The darkness no longer purred, its sound was more of a haunting melody. One which he reveled in.
“If you survive what’s coming, I’ll keep you by my side.”
I’ll never let you go.
Huh? What was that? That voice was so different from Julius’s.
Warmth. Then there was a purr.
“I don’t think so.” His grip on my shoulder tightened. I felt no pain in it though. I felt nothing. It was the nothing that chased away the—what had been there? I couldn’t remember now. Oh well, nothing mattered now. “He’s bad. Don’t ever let him touch you.”
“Bad,” I mimicked. “No touch him.”
“We have to start again. Still six to go,” he sang.
“Six, six, six,” I rambled. “Six to go.”
Twenty-Five
Sebastian
"Have they all settled down?” Joy asked Payne the moment he stepped through the giant double doors of my parent’s castle where he had been outside tending to the dragons. We were in the ballroom now.
He sighed, rubbing his hand down the back of his neck. “Yeah. Several are severely injured from fighting each other for so long, but they’ve settled down. Seems like Isabella isn’t the only one Harvest can put in a trance.” Payne glanced my way when he mentioned her. “They seemed to snap out of it, though, as they came into contact with one of us, so I don’t think it was meant to last long.”
“Just long enough to be a distraction.” I felt like I could burn the worlds down with my rage for falling into such a simple trap. I let the small moment in the bathroom with her—which had been my need to help ease her mind as well as mine, only I had eased myself too much—consume me with guilt. I was never going to forgive myself for walking outside and leaving her alone in that bathroom.
How the hell did he take her from me just like that?
“Are you okay?” Payne looked down at the marble floor instead of at Joy.
She nodded. “I’m fine, but you can double check if you want.”
Just like that, he glanced up and scowled at her. “You sound perfectly fine,” he grumbled and stormed away. Leave it to Joy to seize an opportunity when she saw it.
“Give up on that.” I didn’t have to tell her what I was talking about. She knew it was about the brooding Reaper that just ran from her flirting. “You know he’s never going to see you the way you want him to.”
She took a deep breath. “If you don’t think I’ve tried a billion times over the last century, you’re foolish.” She tilted her head at me. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get her back,” I told her. “Then I don’t care how many centuries it takes, I’ll find a way to kill an entity. Harvest will wish he’d never crossed paths with Isabella.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Maureen faded into the ballroom with us, catching our conversation along with Barron and August. “But this isn’t something you’re doing alone.” She looked up. “Feel that? He’s coming here. Whatever he’s wanting with our powers, he’s no longer waiting around.”
I caught her eyes and glared. “I’ll handle Isabella so if any of you so much as—”
“Ease up,” August muttered. “Do you think any of us wanted to hurt her knowing how caught up you are in her? We were fucking trying not to, but it was like going up against a fucking monster that read and anticipated our moves before we knew what we were doing ourselves.”
“It was one tiny chick.” Barron looked at August unconvinced.
“You weren’t there, Barron,” Maureen whispered, placing her hands on her hips. “We were all caught off-guard. Wethought we were dealing with a simple witch with a deadly touch. What we encountered… Just what did Harvest do to her?”
“I don’t care,” I said harshly. “All I fucking care about is getting her out of his fucking control once and for all.”
“Well, you’re about to get what you asked for.” August materialized his scythe and looked past me. I felt what he did, and my heart thundered with burning resolve. “They’re here.”
The rumbling of their entrance echoed through the woods. The dragons who were just settling down came back to life with their flapping wings and roars outside. Izzie and Harvest were here.
I’m never letting go of you when I get my hands on you again.
