“And you’re just—what—reading my planner while he’s sacrificing himself?!”
Cassian stiffened. “I was gathering my thoughts.”
“Well, gather them faster,” I snapped. “Because you’re taking me to him.”
Cassian’s brows lifted. “Absolutely not.”
I stepped closer until I was toe-to-toe with him. “Cassian,” I said, voice low and deadly, “I will walk into that mansion alone. I will knock. I will ring the bell. I will Yelp review their hospitality. I will do whatever it takes. Take me to him.”
He blinked like I’d short-circuited something in his undead brain.
Finally, he muttered, “You’re a menace.”
“Correct. Now take me to Cristian.”
He rubbed his temples. “If we’re going,” he said, sounding like a man accepting his own execution, “we do it my way. I’ve been sitting here mulling it over, and I think I have a plan. Cristian would never approve because he has… morals. But I’ve been with those bastards for over three centuries. I know exactly how to hurt them.”
Before I could ask, a floorboard creaked, and I whirled around. Ezra and Lena stood in the doorway, like two kids caught stealing cookies. Lena was holding a frying pan. Ezra was holding his laptop like a shield.
“We were eavesdropping,” Lena announced, completely unapologetic.
Ezra lifted the laptop. “And you’re not going without us. I know the court’s magical frequencies,” he said, already setting his laptop on the coffee table. “I can track the circle. I can tell when they start the ritual. And I can, maybe, interfere.”
Lena banged the frying pan lightly against her palm. “And I’m here to hit whoever needs hitting.”
Cassian looked between them. “This is absurd.”
“You’re absurd,” Lena snapped.
Cassian’s mouth twitched. “Fair.”
Ezra closed his laptop with a decisive click. “We going or what?”
I straightened, dizziness be damned. “Let’s go. Cristian needs us.”
Cassian sighed dramatically and stood. “This is going to get us all killed.”
“Then,” I said, grabbing a dagger off the coffee table—because at this point, why not—“we’ll die loudly.”
Lena whooped. Ezra swore quietly. Cassian muttered something about regretting all his life choices.
But they followed me to the door. This time I wasn’t the girl who let people decide for her.
I was going to save him.
Chapter 28
Cristian
Iknelt.
The stone floor beneath me thrummed with old power etched by hands that believed themselves divine. The runes glowed as the magic crawled up my skin like roots claiming new soil. Ambrosia and Hammond had performed this ritual dozens of times in this very room, the evidence of which stood around us in black cloaks.
I did not flinch.
Ambrosia paced before me, robes shimmering like fresh blood. Hammond stood behind her, hands lifted, chanting in a language older than civilization. And in the corners stood the others. The bonded ones. Silent, hooded, faceless beings.
A warning of what awaited me.
