* * *
Devyl staggered as he felt something go through him like a hot poker. It sliced through his middle and left him in agony. For a moment, he thought Gadreyal had gotten through his defenses.
Until he realized it was something far, far worse.
Mara was dying.
Kicking Gadreyal away from him, he ran to find her and cursed himself for not using his powers to send her away from here, her protests be damned. As he reached Mara and William’s position, he started to yell at William for failing to keep her safe, then noticed that he was bespelled and had no way of assisting anyone.
Not even himself.
So he sank to his knees by her side and gathered Mara’s cold, limp body into his arms and tried to wake her.
She didn’t move. Her skin was icy and cold. Her body completely unresponsive.
Unable to breathe, Devyl cupped her precious cheek in his hand and pressed his forehead to hers as grief tore him asunder. In that moment, he felt shattered. Lost.
Desolate.
“Nay!” His eyes changed over an instant before he blasted William free from the spell holding him. “What happened!”
“She gave Vine your harthfret? I know not what that is, but it sounded important.”
That only confused him more as he glanced down to his sword that was comprised of his wand—the same sword that held his stone. No one had taken his harthfret. It was intact. He could feel the power emanating from it. Mara would have known she didn’t have his harthfret to give …
Yet no sooner had that thought gone through his mind than he realized Mara’s necklace was missing from her throat. “What did you do, Mara?” Tears stung his eyes.
Had she given it over to her sister as a dupe to protect him? He went cold at the thought.
If Vine had her harthfret, she could kill Mara forever. There would be no way to bring her back.
Unable to stand it, he rose with Mara’s body in his arms and handed her to William. “You better not get caught again. And you’d best make damn sure no one touches her. Do you hear me?”
“Aye, Captain.”
Grinding his teeth against the grief and agony inside him, he balled his hand in her precious hair and bit back his tears, then teleported William and Mara to Santiago’s ship, where they’d be safe. At least he prayed for that to be so.
That bastard had better not have gone down during their fight.
More than that, Santiago had best keep Mara safe from all harm until this was over and Devyl could get to her.
Furious and terrified that he wouldn’t be able to save her in spite of his magick, Devyl headed toward Gadreyal with only one thing on his mind.
Saving the only person in this world who mattered to him. The world and all else be damned.
“Where’s Vine?”
“Vine who?”
“Don’t play that game, she-bitch. I’m in no mood for it.” He raked a glare over her blood-colored armor, wanting to add more red to it. And some brain matter as well. There was nothing left inside him now except a fury so raw and potent it would not be appeased until he tasted someone’s heart and soul.
He wasn’t selective as to whose it had to be, either. The beast within was awake and it was salivating.
Gadreyal threw a bolt at him.
He absorbed it and shot it back to her, with interest. Then he added another. And another. He summoned the lightning and shot it at her.
She shrank away in terror.
