his feet, Parnell had one foot on his sternum, holding him down.
The bar went suddenly silent, as if even these apelike men understood that a line had been crossed. Parnell took a moment to allow his fire-dazzled gaze to sweep over each and every man in the room until all of them shivered and turned their heads away. Only then did he focus that glare on the man beneath his boot.
“Listen very carefully, you mongrel dog,” he said. His voice was low, but the strength of it carried across the room nevertheless. “You get what I say you get and nothing more. If you touch the witch …” He called on the flames, watched them race across his palms and fingers, then flicked a stream of living fire down onto the horrified man. Flames licked greedily at the edges of his down jacket and smoke twisted and danced like a basketful of snakes. “You’ll die more painfully than your pitiful brain can even imagine. Do you understand?”
Miguel nodded in a jerky movement, hands flailing as he tried desperately to extinguish the fire currently trying to devour him. “I get it. I get it, okay? Put it out!”
Parnell sneered at him, waited an extra moment or two for pure drama’s sake, then waved one hand at the flames. Instantly the fire was gone, leaving only the scent of charred polyester dirtying the air.
Once released, Miguel scrambled away, joining the other men and keeping as far from Parnell as possible. Point made, Parnell resumed his seat in the shadows.
Inside him an inferno raged, but he allowed none of it to show on his features. These humans were nothing. Just cannon fodder in a war that had been building for eons. The Eternals were the true enemy—the target of justifiable fury Parnell and his brothers had been harboring since what felt like the beginning of time.
The mere thought of the Eternals was enough to make Parnell want to howl and rage. But cold, clear thinking was better, he reminded himself. His plans for the future were vast and all-consuming and would turn the Eternals’ campaign to dust. That knowledge alone was what kept him going. What filled his heart and mind and soul with a black joy.
The Eternals would pay for turning their backs on Parnell and the others. They’d be forced to finally remember all of their history. And when it was too late, they would see that they were going to lose. Tradition said that an Eternal and his witch would go alone to find their share of the Artifact.
And tradition would be what finally killed them all.
Chapter 36
“Elena? Oh, my God, is that really you?”
Teresa’s breath stopped short in her lungs. It felt as though a cold hand was fisted around her heart, smothering the steady beat until it only whispered anxiously in her chest. In the mirror, her best friend’s image wavered and twisted, as if her spirit were trying to gather itself but failing. She was here and yet not here.
Elena looked like a photograph left out in the rain until the brilliance of the colors faded and wept into each other, becoming hardly more than a memory of the original. Smudged, unfinished, Elena smiled at her and Teresa’s eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall. She didn’t want to risk blurring this vision further. She wanted—needed—this to be real.
In an unseen wind, her friend’s white lab coat ruffled and thinned as though tiny fingers were shredding the fabric. But her eyes were the same. Clear. Familiar. A dark, knowing brown that in life had always shone with kindness and humor. Now in those eyes Teresa read only fear.
“Teresa, my killer is coming,” Elena said, her voice wavering in and out. “Your abuela …”
“What?” Teresa felt a jolt of adrenaline spike as fear rose up to grab the base of her throat. “What about my grandmother?”
“Danger, Teresa. So are you—” She stopped and looked over her shoulder at the emptiness as if she’d heard someone approach. When she looked back at Teresa she managed a small smile. “I can’t stay. I’m not even sure how I got here. Teresa … you have to know … Beware of the immortal.”
Confusion rippled through her along with the instinctive urge to argue with her friend. Why should she fear Rune? “Elena, he won’t harm me. He’s my mate.”
Elena shook her head and the action caused her image to ripple, like the surface of a still pond after a stone