Gage shrugged and turned to look out the window.He didn’t need to talk.He didn’t need to do anything except think of all the ways he could kill Azure and get Katy out.
“Link.”Gage’s eyes were still focused out the plane window.“How quickly can you get the house evacuated of people that matter?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Link muttered and shifted in his seat.
“And probably all the surrounding houses as well,” Gage said coolly.“Explosions can cause other houses to catch fire.”
Justice whistled.“Going straight Independence Day on KOV.I like it.But please tell me you’re going Gladiator on Azure first.”
“I’ll deal with Azure.”
“The Council—” Link started, but Gage shook his head.
“King Azure harmed my female.Essentially, he poisoned her.And he’s using her body as a conduit for dark magic.Azure is my prey.Mykill.I will lay him at the feet of my mate as a gift.”
“Dead bodies are the new diamonds.”Justice’s face was so serious that Gage nearly laughed.Nearly.
Link held his stare for several heartbeats before finally nodding.“This is going to be a disaster.”
“He was left unchecked for too long.”Gage’s voice deepened with his beast.“How could you expect it to be anything else?”
* * *
Lola shook her hands and then tilted her neck from side to side.She fought the emotions that would force her into the beast form.Katy was in danger.The look on Gage’s face had made that perfectly clear.He didn’t have to say it.Her best friend’s life was at stake, and there was nothing Lola could do.Thousands of miles away on Long Island, all she could do was hope and pray that Gage would do as he said and rescue Katy.
“She’s going to be fine,” Maddie said, because they both needed to hear it.Callon and Roan had tried to tell them the same thing, but it just annoyed them when the guys said it.They’d finally quit trying to offer any comfort and now stood a dozen feet away.Callon’s eyes hadn’t left her.She felt his tension.He hated being separated from her.He wanted to hold her.He wanted to fix this.But he couldn’t.And Lola didn’t want to be held.She wanted to claw someone’s eyes out.
“Okay, that’s freaking awesome.”Maddie pointed at Lola’s hand and drew her from her thoughts.
Lola glanced down and saw that her nails had changed to cats’ claws, and they were wicked sharp.“When I get emotional, I have a hard time controlling it.”
“Is it cool?Being a lion?”
Lola nodded.“It’s amazing.I mean, literally, indescribable.I’ve read a million books where stuff like this happens, and none of the descriptions come close to capturing this feeling.It’s just?—”
“Supernatural,” Maddie offered.
“Exactly.”
“Katy’s going to want to challenge you at everything, you know?”Maddie laughed.“She’s going to want to know who can run faster, whose claws are sharper, whose bite is stronger.”
Lola groaned and laughed.Katy would so do that.“I can’t wait for it.She can bring it.”She’d better.
She felt a large hand on her neck.“Are you okay?”Callon’s deep voice wrapped around her.
“Just laughing about all the ways Katy would be trying to prove which species is superior,” she explained.
Callon chuckled.“She is a competitive one.”
“You have no idea.”
“That’s why I say she’ll be fine,” Maddie said.“Because she won’t die simply because someone else says she has to.It’s a matter of will.Katy’s will is stronger.”
She just had to be strong enough for Gage to get to her.The bond would heal whatever damage Azure managed.At least, the physical damage.Mental damage might be a different story.
“Is there anything we can do?”Lola asked for the tenth time.“Just standing here is getting old.”
“Why don’t you take Maddie to the library?”Callon suggested.
