“You can’t be serious,” I said. Then, to Darius, “He can’t be serious.”
Ronan shoved a couple of bottled waters from my sister’s fridge into a bag, then helped himself to an apple. Taking a big, sloppy bite, he said, “I’ll give you two minutes to talk me out of it, wolf.”
“I don’t need two minutes to remind you that Sebastian isnotyour ally.” If he thought the Prince of Hell was out to do him any favors, then he needed medical attention, because Detective Hobb’s hit this morning had clearly left him with a severe concussion.
“You’re not wrong,” he said. “Doesn’t change the fact that he’s the only one who can get us there while we’re still alive.”
“Wait. The hell portal? You’re talking about the goddamnhellportal?” I couldn’t believe he and Darius were actually considering this. “What the fuck, Ronan? What if it spits you out in some other dimension? What if you get trapped between realms? What if something goes wrong and you end up in Oblivion?”
“Unless you know anyone else with a gateway into the Shadowrealm,” he said, entirely too calm about this, “that’s our route.”
“Sebastian will never go for it. Not without a whole lot of fucking strings attached.” I slammed my palm against the wall, rattling Elena’s generic art. At this rate, I’d owe her a whole new house at the end of all this. “You should know better than anyone that making a deal with him will—”
“Making a deal with him will get us to Gray. I will make whatever the fuck deal he wants. She’s all that matters, Alvarez. Period, exclamation point, end of discussion.”
“I concur,” said Darius, before I could plead my case to him.
The two of them continued to pack up their supplies. It was clear I didn’t stand a chance at reasoning with them.
So I’d do the next best thing.
“Where are you going?” Ronan asked as I headed into the hall closet. When I emerged with a backpack, he shook his head vehemently. “No. No fucking way, wolf.”
“You’re asking the Prince of Hell for express tickets to the Shadowrealm, and you think I’m just gonna stand on the pier, wave my dainty little handkerchief, and wish you bon voyage?”
“Do whatever you want with your dainty handkerchief. You’re not coming with us.”
I set the backpack on the kitchen counter and loaded it up with a few more things from my sister’s kitchen. “You keep telling yourself that.”
He grabbed the pack and shoved it under the sink, slamming the cupboard door in front of it. “I said, you’re not coming with us.”
“Damn it, Ronan!” I roared. “I lost her too!”
No, Gray and I hadn’t known each other as long as she and Ronan had, but that didn’t make it any easier to know she was in danger, trapped in a strange, otherworldly realm with no connection to any of us. I was losing my mind inside, torn between my concern for her and my desire to utterlyshredthe hunter who’d set this whole thing in motion.
From the moment she’d turned up in the Bay, the need to protect her had called to a deep, primal part of me. The feeling had only intensified after we’d started spending time together after Sophie’s murder, and once Gray had been taken from us, an unquenchable fire burned inside me, ready to consume everything in its wake if I let my guard down for even a minute.
So if Ronan and Darius truly believed that Sebastian would help them get to the Shadowrealm—if they were willing to risk their lives in the hell portal for a shot at saving Gray—then I was damn well going with them.
“You can try to stop me,” I warned, a growl rumbling through my chest, “but you’ll definitely get hurt.”
Ronan grabbed my shoulders, his brow creased with concern. “You’llget hurt, Alvarez. That’s the whole fucking point. You may be a shifter, but you’re still human on the inside. Yoursoulis still human. You can’t risk going into the Shadowrealm alive—you won’t make it out.”
“And you and Darius will?”
“Probably not, but we don’t have human souls to worry about. Sebastian already owns mine, anyway.”
“Furthermore,” Darius added, “we still haven’t located Asher and the missing witches. If they’re still being held here in Raven’s Cape, we’re counting on you to track them down and bring them home.”
“Darius isn’t fully recovered,” I said, as though that would make a damn bit of difference to either of them.
“Even at my weakest,El Lobo,” Darius said, “I’m stronger than that hunter.”
“You aren’t winning this argument, brother.” Ronan smacked my chest, then gave my cheek a few affectionate slaps. “Stop thinking with your big dumb heart and start thinking with your head.”
Sonofabitch.
Ronan and Darius were right.
