I whirl at Darius, my fury still burning like an inferno. “Why did you stop me? I could have taken him.”
“You couldn’t,” Darius says firmly, his gaze meeting mine with a steadiness that only infuriates me further. “He was going to kill you, Kade. He won’t kill Zara. Not yet. There’s something you need to know.”
“Let me go,” I roar, struggling against his magic.
“No,” Darius snaps, his voice sharper than I’ve ever heard it. “There’s something you need to know first.”
I freeze, the weight of his words cutting through the haze of my fury. “What’s more important than finding Zara?”
Darius releases my arm, his expression grave. “Everything. You don’t know the truth, Kade. About Galen. About Zara. About why he took her.”
The world tilts as his words sink in, the promise ofanswers warring with the unrelenting need to chase after Galen. My fists clench, and my breath comes in short, ragged bursts. Every instinct screams at me to run, to hunt, to make him pay for what he’s done, for Zara. But Darius’s words pull at another thread inside me; I’m caught between the need to act and the need to think. Between hate and anger. Between revenge and vengeance.
I try to breathe, to calm the storm inside, but the fire still burns, and it’s growing. My hands tremble at my sides, torn between catching Galen and tearing apart everything that stands in my way. The thought of him slipping through my fingers is unbearable. But deep down, I know that pursuing him won’t end the way I want it to, and that will put Zara at risk.
“Start talking,” I growl, the blood weave humming just beneath my skin.
Darius nods slowly, his eyes dark with secrets.
“You’d better be ready for what I'm about to tell you, Kade. Gods help us, you’d better be ready.”
