Chapter 8
My heart climbedinto my throat. We stood in the hallway of a legit dingy dungeon. The air reeked of blood and urine. Fear flickered in the low light, and splattered stains on the stone walls gave a whole new meaning to uber-creepy vibe. The two selkie warriors stepped to one side of the door as Kaja, Rage, and I hovered on the opposite side.
‘I don’t like it,’I told Rage.‘No guards? It’s like when we first landed on the beach with Sadie and Audrey.’
Rage closed his eyes, and it took me a hot second to realize he was concentrating. Sure enough, the sound of Surlama’s voice trickled out to us through the other side of the closed door.
“You said he would come for you, but maybe you’re wrong, Justice Midnight. Maybe he cares more about that bitch of his than you or Noble.”
Hot searing anger burned through me. Worse than Surlama’s voice, what she said made me see red. When Justice wailed in pain, Rage strode to the door, lifted his knee to his chest, and then delivered a deafening blow. One kick, and the door flew open with such force it crashed into the wall behind it as splinters rained down onto the floor.
Apparently, it was go time.
With the now broken door swinging, we couldn’t wait for reinforcements. Hopefully, Rage’s mom and the other Harvest girls would show soon.
Rage burst inside, and I raced in after him, blade drawn and ready for anythi—
Oh Mother Mage.
It was a trap.
At least twenty guards, including the alpha king, stood armed to the teeth waiting against the far wall. Feral grins stretched across many of their faces, but none bigger than Declan’s.
The room, if it could be called that, was huge, at least a hundred feet in diameter, bigger than the mess hall back home, bigger than the cafeteria of the school. Why did Declan need a torture chamber this big?
The deep cavern of power crackling just below my skin roared forward, and I prepared to unleash the mother of all elemental power bombs.
Until my gaze landed on Justice. His dark hair was clumped and matted with blood, his green eyes blackened and nearly swollen shut. Bruises marred his skin: arms, chest, neck…
Of all the Midnight brothers, Rage and Justice were nearly identical. So seeing him with a twelve-inch blade to his throat tore my heart in two.
Surlama sneered. “Use your magic, and I’ll drive my blade in so deep you’ll never get it out.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, and she pressed the blade tighter until blood beaded on his neck and Justice whimpered.
The magic inside of me fizzled completely as tears welled in my eyes.
‘What do we do?’I asked Rage.
He stood stone still beside me, glaring daggers at his uncle.
Noble lay curled in a ball on the stone floor, bruised, battered, and bound at Declan’s feet. The brutality and viciousness I’d only glimpsed before now lay before me in totalshockingdepravity.
Kaja gasped as she entered, coming to stand on my left, and I felt, rather than saw, the two selkies join us.
“Mother Mage,” one of them gasped.
“So you’ve aligned with these traitors as well?” the king snarled at Rage, waving at the selkies with venom in his gaze. “Is there no limit to your desperation?”
Was he joking?
“What do you want?” Rage asked, his eyes darting from Noble to Justice and then back to his uncle.
The veins in Declan’s neck bulged. “Turns out I’m sterile.” He made the declaration as if it were an accusation against Rage. “All this time, I thought it was your mother, but even magic cannot bring me an heir.”
Whoa. TMI? That bomb drop wasn’t something I’d expected him to say in front of twenty of his guards.
Rage frowned, his gaze darting about the room as if there were an escape from his uncle’s statement. “Okay…”
