Thorn inclined his head to Kalder, then passed a harsh, condemning glare to the Sarim. “Tell me again how the damned are beyond redemption?”
They looked away sheepishly.
He clapped Kalder on the back. “Know that it sickens me to do this to you. If there’s any way to save you, we will find it.”
Kalder nodded. “Tell Cameron that it was my honor to spare her.” He pulled the necklace off that had belonged to his brother and handed it to Thorn. “And give her this from me. Ask her to pray for my brother’s soul.”
“Not yours?”
He let out a bitter laugh. “We both know where mine belongs and where it be headed.”
Thorn took the necklace and tucked it into his pocket. What he had to do sickened him to the core of his worthless soul. But he had no choice. The two bitches with him weren’t about to spare him this, and he knew it. They would never spare him any nightmare.
Cursing his father and himself, he pulled out his dagger and as quickly and painlessly as possible, he sliced Kalder’s artery so that his blood coated the floor.
The Myrcian staggered, but Thorn caught him and kept him from falling to the cold ground like garbage. He held him in his arms as his life faded.
“Sleep in peace, little brother,” he whispered against his ear. “I won’t let you die alone this time. And you will be mourned and missed. You are a good man, Kalder. Let no one ever tell you otherwise. Not even you.”
Sinking to the ground, Thorn cradled him in his arms and held him there until he bled out and was gone. Tears filled his eyes as he hated everything about himself and the choices he was forced to make. Choices they were all forced to make.
Michael didn’t say a word as he gathered Kalder’s blood and used it for the incantations he needed to free his progeny.
Gabriel knelt by his side. “Thorn?”
He blinked slowly, unable to answer for the pain inside him that churned and ached so deep that it left him hollow and numb.
“You need to let him go.”
Yet he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not when he knew the horrors that had haunted Kalder. “He’s not garbage.”
“I know.”
Nay, he didn’t know. Not really. Closing his eyes, Thorn clutched at Kalder’s head and swore to them both that he would find some miracle to free the Myrcian. Even if he had to unravel the universe to do it.
“Kalder?”
Blinking, Thorn looked up as Cameron came out of the wall to see them on the floor, saturated in blood.
With a fierce sob, she rushed to them. Her hands trembled as she sobbed and clutched at Kalder’s jacket. “Nay! Nay! I can’t lose him! Not like this!”
Thorn pulled her against him to comfort her. “Shh, child. He only sleeps.”
She stared at him as if he were crazy. And he was, indeed. For only a crazy person would have defied the powers that be to create the Hellchasers as Thorn had done.
He felt his eyes turn bright red before he offered her a determined grin. “I brought him back when he had absolutely nothing to live for. Do you really think he’ll stay down now that he has so much to lose?”
* * *
Mara came awake to the most peculiar warmth. Until she remembered her sister’s treachery.
Furious, she sat up and …
What the devil?
She was on board a ship, but it wasn’t her body that made up this vessel. “Du?” she called, glancing around the small, unfamiliar cabin.
Instead of Duel, Thorn came in to stand beside her bunk.
