"Before you answer, consider this. If you refuse, the Reaper will tear apart the death realms searching for you. His domain will collapse. And I'll extract your abilities by force."
He stepped back.
"Your choice, Brynn. Help me build paradise. Or watch everything you love burn while I take what I need anyway."
One of the shell guards placed something on her arm. Small, metal, cold. One of the ward-tools.
Magic surged through her as the tool responded to her bloodline. But it felt corrupted, twisted.
Pain exploded through her arm.
Like something hooked into her bones and pulled, dragging magic out through her blood by force.
She screamed.
"The tools can extract more than essence," Caelum said over her screaming. "They can pull at specific abilities. This is a very mild application."
Bone-deep agony that made thought impossible.
Dante—
His name was all she could hold onto. His face. His voice. The way he'd held her just hours ago.
Caelum removed the tool.
The pain stopped instantly. Left her gasping, shaking, sweat pouring down her face.
"That was perhaps thirty seconds. Full extraction takes hours. Sometimes days."
He set the tool down and knelt in front of her.
"Choose, Brynn. But choose quickly."
The tool descended toward her arm.
LXVI.
DANTE
His shadows had never left her.
They'd been on her since the first touch, a protective instinct he hadn't acknowledged until it was too late to stop. Threads wrapped around her wrist, woven through her hair. Barely visible, but there.
When Caelum's transport circle activated, those shadows went with her.
Dante felt it instantly. The pull. Her being ripped from his realm. From his side. The bond snapping taut like a fishing line caught on something massive and sinking fast.
Hours ago she'd been in his arms. He'd tasted her, felt her come apart beneath him, held her while she fell asleep.
And now she was gone.
The stone circle still crackled with residual magic. The other Death Lords converged.
"The transport signature is scrambled," Thessa whispered. "Layered. Hidden beneath?—"
"I know where she is."
His voice came out flat.
