“It’s a memory he repressed about this place,” Reed explained, but his voice was strained.
Had he seen it, too?
“My father—” I choked out.
A serial killer.
The only known demon serial killer that hasn’t been caught yet.
“What about him, Bram?” Pandora coaxed me.
“He’s been killing nobles for years…right there.” I pointed a shaky finger toward the slab.
I barely registered the others reacting to the information.
Dex and Skel swore under their breaths.
“You’re okay, Bram,” Reed assured me as he bent down on my other side. “Everything you saw was in the past.”
Hunter kneeled in front of me, his voice cutting through the fog in my head. “The serial killer that’s been evading the council is Harry Hemlock?”
I managed to nod.
Dex let out a humorless laugh. “Fucking Fates, Bram. Both our sperm donors are sick bastards.”
“No kidding,” Skel muttered, shaking his head.
“How do you know he’s the serial killer?” Pandora asked gently, her hand running the length of my spine.
A tremor shook me as I forced the words out. “He took me here. He—he killed them right here. He told me it was a lesson. That all nobles deserved it.”
Silence stretched between us.
“What the fuck?” Dex uttered.
“It’s true. What he saw wasn’t a nightmare like he thought it was. It was a memory buried in his subconscious. This place triggered it,” Reed told them.
Pandora had always known I struggled with my past, butthiswas different. This was the raw, bleeding wound at my core, laid bare for her and her other mates to see. I hadn’t even known I was this fucked up.
Shit, even those agents had to see this side of me.
But they didn’t turn away—none of them did.
“No wonder Dark Veil used this site to set up shop at. The energy here is perfect for their vile plans.” Jesper’s expression hardened. “We have a serial killer to find, but first, we need to deal with this ritual site.”
“Bram, listen to me,” Hunter said, his voice cutting through everything else. “You need to destroy this ritual site. The altar. The slab. Take your power back from what your father made you witness here.”
“I’ll destroy the dark magic first.” Pandora pushed to her feet, stepping toward the dark magic radiating from the site.
Her dark smoke crept out, rolling forth and devouring all of the dark magic within the slab, sigils, and the dark magic circle. Traps around the slab that had been set with dark magic crackled violently, resisting her pull, but she didn’t stop. She absorbed every last drop of dark magic like the fucking goddess she was.
She sucked all that shit back into her, but as soon as her magic settled, she doubled over and vomited the dead magic back out in a sickly tar-like mess.
“I’ve got you.” Skel wrapped his hand around her ponytail so what she purged wouldn’t get on her hair.
“You’re getting even better at that.” Dex rubbed her back as she straightened up.
Reed handed her a mint. “You okay?”
