It’s moments like these that I wish my dad were here and still in control. He wouldn’t be passive like these assholes.
“Do you hate my brother so much that you’d rather he was dead?” I ask Soter.
He grits his teeth. “Desiree, you are blaming the wrong person. I didn’t ask him to go through the damn portal.”
Yeah, I’d rather yell at my brother, but Wilder isn’t fucking here.
“You should be chasing after them, you should be doing something.”
The Glaucus Blade Commander, Wendy, frowns. “Mrs. Bathory, I assure you, we are doing everything we can. We’ve secured the perimeter. Daemons have been shot. But we can’t go inside; we could get ambushed?—”
“You are being cowards,” I sneer.
“We are following orders,” Soter adds next.
“Whose?” I ask, still wriggling. “I thought you called the shots now?”
Soter looks toward the water, then back at me. Unease swirls in his mismatched eyes. “Wilder’s.”
I stop struggling. One Blade restraining me exhales in relief. “What did he say?”
Soter runs his tongue over one of the two symmetrical snake bite piercings in his lower lip. “If they aren’t back by daybreak, Ravi should use the spell to close them in it.”
“No,” I whisper. That’s an instant death sentence.
Sunrise is too soon.
Loose strands of hair blow into my eyes, and I struggle to breathe. If Wilder doesn’t come back, I’ll never get to laugh with my brother again. I faked my death once, thinking I’d have to live an eternity never seeing him, but fate had other plans. We didn’t get a second chance to be torn apart again.
No. I swallow back tears. I refuse to accept this.
“Where’s Jaxson?” I ask Soter. “He would never let you do this.”
“Jax is running an errand,” Wendy replies softly.
I shake my head. They sent him away on purpose.
I jerk against my captors, lurching toward the lake again. If I can reach the portal, I’ll be in Mictlan before they can stop me. The Blades grunt, and their muscles strain as they try to hold me back. I manage to free one hand and punch one of them in the face, cartilage crunches under my knuckles. The other officer yanks me back, and I land flat on my back with a grunt.
“You bitch,” the one I just hit exclaims, blood running down his chin.
“Better a bitch than a doormat,” I wheeze.
“That’s enough,” Soter warns. Neither Blade hears him. One of them comes down on top of me. I growl, hiss, and do everything I can to buck him off. Mud cakes my clothes, my face, and my hair. In my frenzy, I rake my nails across one of their faces.
“I said that’s enough,” Soter growls, prying one officer off me.
“What the fuck?” Jaxson’s voice rings through the air like a shotgun blast.
A moment later, Wendy pulls the remaining officer to his feet. I rush toward the water. But Jax catches me before I can dive in.
“Desiree, stop.”
“Let me go.” A Styrofoam cup crunches beneath my shoes as I shuffle my feet. There are several more discarded cups lying nearby. Coffee stains the mud a milky brown.
“Don’t! Desiree, look at me.” All I can see is my desperate need to take action. “Desiree. You’re leaving me no choice. If you won’t listen to me, I will need to remove you from the situation.”
“I won’t leave them in there?—”
