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I picked up my scythe and pushed myself to my feet, my legs shaky. “Maybe not, but I have to try.”
“Mr. Munro,” a deep voice called out from within the swirling fog that clung to the edges of reality.
I whirled, scythe in hand, not knowing whether I faced a friend…
Or a new foe.
Waving away the fog, Tony stepped into view. The Gatekeeper was the last person I expected to see.
I frowned. “What are you doing here?”
Colin surged toward the cage, shaping a spell in his hands. He flung his mutated magic at Veronica. As had happened time and time again, the fae man knew I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
I raised my scythe to intercept the spell.
The fae’s shadowy magic stopped just outside the cage, and Colin’s body went rigid.
“Veronica sent me,” the telepath said, his eyebrows pulled together in a look of intense concentration.
I glanced back at Veronica, whose face contorted in a silent scream. She didn’t move. “What do you mean? What did you do?”
Tony approached, gesturing to Colin and Veronica. “None of this is real. Fae mages attacked the DEA. You’re all held hostage in what I presume to be your worst nightmares.”
The DEA was under attack?
I kept my scythe raised. “If that’s true, how do I know you’re real? Is this another trick?”
Tony peered at me over the rim of his glasses, his brown eyes gazing intensely. “What are you afraid of happening here?”
“Losing her.”
His gaze flicked toward Veronica. “Then you need to let her go.”
That was like asking me to stop breathing. I ground my teeth together. “Never.”
“The only way to break the spell is to sacrifice the thing you hold most dear.”
Something about his words drew forth an inkling of memory, though it was too hazy to recall. Licking my lips, I hesitated. “You said Veronica sent you? She’s okay?”
Tony’s deep chuckle reverberated through the fog-filled landscape. “Okay, yes, but also panicking, and we know that never ends well. In her nightmare, she gave up her freedom and her life to save you and Maddox.”
I clenched my scythe tighter. Freedom was something Veronica treasured above almost everything else. She might act impulsively, and at times those acts might come across as selfish, but deep down, everything she did was for those she loved.
I lowered the scythe. “Okay.”
As Tony released his telepathic hold on the scene, Colin’s spell slipped through the cage’s bars and slammed into Veronica.
Colin’s eyes widened, his face contorting in horror, and he raised his hands as if to stop the spell. “No!”
Except he was too late.
I cringed as the shadows wrapped around my mate, consuming her body as she writhed in pain and agony. Her blood-curdling screams ripped into my heart and tore my soul asunder. It was a sound I would never forget. I sank to my knees and watched her die, completely helpless.
“It’s not your fault,” Tony murmured behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder. “Remember, this isn’t real.”
It might not be real now, but this same scene and all the nightmares I’d endured—not just here but over the last few weeks—could happen someday. This same powerless feeling pervaded my thoughts and emotions.
Every. Single. Day.
