Shit. So much for staying under the radar. All it took was one phone call to the local police, one nosy tourist with a camera, and our location would be broadcast to anyone looking for us. And everyone was looking for us.
Valentin and Darius wrestled him into a room at the end of the hall where Rose and Alice waited. Rose shut the door behind them. Alice stood by the window, her face ashen.
I stood in the doorway, my chest tight. I’d seen rage before—lived inside it, been consumed by it. But this was something else. Lucien looked like a man being torn apart from the inside out. Whatever Vex had done, whatever message he’d sent, it had found its target.
And if Vex could break Lucien—one of the strongest among us—the rest of us didn’t stand a chance.
"You need to calm down," Valentin said, still pinning Lucien's arm. "You can't charge after him. Not like this."
I followed them in, my pulse still hammering. "What happened?"
Selena appeared at my shoulder. She had on her T-shirt and a pair of jeans, her hair wild from sleep. I reached for her hand without thinking—an instinct now, keeping her close whenever the world tilted sideways.
Lucien stopped struggling. Not because the fight had left him—I could see it still raging behind his eyes, a wildfire barelycontained. His chest heaved. His hands trembled. A vein pulsed at his temple like it was about to burst through the skin.
When he spoke, his voice was shattered.
"Vex." His fist slammed into the wall, cracking the plaster. "Vex took Raven."
The room went dead silent. Even the air seemed to stop moving.
Fuck.
My gaze cut to the window. The sky was black. No sign of silver scales catching moonlight, no massive shadow circling overhead. She was gone.
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Half past nine. Less than three hours before the Solstice.
And Vex had just gotten himself a new bargaining chip.
I looked at Selena. Her face had gone white, her hand gripping mine so hard I could feel the bones shift. She was thinking the same thing I was—that could have been her. That could have been any of us. And now one of the most powerful women in our world was in the hands of a demon who fed on suffering.
"He's going to be expecting us," Rose said. "We have to be ready for anything."
"I'm not going to let him kill her," Lucien said, renewing his efforts to break free. “I still have the fucking shard. That motherfucker is dead.’
I understood. If Vex had taken Selena, I'd have torn through every wall in this building to get to her.
But rage wouldn’t save Raven. We needed to think. Vex wanted the shard—that’s why he’d taken her. She was leverage. Which meant she was alive. And as long as she was alive, we had a chance. But the clock was ticking, and a demon with a hostage didn’t negotiate for long.
"If you rush in there, she's already dead," Darius said, his voice low and steady. "Is that what you want?"
The fight bled out of Lucien. His shoulders dropped and he hung his head. "No."
Watching him crumble was worse than watching him rage. Lucien Acosta didn’t break. He was a warrior, a leader, the kind of man other men followed into battle without question. And now he stood in a hotel room in his underwear, looking like a man who’d just had his heart ripped out through his chest.
I knew that look. I’d worn it for two years.
Rose was already pulling a spell book from her bag, flipping through the pages. "Lucien is right about one thing. We need to move. Now."
Vex was getting desperate. Desperate demons were unpredictable, and unpredictable meant dangerous. I didn't want Selena anywhere near that castle. The last time she’d faced Vex, his blade had sliced her ribs and his hand had nearly crushed her throat through Balthazar.
If we went back, he wouldn’t just try to hurt her—he’d use her against me. Possess her. Threaten her. Put a blade to her throat and watch me choose between the shard and the woman I loved.
And that was a choice I couldn’t make.
One look at her face told me she'd fight me on it. And win.
I glanced at the group. Selena first—always Selena first. She stood beside me, her face set, her eyes fierce despite the fear I could feel humming through the bond. She wasn’t going to stay behind. I already knew that. And I already knew I wouldn’t be able to talk her out of it.
