“Go,” Father Paulus said with a nod. “The Order is sending us backup to thoroughly search this place for any sign of the missing clerics and clues as to where that man took the Oracle.”
Eleni stiffened, an air of sudden understanding descending over her features. “My assignment to this mission… It wasn’t a coincidence, was it? You deliberately sent me here so all of this would occur. Didn’t you?”
He nodded with the conviction of a man who believed he had made difficult but necessary choices.
“I have spent two decades infiltrating this cult and trying to destroy it from within,” he explained. “Demetra—the Oracle—never stopped hunting you down. They were tracking each of your assignments, waiting for an opportunity to abduct you. We secretly intervened, thwarting their plans.”
Eleni gasped. “What?! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We couldn’t let the word out. And you were too proud to accept being protected in the shadows. If the Curia found out, they would have forced us to eliminate you, like they wished to do from the moment I brought you back. They’re terrifiedof what you might become or how you could be used to cause harm.”
Before she could answer, a barely audible strangled moan had my head jerking towards the throne. Only then did I realize that one of the impaled Elders still hung to life by a thread. I resolutely marched towards him, my claws lengthening into vicious blades. Grabbing both his hood and hair, I yanked his head back, exposing his torso. In one swift movement, I punched into his chest and tore out his still weakly beating heart before devouring it. Countless images flashed through my mind’s eye. One of them retained my attention. It looked like a dungeon with ten women hanging from the ceiling, held by chains. Below them, a bloodied stone altar faced a gaping hole into an abyss.
There was no question they were the abducted clerics.
But where the fuck is that place?
Like with the memories from the Onis, the Elder had accessed that place by travelling to a waypoint. Except, this time, he spoke a word of power to open the hidden entrance. The problem was that Eleni previously made us appear at the waypoint with an incantation. The Elder had broken a single-use teleportation stone to take him there. I had no idea where that entrance was located, let alone where I could get more of these stones.
I turned back to my companions. While Paulus kept a neutral expression, Sister Martha failed miserably at hiding her discomfort with my actions. I couldn’t help the malicious grin that stretched my lips. I doubted the fiendish side of me that loved to needle people—especially those of the clergy—would ever abate.
I related to them what I had seen, including projecting the image in the hopes that, as moles within the cult, Paulus and Martha might have visited that place. Unsurprisingly, they both shook their heads. That would have been too easy.
It will have to wait.
For now, I needed to take my woman to see Kali. With luck, Pharos’s mate would be able to mend Eleni. As if reading my mind, Paulus glanced towards the entrance of the Sanctuary.
“You should leave. The others will soon arrive. I do not want them to see Eleni like this. Her new powers radiate with too much intensity. I want to limit her interactions with the Order until she’s fully whole and in control.”
“Let any fool come at her, and they will deal with me,” I hissed menacingly.
Eleni placed an appeasing hand on my arm although her gaze remained locked with her mentor. In that instant, I would have given anything to be able to read her mind. Despite that, I felt an undeniable shift. Something had not just changed, it had flat-out broken. She spent her entire life trying to fit in. But embracing her true nature likely now made her a pariah, maybe even something to be hunted.
“Go, child. I will be in touch,” he said in a gentle tone. “The portal back to the waypoint is over here,” he added, pointing at it.
Eleni gave him a stiff nod. Then, without another word, she walked towards the magic circle, which served as a transportation portal. And I followed in her wake.
Chapter 12
Eleni
The entire flight back to the Shadow Realms, I struggled with the growing distress that was trying to swallow me whole. I felt hollow, but also as if a foreign entity was trying to take over my body. I understood that it was the darkness I had kept locked away from so long trying to assert its presence—not to say its dominance. The best way to describe it was like when a drop of ink fell into clean water, and it quickly spread, tainting everything, and turning the water murky.
Lyall’s gaze weighed heavily on me as he continuously checked on me. His concern and solicitude should have warmed my heart, but it angered me. I hated the resentment festering within me for him getting trapped. I warned him that something could happen to him, but he’d been too damn arrogant to even contemplate that possibility.
And Paulus is no better…
A little voice at the back of my head whispered for me to kill Lyall… to kill them both. They deserved it. Their combined failures now left me but a shadow of myself, my soul literallyfractured, and pure evil trying to take over what was left. Something akin to sexual pleasure—or at least a form of arousal—swelled within me at the prospect of all the ways I could make both males suffer.
My nipples hardened just thinking about how that insane power had flown through me. The screams of the cultists as I reduced them to charred husks was almost orgasmic.
The malicious smile that began stretching my lips froze, and I shuddered upon realizing how much I truly wanted to hurt the two people who meant the most to me. What the hell kind of monster had I become? That hatred and resentment were irrational. In their own way, both men loved me. There was no question in my mind that they never wanted me to get hurt, and least of all to find myself in this current predicament.
Paulus was wrong. Over the years, he repeated countless times that I was strong enough to face anything, including my darkness. And although I resisted its lure until tonight, I had truly believed that I would be able to control it if I ever set it free. But now, I knew beyond any doubt that I was weak. It was only a matter of time before I lost myself to this monster.
A searing anger surged within me as soon as that thought entered my mind. Years of training had taught me not to yield to the voice of doubt and defeat. And yet, here I was ready to lay down my weapons and let myself be trampled by the first true challenge I had ever faced. I was better than this. I didn’t know if I could win this battle, but I’d be damned if I gave up without a fight.
I glanced at Lyall. I couldn’t read his emotion in his beast form, not that I needed to. He loved me. Even now, he was desperately looking for a solution to my predicament. Despite how things went haywire in the Sanctuary, I trusted him to do everything in his power to keep me safe. Missions rarely went off without a hitch. This one might have been of epic proportions,but he still helped get me out of there alive—hollow though I now was. I would keep my faith in him.
