“Zane!” Janie threw the other star toward him. Still coated with Kalin’s blood, the star spun wickedly through the air, spraying red.
Zane ducked, and the weapon wisped by his ear to embed itself in rock.
Suri laughed and lifted his arm.
Zane shoved pain, fear, and humanity to hell and let the demon inside him trump all else. His eyes stung, no doubt turning all black. He twisted on his one knee, yanked the star from the stone, and drove up just as Suri swung down.
Suri’s star sliced across Zane’s shoulder.
Zane’s aim stayed true, and he sliced the sharp disk into Suri’s trachea. The demon leader gasped, his hands grabbing the star. Zane let his momentum propel him into his uncle, and they both crashed to the ground. Another fissure opened up beneath Suri, spreading out from his waist.
Suri bucked, his hands sliding through the blood on the weapon.
Zane straddled him, his vision wavering. He wrapped both hands over Suri’s on the star and turned to seek his mate. She stood on the other side of the cavern, pale, visibly trembling. “Get out, Belle. Before he dies, get out.”
She looked down at her protruding stomach and nodded.
Zane shut his eyes. He could kill Suri and take the responding explosion into his body. To save Janie and their son. He could do it. Suri’s struggles gained force, and Zane’s hands lost dexterity.
He leaned up and stared directly into his uncle’s black eyes. “For my family.” Letting out a warrior’s battle cry, he shoved with all his weight. The star cut to the stone—through muscle, tissue, and bone.
Blood gurgled from Suri’s mouth, which dropped open in an expression of pure shock.
Zane released the star and grabbed Suri’s hair, yanking his head from his body with a sickening wet sound.
For the smallest of moments, death held peace.
Then a wave of deadly power exploded out, throwing Zane into a table. Agony lanced down his back. He dropped to his knees. The air morphed and turned brown, the oxygen flashing with sparks. Wind somehow burst through the cavern with a painful keening.
Blood dripped from Zane’s eyes, turning the world red. The earth bucked in displeasure, ripples turning into earthquakes.
God. What had he done?
Pressure built, heavy and devastating. The earth began to fold in on herself, sending out shock waves for miles.
Janie emitted a powerful cry of denial, hopping over fissures to reach him in a low tackle, landing on him. “Hold on.” Grabbing him tight, she yanked him out of hell.
Peace and warmth. Zane opened his eyes to the oddest sense of safety. He blinked and sat up on heated sand in their dream world. “Belle?”
She lay next to him and pushed herself up on hands and knees, looking around. “Oh.”
Zane glanced down at Suri lying beneath him. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Janie stood up and brushed sand off her jeans. “But we only have seconds.”
Zane stood, battered and bleeding, and kicked his uncle over onto his back. Suri’s mouth remained open, his eyes wide in death.
“Ouch.” She grabbed her belly and grimaced.
“What?” Panic swelled and choked him.
She shook her head. “Not now. God. We have to get out of here.”
Zane tried to force thoughts through his muddled head. How many concussions did he have, anyway? The sky opened up above him, red lightning flashing against black clouds. The entire dream world wobbled.
The air chilled to freezing.
A figure hovered near the tree line. Kalin? Zane shook his head, trying to focus. The Kurjan was almost transparent, and his greenish purple eyes glowed through a rapidly thickening mist.
