She snorts. "Ugh, I know. Can't seem to get rid of you two." She glances down, fingers catching my dog tags through the torn shirt. "But…" she tugs the chain tight, eyes glinting. "I knowwhere you hide your nightstone. One little pull…" Another tug. Metal bites my throat.
I glance past her. The clouds have parted, sunlight bleeding through, gold and merciless.
I meet her eyes. "Then do it."
She arches an eyebrow. "You think I won't?"
"You could've killed Kayden. Shot him clean through the heart," I say. "But you didn't."
She shrugs, casual and cruel. "Maybe I wanted him to suffer."
"Then do it. Let me burn, Sage."
Her fingers loop the chain. It bites at my skin as she pulls harder.
Then she stops.
Her jaw clenches, and for a second her expression changes. Frustration. Something else.
Then she's gone, faster than breath, slipping between the trees.
I collapse back against the damp earth, hand closing on the dog tags she let go of. I allow myself a small, bitter smile.
She's not gone. Not completely.
CHAPTER FORTY
Kayden
The whole 'Sage's blood' mission turns out to be a bust. We find the vials smashed, shards glittering in the mess like broken promises. Whatever miracle potion goat man was planning to brew—gone.
"You kept her blood in astandard refrigerator?" Darius turns on the druid once we're back in the house, his expression caught somewhere between baffled and judgmental.
"I was waiting for the shipment of a portable industrial unit," Maeve bites out. "Didn't arrive on time. Clearly."
Behind her sharp tongue, though, is grief. She lost a friend.
"Clearly," I echo, just to fill the silence.
The whole crew is mourning again. Tomas stands near the fireplace, stiff as a statue, but farther from Asher than usual. Astrid's raiding the fridge, muttering curses about her favorite beer being gone.
I drank it all. She can kill me later.
Donna's barely holding it together. Her voice cracks as she speaks. "Eira doesn't have next of kin. I'll handle the funeral. My family will cover it."
"I will," Darius says, stepping in whenever money's being thrown around.
Donna shakes her head. "She was our friend. It's only proper."
To his credit, the bastard doesn't argue.
I clap my hands once to get their attention. "All right. Now that the death logistics are sorted, can we get back to the main event? Like, I don't know… tracking down our feral, blood-drunk wife before she tears someone else's throat out?"
"I should never have come here," Maeve mutters, rubbing her temples. "Or I should've left the moment I saw what kind of trouble you three were."
"You're not leaving," Darius says, voice cold.
Asher nods. "If Sage is looking for you, you need us, and we need you."
