Unmade (Unborn #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,48
from his chest. He shot up at the pain, eyes wide and angry. “If you plan to kill me, you should wait until I am finished,” I said, a wry smile tugging at my lips. Oz’s gaze fell to my bloody hands and the nearly-vanished wound on his chest. A smile of his own graced his face.
“Cutting it a little close there, don’t you think?”
I shrugged. “I have a flair for the dramatic.”
His smile widened. “So it seems.”
“We should get you home,” I said as I helped him up.
“Khara—”
“No, Sean,” I snapped. “I do not want to hear it.”
“You fucked up,” Oz said, looking at my twin. “She doesn’t handle betrayal well—unless it’s me doing the betraying.”
I shot the healing Dark One a sharp glare and he laughed.
“You have to understand why I did it, Khara,” Sean argued, his bright green eyes darkening by the second. “There are rules.”
“And actions have consequences,” I replied. “You have to understand my reaction, especially given our recent conversation.” To that, he had no response. “Trey, would you please return us to the Dragon? I am not certain I have the strength for it at the moment.”
He walked over and placed his hands on Oz and me, and with no preamble, he whisked us away. We arrived in the center of the golden room to find my brothers there, each one drawing a weapon. Apparently, our entrance had startled them.
Trey quickly took his leave before the others could begin their interrogation.
“Jesus, Khara,” Kierson exhaled. “Where the fuck have you been?” With his final word, his eyes took in the tear in my black sweater and the crust of bloodstains. Then he turned to Oz, still pale and coated in blood, and his eyes went wide. “What happened?”
“Kaine happened,” Oz said, wincing as he walked over to the sofa.
“He stabbed him through the heart from behind like the coward he is.”
“Fucking pussy,” Casey growled. “When do we kill him?”
“We cannot,” I said.
The depths of his black eyes were bottomless. “Why the hell not?”
“It is complicated.”
“As it always is with you,” Pierson replied, no hint of mocking in his tone. “I assume Kaine wants something? Is using something to bargain with?”
“Does he have your mother?” Kierson asked, panic in his tone.
“No, he is using something else to leverage me. And he stabbed Oz in the heart to make sure I understood how serious he was about following through on his threat.”
“What does he want?” Drew asked softly as he came to my side.
“He wants her to free his Dark Ones—break the tie that binds them to his presence.” Every head in the room turned toward where Oz slumped on the couch, his eyes closed. “He thinks she’s the key to this because I’m not bound to him as the rest are.”
“Khara,” Pierson said calmly, “you cannot do it.”
“I can and I will, because if I do not, he will slay every one of our fallen brothers in the Underworld and wipe them from existence.” Pierson stilled at my words, as did the others. “So you see, Brother, this is not a choice. It is a necessary evil.”
“Evil is precisely what you’ll curse this world with if you do it,” Oz said, repeating his earlier words. “Your dead brothers would rather meet their final end than let that happen.”
“It is their duty, even in death,” Pierson agreed.
“Khara,” Casey said with a softness I did not recognize, “this is crazy, even by your standards.”
“Perhaps, but that changes nothing.”
Muses entered the Dragon’s lair just as our brothers simultaneously broke into a barrage of arguments against my plan. As I stood silent, he looked to me, a million questions dancing behind his dark stare. I merely shrugged; I had no interest in discussing the matter further. They might have been steeped in duty to the PC, but I had not, and that upbringing had altered my allegiance. At present, it was to my family and nothing more. Everything else was a consequence I could deal with after the fact.
Because even I could not bring my dead brothers back if the Dark Ones slayed them.
“I have heard enough!” I shouted over the din. “The matter is closed, and that is final.”
“And here I am, late to the party as always,” Muses said, feigning a pout.
Oz shot him a wary glance, then turned those brown eyes to me. “I think you’re a bit grumpy after expending all that energy, new girl. Maybe a nap is in order.”
“I am not a child—”
“Be that