The hole was almost big enough. Almost. It would be a tight fit. Silas pushed Jason’s wolf away, thankful when the beast obeyed. He must have still recognizing Silas as alpha, even in his human form. He grabbed Jason’s suit jacket and tossed it into the hole, lining the jagged earth at the bottom. Silas tried to slide under, but his shoulders wouldn’t fit.Fuck.Jason was slightly smaller; maybe he’d fit when he shifted back. Silas backed out of the hole.
“Alex. Please. There’s still time to stop this,” he heard Nickelova beg.
Quickly, Silas pooled his clothing to conceal the hole and crossed to the bars in time to see Alex stand, fully shifted, behind the stone table.
“Get the sacrifice,” he ordered Olivia, leaning over the book.
Sacrifice. Another sacrifice? Something besides the three?
Olivia strode to the Suburban and opened the hatch. There was the thump of something heavy being repositioned, and then the woman emerged with another woman in her arms, one with mahogany hair and a curvy build.
Silas forced his eyes to focus in the dim light and tried to get a better look. He sucked air through his nose. Even if he couldn’t see her face, he could smell her. Laina.
“Alex, don’t you dare! I will kill you,” he yelled. “Let her go!”
Alex grinned over the pages ofThe Book of Flesh and Bone. He moved aside slightly in order to give Olivia room to arrange Laina on the massive stone table behind the book. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t just unconscious. By the way her arm dangled lifelessly over the edge of the stone, Silas might have presumed she was dead.
“I gave you a chance to join me,” Alex said, looking directly at him. “I gave you a chance to die. Now you will live with your sister’s blood on your hands, as your parents’ blood is on your hands.”
“I’ll rip your heart out of your chest, you bastard.” Silas gripped the bars until his knuckles turned white. “Back away from her, now!”
He gave Silas a patronizing look. “It’s over. Laina’s blood and that of her unborn child will be the ultimate sacrifice. Watch, alpha,” he spat. “Learn what happens to those who cross Alex Ravien Bloodright.”
Alex placed his hand on the open book and began to chant, the amulet around his neck glowing bright red. Sweat beaded across his forehead and his face tightened with concentration. Purple flames sparked near the bonfire, then spread along the stones, encircling the demon, the vampire, and Nickelova.
The dragon fae’s screams sliced through the darkness. Ordinary fire couldn’t hurt a dragon, but this was far from ordinary. It blistered her flesh. Silas covered his ears at her pitiful cries, helpless against the flames that consumed her. The vampire, drugged and barely conscious, did not scream at all. She burned as if she were already dead. The demon’s shrieks rivaled Nickelova’s.
Silas had no personal attachment to the three creatures burning alive. Nickelova, at least, had earned her place in the flames. But no creature deserved the brutality of this ritual. The entire thing turned his stomach. Evil, by any definition. And he knew Laina was next.
As Alex continued his chant, Silas noticed something change. The glow of the amulet faded with Nickelova’s screams. Was it possible that once she was dead, its magic would die altogether?
And then it was over. Nickelova and the demon went abruptly silent, the three rings now entirely swallowed by fire. Nickelova’s body was unrecognizable, a silhouette of ash. The demon was gone too, along with the bones that had called it here. The vampire had been reduced to a pile of dust.
Alex slumped over the book, his chant becoming weaker. The amulet was as dark as an ordinary piece of jewelry. Now was Silas’s chance. Alex was drained, and Nickelova’s death appeared to have rendered the amulet useless. If he could escape, he might be able to take Alex down.
A hand landed on his shoulder. Jason. His brother pointed toward the hole. Meredith, human Meredith, stood naked on the other side of the bars. She motioned to him, glancing back at Alex.
Silas approached her cautiously.
“Can I trust you?” he whispered.
“It wasn’t me,” she said. “Whatever you think I did, it was my mother. She made herself look like me. Do you remember what I tried to show you in Soleil’s room?”
“The pink-tinged jelly.”
“Every time a skinwalker shifts they leave behind an excretion. It’s a thick mucus their bodies produce to protect them from the shift. When I saw it in Soleil’s room, I knew my mother had been the one to steal the book. I left you the heart, knowing the enchantment around your house would protect it. I thought you’d destroy Nickelova and end this. But then my mother lured your sister away.”
“I hate to break up this little reunion, but we’ve got to hurry. Come on, brother. There’s no time for this.” Jason glanced over his shoulder. Alex’s chanting grew louder, the fire blazing toward the sky in great plumes.
Silas stared at Meredith, trying to fit all the pieces together in his head. If what she was saying was true, his emotions had nowhere to go. Did he still love her? Could he forgive her for shooting Soleil and playing into Alex’s hands?
Jason scoffed, then tried his best to fit through the hole. It was too small, even for him. Meredith picked up a stick and started breaking off pieces of rocky soil, helping Jason fight his way through.
“Can you shift back? It will be faster if you dig,” Jason said.
With tears in her eyes, Meredith took one more look at Silas and shifted into fox form. She dug frantically at the hole.
Jason succeeded in getting his head and one arm through but could go no farther.
