Page 59
The impostor on the screen clapped his hands together, a cue for the vampires to slash open the throats of the condemned. Fetid loathing tremored through the Heart of All.
Aidan…
Seconds later, my people gorged themselves on mortal blood while I smiled with malicious glee.
Rage exploded at my core. I lost all sense of reason.
Aidan. Again.
Aidan was using my people.
“This ends tonight.”
Chapter Thirteen
Paris
Iflung the door open, my heart leaping into my throat, my executioner senses tingling in recognition of a fellow killer.
Declan hurried over to me, stern-faced. “Paris. Are you okay?”
Even though I knew he wasn’t Aidan-addled, the shock of seeing him still delivered a hearty bitch slap. “Sweetcream. You?”
“Not really. I just saw…shite.” He ran a hand over his face.
Medusa and Vaughn weren’t here, but there were other vampires and one thrall over with Elio.
The ball of dread in my stomach grew teeth.
“Tell me what happened,” I pleaded.
“This is so fucked up.” He told me what he’d seen on the techpad.
My stomach dropped, more shock coming at me with a harder slap. “Where are Silvanus and the others?”
“He’s gone to stop him, after forcing me through the portal with those lot over there. The snake woman and the other vamp guy managed to stay with him but…. I’ve never seen anyone so angry. And I know anger.”
My damn brain was screaming with warning. “This is a trap. Aidan will kill him.”
Contingency implanted, huh? To blame Silvanus for Oreflame? Set the entire world on him to tear him apart?
Not on my watch.
“I have to help.” I ran past the wolf, tearing across the glade barefoot. “Caer? Are you still there?”
No answer.
Alistair watched me from a blackberry bush. I ignored his staring, turning on the spot, trying to pick a direction.
Where was the exit? Did I stroll into the trees and pop back out into the Summer Forest? Then what? Jog the thousands of miles to the northeast of Quintrealm? Not exactly a dash down the road from here in the southwest, was it?
He’s going to die.
My hands were shaking, my chest tight with a corset of anxiety. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. And he couldn’t die with the curse still running.
But he might!
No one had all the facts about the crystal dagger. I wasn’t relying on the words of any deity.
