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“He needs us.”

She grabbed my hand and dragged me through the doorway without another word, Declan shifting and following close behind.

I’m coming, Your Majesty!

Chapter Fourteen

Silvanus

Medusa opened the portal at my command, my fury scaring her into obedience.

Cold ire bristled inside me, a winter storm, a bitterness to rival the frostbrood.

These games ended tonight.

While my people, including a loudly protesting Declan, went through the portal to the Carving Glade, Medusa and Vaughn refused to join the others.

“We’re not leaving you!” they fired back at me together.

Done with arguing, I snapped and flew out of the palace. They would follow me, which only made me loathe her loyalty. She’d put them both in danger. Why couldn’t she be an obedient snake shifter?

Because she understood me. Because she wouldn’t allow me to walk through the fire alone. The same for Vaughn.

Don’t do this…

Reason destroyed, I picked up speed, soaring across the ocean with the threat of dawn approaching.

“Go back,” Selene spoke. “I beg of you.”

No. Not until I tore Aidan limb from limb. He didn’t get to stage an execution wearing my face, using my vampires to spill blood.

“Please go back. The sun will rise soon and ruin everything.”

I wasn’t stopping. Not for her. Not for anyone. Not even for the voice of reason inside me, desperate to regain a sliver of its strength.

I knew exactly where Aidan had murdered those mortals. I landed just around the corner from Coinheart Square, breaking into a closed office building that overlooked it.

The city still stank of fire and death, but the screams were gone, no more explosions.

I went a few floors up into a open-plan office, inspecting the scene below. Only the bodies of the dead mortals remained on the scaffolding, their blood dripping through gaps in the wood. There was no one else around. A camera on a tripod pointed at the corpses, a red light blinking to indicate it was recording.

Where did the deity go? And my vampires, where were they? I couldn’t feel them.

I scrutinized the area, tuning my senses into everything, before opening the window a crack. I picked up nothing but the fire and the death, no hint of anything else on the wind.

Trap. My voice of reason grew louder, instincts telling me to run.

“I knew you would come.”

Aidan’s voice assaulted me with its slimy tone. I spun as he unleashed magical energy into my face, sending me plunging into unconsciousness.

Chapter Fifteen

Paris

We arrived at my flat back in Oreflame City.

That was unexpected to say the least. “What are you doing here?”