And theirwings.I choke on a sob, something shredding inside me.
Their beautiful, glorious, inky-black wings are gone. Nowhere to be seen. Cut off, or torn away. The careless, gaping stitches across their skin as they lay on their backs, barely held together tells me exactly what I will find beneath.
I left them here. They pushed me through that door and used their bodies to block the way, and this was their reward for their sacrifice.
There are hands on me, and I push them away with another enraged scream.
I will end them for this.
I will end them all.
The thought catches, holds. More shadows spread from my palms.
“Selene.” Hands land on my face, and I hiss at them. “Gods, Selene.”
Callan. It’s Callan—
All of them. Him, and the rest. They did this.
I push him aside. The shadows whip out, slamming against him, pinning him down as he reaches for me with lying bronze eyes.
My words are guttural. “Get your hands off them.”
The male touching them feels familiar. But the thought is rapidly buried beneath that rising rage, and my voice rises to a scream. “Get away!”
He doesn’t move. His hands shake as he touches Nyx. My shadows wrap around his throat, tightening, but he does notmove. “They’re alive, Selene. Gods—they’re stillalive.”
I stop. Everything stops.
“We can get them out.” He turns to me, the shadows still tight around his neck. Steady, although the words tremble and gasp. “We can get them out of here, to somewhere safe. But we need to go now. Do you understand?”
I waver. Some of that rage shifts, the shadows flickering. Enough that the male who touched me approaches, freed from the constraints I placed on him. “Look at me.”
When my head turns, he inhales. “Selene. Are you Selene?”
Maybe.
My head jerks, even though I’m no longer sure who I am.
“They’re alive.” I say it once, testing the words. “Still alive.”
“Yes.” Callan—Callan—moves closer. “Let me touch you. Please.”
I don’t move as his hands brush my cheek. My face is wet with tears. “They hurt them.”
“Yes.” There’s anger there. “But we’re getting them out, right now. Rio.”
Another male shifts past. I turn my eyes to him, and he pales at what he sees. “May I pick them up?”
Both of the males wait. I nod, barely.
A hand touches my back. The words sound closer to a sob. “I’m so sorry.”
Esme.
I suck in a shuddering breath. The shadows fall from Matthias’s throat. He blows out a breath. “Rio—you’re going to take…”
“Celeste,” I whisper. “That’s Celeste.”
