Tinker Bell stopped flicking through the pages. “Found it, but we need ingredients.” She scanned the list, and her shoulders slumped. “Most of them are easy to find and I have them, except one.”
My stomach tightened. “What ingredient?”
Tinker Bell met my gaze. “Unseelie Royal Blood.”
Angelo flashed Keir a curious look. “Why didn’t you go to the Hollows and retrieve Prince Killian’s blood? That would have been simpler than sending a man into the Underworld.”
Keir narrowed his eyes. “Because he looks at me as a traitor and wouldn’t have given it to me. Besides, Stefan Gabor and I aren’t on speaking terms at this time.”
“I’ll go to the Hollows and force Killian to give it to me,” I growled.
“You can’t,” Tinker Bell said. “He has to offer it to you freely.”
Obviously she wasn’t schooled in the art of torture. Everyone broke eventually. Everyone could be persuaded.
She picked a stone up from the ground, examining its rough surface. “According to the spell, you need a blood stone.”
She raised the stone above her head, her voice taking on an otherworldly resonance that seemed to echo from somewhere deep within her chest. “Sanguis libere datus, petra receptum faciat. By will freely given, let stone become vessel.”
The air around the stone shimmered with heat distortion as ancient magic responded to her words. The rough gray rock began to transform, its surface smoothing and darkening until it resembled polished obsidian. A faint red glow pulsed within its depths, like a heartbeat made visible.
She lowered her arms, the transformed stone still pulsing with that eerie red light. “Place this in his palm. The stone will take his freely given blood, and when it’s done, the entire stonewill turn dark red. But if he doesn’t give it freely, the stone will turn bright orange.”
Killian would never cooperate. Not freely, not willingly. He hated me, hated vampires, and helping us rescue Joy? He’d laugh in my face. Or worse, he’d see this as leverage—a way to make demands, extract promises I couldn’t keep. “How the hell am I going to do that?”
“We have to give him an incentive.” Angelo shrugged. His gaze focused on me. “How much does he love his mate, Kara?”
I was willing to do anything to rescue Joy—even this. Threatening someone’s mate went against every instinct I had, crossed a line I’d always respected. But Joy was out there, trapped, possibly dying. What choice did I have? “I guess we’ll find out.”
The words were out before I could stop them, but even as I spoke, I knew what we were contemplating. Angelo’s methods weren’t pretty, but Kara wasn’t some innocent bystander. She was locked up in the Hollows for a reason.
Serenity’s face paled. “Angelo, no. You can’t be serious.”
He didn’t flinch. “But I am. You have to choose. Joy or Kara.”
“That’s not fair.” Her voice broke. She looked away, jaw working as she struggled with the decision. Finally she met Angelo’s eyes, pain written across her features. “I don’t like this. Using someone’s mate as leverage—it’s wrong. But if I have to choose...” She swallowed hard. “Joy.”
I dragged my hand through my hair. “I know it’s not fair, Serenity. But we’re out of options. You can heal her no matter what happens. But we have to get past those vines and into the Elder Dimension. It’s the only way to rescue Joy.”
“We need to move now.” Angelo pulled out his phone. “Pascal, have my jet ready. We’ll bring them back here. Dimitri, you’ll come with us.”
Tinker Bell handed the blood stone to Angelo. “You’ll find out immediately whether he’s lying.”
If Killian lied, he’d regret it.
Dimitri cracked his knuckles, his eyes fixed on the cathedral. “Let’s go get this royal blood and tear down those vines. Valentin’s waited long enough.”
The pieces were falling into place. Soon we’d have Prince Killian’s blood, the spell would work, and I’d tear through those vines to reach Joy. Nothing else mattered.
