and I grab Delta’s arm as her words soak into me. “What do you mean?”
She’s out of breath, probably from running up here, and I feel so bad because I’ve been so busy flirting with Ire and wishing he’d make a move that I didn’t notice what the hell is going on around me.
“I looked all over the place down there. I can’t find her,” Delta repeats, worry clouding her expression.
“Are you sure you checked everywhere? I mean, this place is huge. Maybe she’s in line for the bathroom or something?” I offer, but even as I say it, anxiety grips me.
“I can go look for her if you tell me what her disguise looks like,” Ire offers.
“No, I’m telling you, I looked everywhere. She’s not down there,” Delta says.
At her insistence, I immediately search inward, checking my connection with Medley, but I don’t detect anything is wrong. She’s still feeling calm and focused, but...that no longer feels relieving to me, it’s more like a cause for concern.
“Do you think Morax got to her?” Delta asks, sharing a nervous look with me.
If Morax has her, she could be feeling calm because of his compulsion. Or maybe—
Pain suddenly slams into me, tearing the second half of my thought from me and making me gasp. Beside me, I hear Delta curse, but I can’t look at her because my body jerks and I fold over, clutching at my cheeks as agony radiates from my face and tears blur my vision.
“Sable!” I hear Ire call, just as the sharp pain shoots down from my face and throughout the rest of my body.
I feel Ire swoop in and pick me up, cradling me against his chest, his frantic voice asking me what’s wrong. But I can’t answer.
The bones of my body are breaking and reshaping. I know what’s happening, but the why has me terrified, and the pain has me incapable of doing anything but biting back my screams.
Something is happening with our magical guise. Which means something happened with Shateel. Either she’s dead or she escaped, and now she’s revoking what she did to us before.
Agony courses through my every cell as my mind thrums in time with the worry gripped around my heart.
Vudu was watching Shateel.
Please, please let him be okay.
32
With adrenaline coursing through me, the agony ebbs, and I try to just breathe through the last ripples of hurt as they travel through my limbs.
My dark purple wings are back, as though Ire’s desire to see them again was laced with enough power to bring it to fruition, but I’m terrified my change back into myself has other more fear-inducing reasons. Morax will know something’s up now.
We just lost whatever advantage we had.
I look over at Delta and see that she’s shakily straightening up and clutching her stomach like she’s trying very hard not to hurl. Her electric purple hair and wings are back in place, and her servant’s dress is suddenly too tight and short for Delta’s real body. I don’t even bother to check what my situation is. I have bigger issues than a nip slip.
Where’s Morax?
Is he coming for us? Does he somehow know that we’re not under his compulsion? I look over to the Sins and see that they’re watching Delta and me, but their expressions are a mixed bag.
“What the fuck just happened?” Delta says through a grimace as she yanks on the hem of her dress and wipes some sweat from her brow.
“I don’t know,” I reply with a wince of my own. Damn, my jaw even hurts just to talk.
“You okay?” Ire asks, and I look up at him, noting that I’m still in his arms.
“Yeah,” I say, and he puts me back on my feet, though he keeps a hand on my waist to make sure I’m steady enough to hold myself up.
Seeing the Sins still watching us, Delta’s eyes flash, and she strides angrily over to them. Ire and I share a look before we trail after her.
One of the female Sins with red wings and hair looks over at Delta’s approach, and a slow smile spreads over her face. I thought my dress was revealing with the plunging neckline, or the gauzy gown worn by Miss Sheer Nips who was all over Ire earlier, but no. This female takes revealing to a whole new level. She’s not even wearing a dress. She’s wearing linked chains over her, but instead of being made of metal, they’re made of some sort of gemstones,