A rush of elation lifted the corners of Silas’s mouth. At that moment, he was certain of three things. One: if Alex could have used the amulet, he would have by now. Two: Meredith was attempting to destroy the spell and was clearly never the one to help Alex. And three: he loved her. He still loved Meredith.
“Do it, Meredith! Do it!” Silas yelled. He risked a glance in her direction.
She’d fisted the top page of the open book and strained to tear it from its binding. A deep growl rumbled like thunder from the area of Panaal’s chest and a mighty wind blew through the clearing. Panaal bared his teeth, those black eyes fixed on Meredith.
“You fucking bitch,” Alex yelled. “You’ll doom us all!”
Leaning into the wind, her red hair whipping around her head, Meredith ripped the page in two. Carefully, she fed the pieces into the purple flames in front of the altar. The parchment caught fire at Panaal’s feet, even as the ground shook harder and the wind increased to hurricane proportions. Panaal’s mouth opened in a brain-slicing scream, his teeth gnashing in Meredith’s direction. But his bite passed right through her.
She limped back to the altar, in obvious pain. With both hands, Meredith lifted one side of the massive tome and slammed the book shut. Panaal’s growls turned into howls as the god of the underworld descended slowly into the purple flames.
Alex gaped. A mixture of rage and disappointment strained his features. For a moment, his muscles flinched. Silas used the opportunity to remove one hand from his wrists and punched Alex in the side of the head. With all of his weight behind the blow, it was enough for Alex to loosen his grip. Wrestling the dagger away, Silas twirled the blade and centered it over Alex’s heart, pinning his arms to his sides with his knees.
“You’ve won,” Alex said. He went limp under Silas’s weight. “Take me in. Lock me up. Let the pack deal with me.”
“I should. Maybe it’s the right thing to do,” he mumbled.
“Of course it is. What kind of alpha would you be, what kind of detective, if you didn’t uphold the process of justice?”
“You have a point.” Silas watched a smug grin crawl across Alex’s face.
“You can’t kill me, Alpha. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Not when I’m surrendering. Unarmed. I’m giving myself up.” The words held a well-practice acerbity.
“I shouldn’t. You’re right about that. Only, I promised my brother vengeance. And I’ve recently learned that there is no substitute for family. I need them, Alex, and they’ll never be safe as long as you’re alive.” He placed both hands on the hilt and looked directly into Alex’s eyes. “This is for my mother, my father, my siblings, my pack, and for Soleil. Go to hell and take the horned god with you.” He thrust the dagger into Alex’s heart.
Alex’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. His pupils dilated with disbelief. Silas watched the light fade from his widening eyes until there was no more breath, no more fight left in his mortal enemy. And still, he pushed the dagger deeper into Alex’s chest, his hands shaking with the need to make certain he was dead.
He’d hated Alex for so long, dreamed about this day with such fervor, he expected choirs of angels and a rush of elation. But as it became more and more obvious the man was gone, he merely felt hollow. Miserable that killing Alex was necessary, helpless that it was impossible to bring back all of the people the man had killed, and thankful that it was over while remaining hyperaware that it was not.
A scream behind him seemed to bring him back into the present. He climbed from Alex’s dead body and whirled to find Olivia, in her human form, crouching over Jason. “What have I done? What have I done?” Her hands were shaking. She backed away.
Silas ran to his brother’s side. There was a red ring around Jason’s neck, but otherwise, his brother seemed okay. He coughed into his hand. “I’m okay.” He rubbed his neck and gave Olivia a sideways glance.
“Silas!” Meredith cried from the altar, Laina in her arms. “My legs won’t work.”
She was staring at the widening crater that crept toward her toes. Panaal was still trapped in the flames, sinking into the rumbling earth like quicksand. But it was the space around the horned god that was the problem. The ground was giving way, black steaming emptiness growing from the inside out.
Silas ran for her, right as Panaal opened his flaming mouth. The beast laughed, a hissing charcoal bark that increased in its maniacal splendor as the earth swallowed the horned god. Meredith screamed as the creeping black hole claimed the altar and the book. Both tumbled into the abyss.
He was almost there. So close. “Meredith!” Silas ran for her, swerving to avoid the widening crater.
She looked up, tears in her eyes. “I love you.” With a twist of her torso that made her scream from the pain, she threw Laina into his arms. Silas caught his sister in both arms.
And then Meredith dropped into the void.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Meredith!” Silas transferred Laina into Jason’s arms, thankful his brother was close behind him. He ran to the edge of the crater, a foolish move considering the ground was still shaking. But what was love but a fool’s errand? He peered over the side.
Panaal was gone, disappeared down the bottomless pit before him. The earth stilled. Thankfully, the crater stopped expanding, its hunger seemingly appeased by being fed theBook of Flesh and Bone. Even the wind gave up its campaign against him. Charred rock steamed from the crater, a dozen small fires burning below, giving off the smell of sulfur and burning flesh. He called her name into the bottomless expanse. “Meredith!”
“Silas?” Her voice was barely a whisper. He searched the rocky edge. There—pale fingers gripping black stone. “I can’t hold on.”
He didn’t hesitate. Scaling the rough surface, he found a tiny ledge only half the width of his body near her fingers. He gripped the wall with one hand and lowered himself, stretching his body to reach her.
“My legs aren’t working right. He did something to me.” Her voice was hoarse, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Reach for my hand.” He could see her fingers slipping, her knuckles sickly white with the effort of hanging on.
