I undid the harness and placed Ava on Oberi’s back. The key was still clutched tightly in my hand. “All we have to do is get to your car.”
It should be this way. Come on, Oberi said.
She turned and started galloping down the street. I took off running after her.
I only took a few steps before something heavy came down on me. All my energy siphoned out of me in an instant, and I sagged under its weight. I swiped my elbows out to shove the thing off me, but it moved with me, like some sort of heavy-weight net. The nausea that hit me told me it contained inferichite, like tiny crystals had been embedded up and down the fabric. I tried to run, but I tripped over the net and crashed hard into the pavement. The inferichite touched my skin, siphoning all the strength I had left.
Footsteps sounded behind me— dozens, by the sound of it. Oberi was already several paces ahead, and I knew if she came back for me, she’d be caught.
We were already spent from the inferichite we’d faced earlier. If Salvatore didn’t have another net for Oberi and Ava, the vamps would still take them out.
I said I wasn’t letting this key go for anything, but I guess I was wrong. I knew at that moment that I’d sacrifice this key for Ava.
“Run!” I screamed.
“I’m not leaving you!” Ava shouted back.
“You have to, pidge!” I yelled. Then I turned my thoughts inward, and I spoke directly to Oberi.You get her out of here, nomatter what. I don’t care what these keys mean to the rest of humanity or the afterlife. Nothing is worth giving up my pidge. Keep her safe, Oberi.
I will,Oberi promised. I could feel the sinking in her gut through our bond. The last thing she wanted to do was leave me behind, but Ava’s safety was a priority above all else— for both of us.
Her response didn’t surprise me in the slightest. Turns out Oberi was a villain as much as the rest of us. She fled, leaving me behind.
“No!” Ava wailed. Her fists pounded against Oberi’s side, begging her to fight the vampires to save my life.
It was already too late. The vampires caught up to me, and Oberi had disappeared around the side of the building. Ava’s protests echoed down the street, but nothing she said could make Oberi turn back.
Vampires surrounded me at all angles. One of them pressed a heavy foot to my back so that I couldn’t stand. I lay sprawled on the sidewalk face-down, the inferichite net over top of me.
Then came the slow, confident footsteps of a man who thought he knew it all, and the brush of silk fabric from his tailored suit. I already knew who it had to be— Salvatore Bianchi.
Salvatore gave a cold laugh. “I thought you might try to steal from me,Prince Charles. I didn’t think you’d get all the way to my safe, though. I thought for sure that the inferichite cage would trap you for good,ifyou managed to make it that far.”
“You were expecting us this whole time,” I rasped beneath the heavy boot of one of Salvatore’s vamps.
He gave a chilling laugh. “Of course. Who do you think hired the Dollmaker to capture you? A foolish mistake on my part, unfortunately, as he went rogue and targeted onlyoneof you. But perhaps it all worked for the best in the end.”
I gritted my teeth. This bastard had been responsible for Kallie getting hurt. He’d been working with Valen, probably for years, giving him compulsion tools to use on women in exchange for the Dollmaker doing his dirty work. He was a merciless fucker. “Why try to catch me? Why not just kill me, and eliminate the threat?”
“And let all your power go to waste?” he scoffed.
Salvatore squatted down to my level, like he and I were old friends having a chat. His skin didn’t sizzle in the sun, so he must’ve had some power to protect himself from it.
“Ophio Taurus used you and your friends to make himself all-powerful,” Salvatore said. “If I’m to go up against him properly, I need power like his. I’ve already been obtaining my own inferichite for a while now, biding my time until I could use it against a demigod… ortwo.”
He laughed greedily as he turned to his men. “Go after the girl. Don’t let her get away.”
Most of the vampires left, racing around the side of the building at superhuman speed. Only two remained, along with Salvatore. I prayed to all the ancestors and the gods that Ava was already gone.
“You leave her alone!” I screamed. I struggled against the vampire holding me down, but the inferichite prevented me from siphoning his strength.
Salvatore chuckled, like he found this amusing. “You aren’t calling the shots anymore, Charles— or Charlie, is it? From now on, you work for me. I believe this ismine.”
He leaned down and snatched the vampire key straight from my hand. I tried to clutch on tight to it, but with his vampire strength, it was like nothing more than stealing candy from a baby.
Salvatore had caught me. My grandfather said I had to use each problem to my advantage, to think fast on my feet, becauseaccording to him there wasalwaysa way out. It didn’t look like I had one here.
“Take him away,” Salvatore said, nearly sounding bored as he got to his feet.
