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All part of the prophecy?
Fury besieged him, battering at his skull. Urgency joined the fray. Raw lust and a soul-crushing frustration, too. Unending hopelessness. Loneliness and betrayal. Hatred. Love. Pride. Sorrow. Grief.
He'd hated Sin for what he'd done. Mourned the loss of his brother. Needed to help...who? Who did he need to help?
To figure this out, he had to find peace and quiet. And yet he couldn't bring himself to summon any more ice and disappoint Gillian.
He ripped at his hair, his breaths churning with mounting aggression. Somehow he'd been stripped bare of his defenses, everything he'd felt before a mere blip compared to this.
Gillian would--
Her name spurred a new deluge of raw lust. Blistering waves of it. He was hard and throbbing. If William hadn't returned, Puck would be inside her.
Rage, so much rage.
Indifference scrabbled across the bond, leaving Puck's head eerily silent.
Gillian noticed the intrusion and gasped.
He wanted to go to her, offer comfort, but felt tethered in place by his emotional chains. How was he supposed to deal with this?
Deep down, he'd known this day would come. Had known the things he'd buried would resurface; though Gillian had filtered out a good portion of it, what remained made mincemeat of his legendary control.
How was he supposed to survive this?
Arms spread, Puck threw back his head and roared at the sky. No relief.
He wanted his woman, and he would have her. If necessary, he would move mountains to reach her. He would kill anyone who dared step between them.
He needed to ensure her unhappy ending with William--and establish her happy ending with Puck. He wanted his friends safe and sound. Wanted Sin defeated and dying under his hand, the Connacht crown on another's head. But Puck also wanted Sin...alive. How could he harm the man who used to be his beloved little brother? More rage. Can't contain it...
Helplessness. Puck was going to have to leave Cameron and Winter behind. His friends, abandoned when they needed him most. In the coming hours, the two would worsen. Winter would cease her ramblings and attack anyone nearby. Cameron would come out of his comatose state and attack himself. Blood would pour. Lives could be lost.
Still Puck couldn't stay behind. If he failed to kill Sin within the next fourteen days--a mere three hundred and thirty six hours--everyone in Amaranthia would die.
Too much, too much. With a roar, Puck charged forward and rammed into a tree trunk, horns first. Impact jarred him, bits of bark and insects flying. Once he'd wrenched the horns free, he backed up and rammed again. And again, until the tree toppled.
Short, choppy breaths razed his sternum. Red dotted his line of sight as he rammed another tree, then another. He would fell the entire forest! Nothing would stop him.
"Enough." Gillian's voice cut through his thoughts. Her trembling voice.
My woman fears me?
Puck spun, facing her. Her eyes were wide, her arms crisscrossed over her torso, creating an X--a shield--her fingers anchored on her hips.
William stood at her side, a pillar of protection.
He thinks to take her from me.
Chin down, horns forward, Puck sprinted closer. Faster and faster. William stepped in front of Gillian. A mistake. His last. Faster still. The bastard braced for a brutal collision, only to fly out of the way when Gillian shoved him from behind. She stood at the ready, intending to meet Puck head-on.
He skidded to a stop just in front of her, panting, unable to catch his breath. She didn't hesitate to reach up and cup his face, then brush her thumbs over the rise of his cheeks.
"Never thought I'd have to say this to you, Pucky, but I need you to calm down."
Inside, the sharp edge of his emotions blunted, her touch, her very nearness, soothing him as nothing else could. "Do not...fear me." The words emerged broken, ragged.
"Never."
"You are mine," he said.
"I am yours."
Calmer still...
Her gaze slipped over his shoulder, and she frowned. "Someone's coming."
He whipped around, noticed tree limbs slapping together in the distance as a massive shadow moved over the land.
Must protect. Puck decided to deal with the threat in the sky first. A blond male with enormous white wings flew into the camp and landed only a handful of yards away.
The newcomer's identity clicked. Galen, keeper of Jealousy and False Hope, as well as Hades's helper. He was the world's most despised immortal. For centuries, he led a human army with the sole purpose of slaughtering his own kind. He'd betrayed friends and enemies alike and couldn't be trusted.
Puck had learned about him while researching William. Galen lusted for a woman named Legion--or Honey, or whatever she called herself nowadays. Her past was as fraught with pain and violence as Gillian's. Currently, Legion was being kept from him. Galen spent his time searching for her, warring in the underworld and attempting to regain lost friendships with the Lords of the Underworld--males he once tortured.
Two others stepped from the line of trees, arriving on foot. Pandora, Hades's only daughter, had shoulder-length black hair that framed an arresting face with dramatic hazel eyes.
Beside her stood a shirtless, muscular man with skin the color of blood, and eyes tattooed from neck to toe. "Red," the one who'd flashed Puck to the alley in Oklahoma City. His true identity crystalized: Rathbone the Only, another of Hades's allies, and a king of the underworld himself. Multiple piercings glinted in the sunlight and--
Had one of those tattooed eyes blinked?
"Reinforcements have arrived," William said.
Puck should have rejoiced. The Ever Randy's motivation had just shifted; no longer was he invested in Puck's success in the name of Gillian's freedom. Now he fought for her life.
If Amaranthia died, Puck would die. His magic--his very life force--was tied to the majestic realm. With Gillian's life force tied to him, she would perish with him.
Indifference swooped back into Puck's mind and cackled with glee, as if he savored the thought of all those deaths. Especially Gillian's. And why not? She was the source of the demon's weakness and Puck's greatest strength.
She is the source of my everything. Only moments ago, he'd thought their life together would be about Puck and Gillian. Now he saw the truth. It was all about her--his life revolved around Gillian. He would do what was best for her, always.
If Puck hadn't defeated Sin in thirteen days, he would use the shears to release Gillian from their marriage. She would no longer have a bond to Puck, which meant she would no longer have a bond to Amaranthia. Of course, she would refuse to leave her clan behind, so he would have to force the issue.
Let her go? A roar of denial beat at his lips, but he held it back. To save Gillian's life, he would let her go. No matter how terribly he suffered afterward.
Defeat Sin in time, and all would be as Puck hoped. William would dethrone the Demented One. Puck would then kill Sin, despite their past. Puck would ensure the right Connacht soldier wore the crown, and keep Gillian at his side.
He had his goals--Kill. Select. He had his time frame. Thirteen days. He would not fail.
Kill Sin, not just dethrone him? Truly?
Do not sweat the details now. In the meantime, he would show Gillian how good it could be between them. No more waiting. No more terms. No more interruptions. From now on, he took what he wanted, when he wanted it.
"How did you find us?" he demanded.
"Finding you was the least of our problems." Rathbone shapeshifted into Sin's form, then returned to his own. "There's a shield around the entire realm, preventing anyone other than Sin or those in his company from leaving or returning. I had to become your brother to gain entry."
Sin must have erected the shield soon after Puck arrived with William. Or else Puck and company were an exception.
"Looking good, Gillian." Galen gave her an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "All grown
up now. I approve."
"Well, thank goodness for that," she replied, her tone dry. "Life is finally worth living."
Boom! Peanut head-butted Galen in the stomach with zero warning, knocking the winged male off his feet. Then the chimera chomped on Rathbone's hand, earning a pained yelp.
A laugh bubbled at the back of Puck's throat as Rathbone cursed, the stoic Pandora scrambled out of reach and a grumbling Galen lumbered to a stand.
Amusement? At a time like this?
The fact that Indifference could do nothing but skitter across his mind in a huff made the moment so much sweeter.
"How do we know you are who you say you are?" Gillian stepped forward, intending to approach the newcomers, but Puck held out his hand, blocking her. "Could be a trick," she muttered. "Another challenge, even."
"Who would you like me to be, lovely?" Rathbone's image changed from a cute little puppy, to Puck, to William, to a jaguar, to Rick from The Walking Dead and finally back to his own. "Spoiler--it really doesn't matter. I'm a cold-blooded killer no matter what I look like."
"I vouch for them," William said.
Puck curled a finger under Gillian's chin and gently lifted her face, ready to handle the situation however she preferred. "We need to hunt Sin, which means we need to leave Cameron and Winter behind. But," he added before she could protest, "one of Hades's people will stay here and stand guard." An order he expected to be obeyed. "Do you approve?"
She closed her eyes for a moment, drew in a deep breath and nodded.
"Then it's settled," William said. "Rathbone, you'll stay with the siblings from hell. Galen, you'll fly overhead and warn of us any impending danger. Pandora, you'll ride alongside us, your only task to protect the girl, and die in her place if you must."
"Oh, that's all?" Pandora offered him a double-birded salute.
"I agree with the Randy Man," Puck told her. "Die if you must."
