Rory almost cried at the sight. “You healed.” She moved her hands over Lauren to inspect for lingering injuries.
“I was in his room, and he walked in,” Lauren told them, panting. “He electrocuted me, and I passed out.” She looked around the room. “Where is he?”
“He got away,” Caius said grimly, absentmindedly rubbing a soothing hand down Rory’s back. “Stay with her, and I’ll finish him.”
“I’m not staying here,” Rory protested. Like hell he would leave her again.“My body healed. He has no power and is no more a threat to me than any other man.” She steeled her spine and forced her body not to tremble. Caius glared at her but wisely said nothing.
Lauren pushed past them. “There’s no time to argue. The others are here, and we need to find them before Gedeon does.”
The others?
Rory stopped breathing when she understood. Swiping the knife Caius had thrown on the floor, she bolted toward the door closest to where Gedeon fell, not thinking about anything but getting to her friends.
Fear was a strange thing. Fear for her own well-being kept hersubdued, but the second she realized her friends were in danger, a switch flipped.
No one would go through what she went through.
“Rory!” Caius yelled behind her as she sprinted down the stairs of the corridor.
Caius and Lauren’s footsteps pounded after her, but the mortality of her friends raced through her mind, and she pushed harder.
She heard Gedeon’s voice through the cracked doorway.“Put her down!”
The three of them burst through the door of Gedeon’s office, and Rory looked around wildly. Across the room, a maid held a jar filled with a beautiful pink soul, and Rory stopped in her tracks.
Cora.
The maid’s face paled as Gedeon closed in on her, but instead of handing over the jar, she grabbed the lid with shaky fingers and ripped it off. The realm stood still, and Rory stared in awe as Cora’s soul rose from the jar, twirled airily around the woman’s arm, and caressed her cheek.
Months ago, when Rory released the trapped souls she found in theMerrow’sapartment, that didn’t happen. The souls went directly toward the aether.
Cora’s soul finally left the woman’s side and floated skyward, leaving everyone to stare.
“She was mine!” Gedeon thundered, his face filled with rage. “And you took her from me!”
What happened next took seconds, but it felt like a lifetime as Rory watched the horror unfold.
She didn’t know how Gedeon got a knife, but he raised it high and stabbed the woman in the chest. Her screams of fear and pain set Rory in motion, but Caius grabbed her, pushed her toward Lauren, and ran at his brother. Shadows threw Gedeon back, and he slammed into a nearby table.
Before Lauren could touch her, Rory took off running, catching up to Caius with ease.
“You fucking bastard,” Caius growled when they reached his brother. Rory careened around her husband and jumped on top of Gedeon, dropping the knife beside her.
Shadows bound his body, and Caius stayed back, giving Rory the kill. They both wanted to exact their vengeance, but after everything Rory suffered at Gedeon’s hand, her mate gifted her the honor.
Gedeon’s eyes were wide with unhinged delirium, and he bared his teeth. “She took my mate from me,” he shouted.
Rory’s fist hit his nose with a satisfying crunch. “Youtook my sister. She was only a child,” she cried, delivering blow after blow. Despite wanting to, she couldn’t beat him to death and picked up the knife, pressing the tip into the flesh over his heart. “This is for every person you took to that room.” She pushed the tip of the knife into his chest.
He cried out in pain, throwing his badly beaten head back. Leaning forward, she used her body to put more pressure on the handle. “This is for Atarah and Cora.” The knife cut deeper, and she delighted in his screams.
Sitting back, she tugged the knife from his chest, and his whimpers made her lip curl. He deserved more pain than that, but the others needed her.
Rory dreamed about this moment for eleven years, but it didn’t feel right. Turning to Caius, she found him watching the Lux King with barely restrained anger raging in his eyes.
Because of Gedeon, Caius had lost everything: his sisters, his freedom, and his reputation. He even almost lost himself, and if anyone deserved to end the Lux King’s life, it was him.
She beckoned him closer and held out the knife. He wrapped his hand around the handle and softly grabbed Rory’s chin, kissing her deeply before turning his fury on the barely recognizable face of his twin brother.
