him?” she snaps, her face morphing into malicious delight.
My breath sticks in my throat. They know. They know that Vudu planned to sneak Toreon out.
“You’ve fulfilled your usefulness with the tunnel,” Shateel tells him as the Brogues converge. “The Ophidian sends his regards.”
Dread fills me at her declaration, but I’m frozen as my head wars with my heart. Part of me is in denial, like this is some kind of mistake or another test. I mean, they can’t kill him. Vudu is bonded to Toreon, killing him means killing Toreon, and that makes no sense with the portal to Heaven that Morax just announced Toreon was charged with making.
But...what if they don’t know about their bond?
Time slows as the massive red demons finish circling around the gargantuan protector, cornering him like a wild animal.
“You fucking bitch!” Toreon screams as he tries to rush her, though he’s immediately stopped by the two guards who stayed behind to hold him back. Vudu’s face grows enraged as he watches the guards manhandle Toreon, but when the giant raises a hand like he’s about to use his power, no red light comes from his palms.
Shateel shakes her finger at him. “Uh uh uh. You use your power in here, and you risk this whole place crashing down on your Gatekeeper friend,” she says mockingly. “Not even you can hold up all this earth.”
A frustrated scream sits in my throat as Vudu pales at the thought and his power sputters out. I’m poisoned with indecision. If this is a test, then I’ll mess everything up by trying to stop it. I’ll betray my sisters and maybe the one chance we’ll get at trying to best Morax.
But if I do nothing, if I stand here like the mindless puppet I’m supposed to be, I could lose Vudu and Toreon, and that feels like a fate worse than death. Worse than the torture I’ve endured for weeks on end, or the shell of a life I’ve lived up to this point.
With a hiss, gleaming red short swords are pulled slowly from sheaths hanging from the Brogue demons’ waists, and they all ready their blades for Vudu. A growl rumbles in his throat as he bares his teeth at them, Toreon screaming in the background, Shateel smirking, and just like that, every ounce of debate in my mind is shoved away by the need to take action, to stop this.
That’s my mate.
I don’t care that nothing has been decided or discussed, that I don’t know every nook or cranny of who they are. I feel that fact in the pit of my scarred soul. And I’ll be damned if I let anyone hurt him or Toreon, Morax can shove his test down his snake’s throats.
Toreon continues to struggle against the two guards who stayed back to keep him in line, his face filled with terror and rage and heartbreak. He tries to use the scythe gripped in his hands, but the weapon fights him, or maybe he’s fighting the weapon. I’m sure Morax’s compulsion is to blame, and it hurts to watch him practically fighting with the parts of him tainted by the Ophidian’s power.
My body tenses, my mind ready to give in to my instincts to act, but a hand reaches out and snags my arm, making me freeze in place before I can even move. I risk looking over and find that it’s Delta’s hand resting on my forearm. Her eyes are foreign in her disguised face, and even though she’s looking right at me, I can’t read what she’s trying to silently communicate.
Is she telling me not to help Vudu?
Pain ricochets in my chest, and my head pounds. I have seconds to act before blood starts to spill, and I’m left with an impossible choice. Choose my sisters or choose my mates.
Agony quickly gives way to anger at the abhorrent situation I’m stuck between. As soon as the fury takes hold in me, a familiar presence in my mind hammers at the door to my consciousness, demanding entrance that I can’t stop.
The feel of Ire’s signature arrogance in my head is unmistakable, but I don’t have time to go tit for tat with him. There’s a chance I’m about to lose everything in one fell swoop.
I don’t know what Delta sees on my face, but whatever it is makes her frown. “Fuck this. Clearly, my new face isn’t working right,” she grumbles, and then I feel it—her tugging hard on our connection. But she isn’t