Yes, my first instinct was to protect Gray. But instinct had to be tempered with logic. And right now, despite all the fire in my gut and the itch under my skin urging me to follow them, logic was telling me that my place was here in Raven’s Cape, working the other side of the case. Elena and I, along with her pack, needed to focus on getting Asher and the witches out of that prison and bringing down the hunters and dark fae behind it.
Resigned, I gripped Ronan’s shoulder, an apology and a blessing all in one. “Bring her back, demon.”
He nodded once, the determination in his eyes telling me everything I needed to know.
Ronanwouldbring her back. Or he wouldn’t be coming back at all.
They packed up the last of their supplies, and then it was time. Darkness had fallen over the Cape, and Darius had already made arrangements with his pilot for the short flight to Las Vegas. The jet would be meeting them at the airfield shortly.
In one last-ditch effort to talk some sense into them, I said, “You do realize that Sebastian’s going to have a complete fucking meltdown when he finds out she’s gone, right?”
Ronan clamped a hand over my shoulder and flashed me the same devilish grin that had probably made Gray fall in love with him in the first place. “Oh, I’mcountingon it.”
Sixteen
Ronan
“The hell portal?” Sebastian sucked bourbon through his teeth, then hissed. “I’m not Uber, son. You do not avail yourself of my portal whenever the mood strikes.”
“I’m not sure you’re getting the urgency here,” I said, staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows that stretched across one side of his office. The strip was lit up in its usual carnival glory. “Gray was kidnapped by a hunter a few days ago. She has since sacrificed herself in order to banish his soul to the Shadowrealm.”
“So you’ve said. And this requires the use of my portal, not to mention my valuable time and that of my staff, because…?”
I turned away from the glittering view to face him. He sat in his leather chair like a real king of the castle, a drink in one hand, his other smoothing down what remained of his limp, gray hair.
He’d replaced the desk I’d destroyed on my last visit with a glass table—not the smartest choice, since I was already imagining the sound it would make when I threw his ass right through it.
Also, I could see everything going on below it.
Like the fact that his zipper was open, his white boxers marked with a ring of bright pink lipstick that matched that of the woman who’d shown us in. And that his rug was scorched, suggesting he’d recently banished a demon to Oblivion on that very spot where his table now hovered.
More importantly, I could see his knee bobbing.
He could play it cool all he wanted. Fact was, talk of Gray and the Shadowrealm was making the Prince of Hell very, very nervous.
I shot a quick glance at Darius, who’d been silently standing by the door the entire time. That alone was enough to make anyone nervous, but Sebastian had a particular disdain for vampires.
Probably because he couldn’t control them.
“By violating the natural order of the universe,” I continued, since apparently he needed someone to connect the damn dots for him, “she has condemned her own soul to the realm.” I gave him a few seconds to process all that before adding, “Eternally.”
Bullseye.
I’d finally hit the mark with that one. All the signs were there: the bobbing knee, the slight twitch of his mustache, the pulse of the vein in his forehead.
T-minus ten seconds to core meltdown…
“It seems she finally found the loophole in her contract,” I said, giving him that last little push over the edge.
Right on cue, the man exploded.
“How could you let this happen?” he shouted, slamming his bourbon glass down on the table. The glass shattered, leaking booze and ice all over his paperwork, but he ignored it.
Folding my arms across my chest, I gave him a casual shrug. I could play cool and collected, too. Especially if it made him lose his shit. The more frantic he became, the easier he was to manipulate.
“That’s a question for Gray,” I said. “Not for me. But as you can see, she’s not here.”
He was out of his chair with rage, jabbing a finger into the air. “You were charged with guarding her, boy. Not fucking her!”
