Midnight Lies (Shifter Island #2) - Raye Wagner Page 0,3
want.”
“I’ll find a body,” Justice growled. “You take Nai and Noble into the Realm of the Dead and find Honor.”
Surlama laughed. “That’s cute. You think I can transport three living beings down there? Impossible. Nai only.”
Rage moved very slowly, pushing Noble and me out of the way as he approached Surlama in an epic staredown. Tension filled the air. As patches of fur erupted on the back of his neck, he clenched his teeth, making the muscles in his neck corded and taut. “What is your obsession with my mate?”
Surlama at least had the decency to look scared—but only for a heartbeat—then the fear in her eyes vanished, replaced by a cold, hard gaze.
“Your mate is more powerful than all three of you combined. Only she can walk in that realm and return with your fallen brother.”
“Lies.” Rage growled. “I see it in your eyes. I can smell your deceit in the air. What are you hiding?”
Damn. He had no issues calling her on her shit.
Fear flashed across her face once more before she narrowed her eyes in a look of calculation. Reaching out, she stroked a finger along Rage’s chest and purred. “I’m not saying you’re not powerful.”
My vision blurred as red-hot jealousy burned through me.
“Name your price, witch, and let’s be done,” I snarled. “Don’t play with us.”
While calling her a witch was crass and disrespectful, if she didn’t get her hands off my man, I’d tear them off, and then where would we be? We needed her.
She pulled her finger from Rage and stared into his eyes, her gaze hungry. “I want your blood, first prince,”—she crossed her arms—“or I won’t do the deal.”
“Oh, you’ll make a deal with me”—Rage chuckled, a sound filled with darkness, and his lip curled—“or I’ll rip your damn head off.” Then, he smiled, his canines elongating in a look of anticipated violence. “And the only way you’re getting my blood is if I’m dead.”
Whoa. So, yeah, that was one way to negotiate. Both my wolf and I stared at Rage with appreciation, loving that he had enough confidence to tell a dark mage he was about to behead her.
Surlama sharpened her gaze at Rage, but I could see the respect in her eyes. “What do you propose?”
“I’m the future king of every wolf in existence. If you do this, I’ll owe you a favor.”
Her eyes brightened, and a slow smile spread across her beautiful face. A favor from the future alpha king was quite a carrot.
“A favor of my choosing?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.
Rage nodded. “As long as it’s reasonable. I won’t kill or bring harm to anyone in your name.”
“Done.” She grinned, a wicked gleam in her eye.
Wow. That was fast and relatively pain-free—at least for me. I was 74.9% sure Rage wasn’t going to like Surlama’s favor, but we’d deal with that trouble later. Now, we could get to Honor. “So how do we—?”
A deep howl rose into the night, cutting off my question, followed by another and another.
Rage flinched. “My uncle and our pack. They’ve come…”
“Your price just doubled,” Surlama muttered, rubbing her hands together vigorously until a sickly green light began to emanate from her palms.
“Two favors?” Rage growled, and his attention jumped to Justice, then Noble.
I followed his gaze and noticed both brothers paled, and Noble grimaced.
The evil mage nodded. “And I’m cashing in now. For my first favor, I want my sister, Kalama, released from her lifelong servitude to the crown.”
I nearly choked on my own spit. “Kalama is your sister?”
Rage sucked in a deep breath but stayed silent.
Surlama slowed the rubbing of her hands, and the green light started to fade. Another howl rose into the air, this one closer. Leaning forward, Surlama asked, “Do we have a deal?”
Ah, hello, rock. Meet hard place. It sucked to be Rage right now.
“Fine,” he growled. “Just get us to the Realm of the Dead!”
Dark shadows danced under the skin of Surlama’s face, and she shook her head. “I told you. Only the girl can go.”
Rage flicked his gaze to Noble and Justice, and they each nodded at him. Could they speak into each others’ minds? Had Rage just spoken to them?
“Nai?” Rage ducked down to look me in the eye.
I swallowed hard but nodded. “I’ll be fine. I can do this.”
I think. Hopefully. I was 50/50 on it really, but a glass-half-full had to be good enough right now.