Chapter Eight
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“KEEP HIM LOCKED TOthat chair, no matter what he does,” Arturo raged.
Carlo couldn’t fault Heath at all. Not in a million years would he want to know the pain of having his mate taken from him. Especially when he knew what Skuld wanted to do to her.
“She finally was free. Skuld willdestroyher, Arturo. Let me go!”
“Think, Heath. She needs her, and that means we have time.”
“Fuck you, Romano. She was trapped behind blood runes. She put herself in a state of permanent sleep to escape the torture. I promised she’d never be held against her will again. I’veliedto her.”
Romano shifted in his seat. He most likely wanted to argue, but all of them understood. To make it easier, no mates were allowed in the room. Carlo hadn’t been to the Mage Council Headquarters in some time, and he knew they had holding cells, but this was the first time he’d seen them.
The iron walls were warded to block from outside attacks, but they also had reservoirs so they could drain a mage’s magic inside the building when necessary. For now, they hadn’t used that, since Lennox was keeping Heath down.
Romano wasn’t a fan of the Trinity member, but Lennox was the only destructive arts mage on hand strong enough to keep an Unseelie from racing out of the room and hurting himself or others. Lennox had a wall of flame surrounding Heath, but the inside had morphed to molten iron. It was true, to a point, that iron and silver could hold a Fae at bay or make them weaker.
Not nearly as much as the fairy tales stated, but it worked in a pinch.
Heath would have to weaken himself greatly to push through, and then he’d be nothing for his woman. His Tethered men were all bound into one room by choice, and Nanshe stood at the door. She wasn’tinthe room with them, but Carlo was sure it pained her to stop them. She couldn’t explain why, of course, and she had to feel the sting of the Fae’s rage.
Dominic, Pasquale, Adonis, and Ciro were also in the room. Torin had chosen to help fight against more portals opening and left them to take care of Heath on their own. There was enough testosterone to break the whole place down, but most of them were wolves.
They all knew his drive to get to his Fate; they’d be the same for their mates.
“Heath, you would have died,” Carlo explained, trying to reason with the Unseelie.
Heath’s dark eyes, filled with glowing silver specks, met Carlo’s. “I would have died happily to get to her.”
Carlo lifted a brow. “And then what would have come of your Fate?”
Heath screamed, falling to his knees, frustration and agony filling the small space. The surrounding men stood taller, taking the brunt, showing they were there for him. A soft knock at the door brought in another. He wasn’t a wolf, but he was one of them.
“Heath, man.”
Heath choked at Lorenzo’s greeting and lowered his head to the floor. “I can’t lose her.”
Lorenzo, now built on bulkier lines, his hair pushed back behind his ears, removed his suit jacket and dropped it to the side. Without a jacket, Carlo noted Lorenzo was armed with two handguns cradled underneath his arms in holsters. Lorenzo had grown into a protective, powerful man who protected his own mate, Cin, with steel and pure strength. There was a reason he’d been recently elevated to Made status among a shifter pack.
This man got on the floor, as close as he dared to the fire. “Look at me, brother. Right here.”
Heath forced his gaze up, and none of them drew attention to the tears. None of them joked that he was weak. Right now, they all understood. In fact, they stepped forward, blocking anyone outside from seeing the state Heath was in.
“I can’t. I messed up so much, L. Don’t let this be why she was taken. Fuck, I’d do anything.”
