I waited for an answer that would never come, clinging to a false hope in desperation. But when the wind lashes were all I could hear, I knew I was only delaying the inevitable.
“Fine, Damien. We’ll have it your way.”
I let my gaze wander around. This might be the last time I saw trees and snow. I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the cabin. This might be the last time I…
I couldn’t even say it, and I crumbled down in sobs. “I’m so sorry.I’m so sorry!”
My bloodshot eyes lifted heavenward again in a desperate cry for help. As if I was saying, “Look at me. I’m going to Hell now, giving myself to the devil where we may have a good chance of having that baby you dread. Do you wanna do something about it? Maybe change your mind and give me that baby with one of the other three so I wouldn’t have to ruin everything for you?”
I waited like an idiot again for answers I’d never receive. “No? Okay. You leave me no choice then.” With a shivering breath, I rose. Then I swallowed as I took one step forward, the heat from the portal suddenly too welcoming. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Left foot first, I went in the portal, my guilt and worry and pain melting with the fire. Once I was fully in, I knew I’d be a different person, and all the confusion and hurt and desperation I’d been feeling would go away.
All I had to do was slide in and let go.
I lifted my right foot and stepped in—
A cold gust of wind ruffled my hair, and something thudded behind me. As I twisted to see what it was, a massive bulk blocked my vision. For a second, I didn’t understand what was happening. Then I was yanked and tossed on the ground, and a heavy weight pressed me down.
Fuck. Not again. “Seriously, guys? I’m sick and tired of this shit.”
Chapter 20
Joshua
Alec kicked the snow at the end of Isabella’s trail in the middle of the woods, where she must have opened a portal to Hell and left. “She can’t be gone! There has to be a way to go there and get her back before the fucker hypnotizes her.”
“Only demons have that kind of access. Any luck with Inferno?” I asked.
“Do you think I’d be here if I had any luck with that son of a devil? The bastard wouldn’t help. He said he might have done it before, when he thought Belle wasn’t as bad as his father, but after today, he wanted nothing to do with Damien and his mate.”
“Did you try to explain Isabella was under some sort of demonic influence this morning, and she wasn’t herself?”
“Yes, Asher, I did!” He kicked a tree trunk this time. “He said even if that was true, he wouldn’t risk his horns for his stepmom, and if he interfered with Damien’s plans, whatever they were, he would be risking the devil coming back for the babies, too.”
“What about you? Found anything useful?” Kayden broke his silence. He hadn’t said a word since we set out to find Isabella, and I could smell his guilt from here.
Good.
“I think I found the rest of the prophecy text, and I got some books that will help me with the translation,” I said.
“I’ll help. Two brains are better than one. Looks like understanding the prophecy is the only way we have left to find and save Belle.”
“I’ll help, too,” Alec said.
Kayden’s feet crunched the snow as he turned his gaze to his brother. “Okay, but first tell the rest of the pack, tell every Beastly, wolf, bear, reindeer, lion, all of them, to find a demon that could help us, and ask one of our brothers to bring Katrina here. Maybe the witch knows a way to open a portal or anything about the prophecy.”
Alec nodded, taking off his shirt, and then fur covered his back as he hunched for the shift.
At the cabin, Kayden and I set the dining table in the lounge—after clearing the broken furniture—and spread all the books on it.
I dove nose in, devouring the words, occupying ever corner of my mind, drowning myself in work so I wouldn’t think about what Damien might have been doing to my Isabella.
About the fact that she was gone.
About the fact that I couldn’t protect her.
Just like Rena.
