a mate or a potential mate in order to renew our kind. But like I said, you’re exquisite and very, very strong.”
I smile. “Good. I’m glad I could help.” But rather than smiling back at me, Toreon grows troubled. “What’s wrong?”
“Morax,” he replies. “When he sees that I’m not drained of power and you’re not bleeding out and pale as a corpse, he’s going to realize just how much your blood revived me and how little you had to give me. He’ll know that he doesn’t have to keep waiting.”
“Keep waiting?”
Toreon nods. “My power was so drained I nearly died. He tossed me in here, just biding his time while I recovered. But now…”
“He’ll know how much I can charge you.”
“Yes.”
I blow out a breath. “It’s not ideal, but it’s okay,” I reassure him. “We already knew he was making plans. But at least now you and I know that you won’t die, not now that I’m here to pull you back from the brink,” I tell him, grasping his hand in mine. He looks down at the connection, like he’s still surprised that he has someone to touch. “I may not know what exactly your power is or what kind of demon you are, but I know I can help you when the time comes.”
Toreon raises a pair of guilty eyes. “Sable…”
I pause, holding my breath, because I just know that this is it. He’s finally going to tell me what he is.
“I—”
The door to the dungeon opens abruptly, making both of us jump, my heart nearly falling right through my chest at the startling interruption. As soon as I move past the surprise, I scramble up to my feet and rush over to the front of the cage to see who’s come in. I grip the bars to the cell as shouted voices reach my ears.
“Medley! Where are we? What the fuck just happened? Medley!”
Three figures file in through the doorway, and the first is a glassy-eyed Medley, her face completely expressionless.
“What—Hey, get your fucking rhino hands off me!”
I strain to see around the bars as Vudu comes up at the rear, his hand clasped on the second woman’s arm. The vivid electric-purple hair and wings, the wicked scowl on her face, and the flashing gray eyes filled with outrage are all I need to confirm that this is my other sister.
This is Delta.
20
Delta shoots Vudu a scathing look before she looks wildly around the room of the dungeon. The blood leaches from her face. “Medley? Why the hell did you bring me here? You said you found Sable, that she would only talk to you and me. What the fuck is going on?” she asks desperately, shaking our other sister slightly when she doesn’t get an answer.
I look from her to Medley, and my heart hammers in my chest. Oh no.
I share a worried look with Toreon before I glance back at the checked-out, vacant look on Medley’s face. Did the compulsion sneak through?
When she left, I was certain that she was okay, but did Morax do something else after? She’s dressed now in jeans and a kind of halter top, and my stomach roils with anxiety. I want to ask if she’s okay, but I don’t know where Morax is, and we can’t risk him hearing anything.
Right as Delta wrenches her arm away from Vudu, footsteps sound behind her, and she whirls around just as Morax enters. A sharp intake of air between Delta’s lips comes a second before her shouted words. “You motherfucker!”
She raises her hand in the air while Medley watches impassively beside her. “Come on, Queen of Hearts, it’s time to take off this fucker’s head,” Delta growls, and that’s all the warning I get before her scythe suddenly appears in her grip.
For a moment, as her arm lobs back like she’s about to hit a home run, I think to myself, oh shit, she’s gonna do it. She’s actually gonna take off Morax’s head! But right before the sharp curved edge of her scythe makes contact with his neck, he stops her with a single spoken word, thick and layered with power.
“Stop.”
Her entire body jolts, her muscles spasming as she careens to an unnatural screeching halt, her teeth gritted with the effort to keep going.
Morax lets a cruel, slow smile curve up his lips, his body completely relaxed as he watches her. He’s not at all bothered by the fact that her blade is just inches away from his jugular. He is