, and yet Oliver and I had temperature-regulated uniforms helping us. Judging by the glistening sweat dripping from Ronen, Alexei, and MJ’s foreheads, the way their wings drooped, and the dark splotches blooming across their formalwear, we needed to move. They were struggling—everyone except Rune and MJ.
Rune seemed agitated but unfazed by the heat, while MJ flashed a smile. Her pantsuit clung to her damp skin, her heels clicked with each shift, and sweat bled through the fabric. Still, a vicious grin played on her lips.
I pointed toward the Hellfire. “Let’s go.”
