It was then I realized how right he was. Even if I hadn’t been consciously doing so, I was struggling to trust him.
Gaze dropping to his lips, I said, “I’m sorry. Grim just took the reins, and everything happened so fast after that. I didn’t even think about calling for you.”
Shoulders slumping, he stepped back. “And that’s the problem. You’ve been so busy pushing me away that I’m little more than an afterthought. For any of this to work,reallywork, I have to be on equal footing with the others. I understand that the four of them have always been a package deal, which puts me at a disadvantage, but that will never change if you don’t make a concentrated effort to do so.”
His words were soft and just for me, but they were no less devastating. I felt awful.
Yes, he was a brat. But he was trying to be a better man. He’d set aside everything he’d been working toward to be with me, which included learning how to become a team player with people he’d long considered his enemies. What more proof of his intentions did I need? No one was perfect, and Lucifer was mymate every bit as much as the others. He deserved better from me.
Reaching for him, I threaded our fingers and tugged so he came back to me. “I’m sorry. Truly. You’re right. I will do better.” I rose onto my tiptoes and brushed my lips over his in a chaste kiss.
Lilith’s voice broke the spell between us as she stormed into the room, the rest of the group hot on her heels. “Is everyone all right?”
Just like that, the room went from an intimate hush to a chaotic reunion of desperate and fearful mates. News of our return must have just spread.
“Everyone’s fine,” Grim announced with calm authority.
He must have known that assurance coming from him rather than those of us who’d been taken would carry a bit more weight. Mates had a habit of being a bit overprotective of those they were bound to. I should know; I was one of them.
“Can someone explain to me how my mate was torn out of this sanctuary right in front of Kingston’s face? She was in her fecking robe. A few moments earlier and she’d have been naked. There was no warning. No alarm. How did this happen?” Caleb asked, fury in every word, as he hurled questions at Lilith while addressing the entire space simultaneously.
“It shouldn’t have been possible,” Lilith answered softly. I knew my aunt well enough to know she was shaken by the unexpected turn of events. She’d never show such vulnerability publicly, but she would carry the weight of this perceived failure for a long time.
“That’s not an acceptable answer, Lilith. You’ve made it abundantly clear this is your domain, and we all believed we were safe and shielded. Obviously you lied.” Hades may have sounded calm, but there was a distinct aura of anger coming off him.
“Don’t blame her. None of us could have known,” Crombie protested, placing a comforting hand at the small of her back.
“No, they’re right. This realm is supposed to be unbreachable. I’m sorry. This never should have happened.”
It was Moira’s turn to step forward, the witch uncharacteristically subdued. “It reeks of blood magic. The sheer amount of power required to pull specific beings from multiple realms...” She shook her head. “This was big magic. Not the kind of thing one does lightly. It required planning. And a coven.”
“How is it we required a celestial event to simply find Alek, but they just poof”—Kingston snapped his fingers—“cast a spell and ripped five people through space?”
“There’s no poof about it. They would have had to make a massive blood sacrifice in order to do this. Like, dangerous levels of blood. A human would never have survived. This would take multiple days, maybe even weeks of preparation.”
“Can they do it again any time soon?” Lucifer asked, echoing my thoughts.
“I hope not, but I never thought they’d be able to do something like this in the first place, so I wouldn’t bet against them.”
My stomach turned to a pit at the idea of being taken against my will again. The next time, we may not be so lucky.
My fear must have been echoed in the others because the mood in the room shifted once more. Now I sensed the same bloodthirsty resolve Grim and I had shared after our encounter with the horsewomen.
The attention shifted away from Moira and landed on Sin.
“We need to finish attuning the final weapon. We have to be ready to launch an attack of our own,” Chaos said.
“About that,” Sin said. “Anyone got any ideas on how we’re supposed to attune this one?”
After a beat of awkward silence where we all stood around shaking our heads and hoping someone would offer up a suggestion, Kingston nudged Moira with his elbow.
“Come on, Glinda. Vision up the answer for us.”
“You know my visions don’t work that way, dog breath.”
“How do they work, then? They just show up when they want?” Caspian asked. “Are you sure you weren’t a pesky mermaid in a past life? They were always just popping up and making trouble.”
“Fate can be a real mean bitch,” Moira replied.
