And I knew my girl had sealed the deal, accomplishing what she’d set out to do—get that Midnight bastard’s blood.
But now, Jax and I were alone in a little-used parlor adjacent to the ballroom, and Haley was nowhere to be found.
“Last I saw her,” I said, “she was dancing with Keradoc. She already got the blood, Jax. I saw it happen—figured she’d make her way back to you so you could take her home.”
“I can’t fucking find her!” he roared. “I saw her with him too. Twirling around the ballroom like a fucking ballerina. The next thing I knew, she was gone.”
Gone?
No. It wasn’t happening. It wasn’tfuckinghappening.
“Get Hudson,” I ordered. “If someone grabbed her, they can’t have gotten far. We need to do a full sweep outside. Make sure no one—”
“Saint!” Gem burst into the room in a blur of red dress and purple hair, her cheeks streaked with mascara-stained tears. “Thank the devil. I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys. They’ve taken Haley!”
“Where?” Jax asked. “Who? Gem, what thefuckdid you see?”
Fresh tears glazed her eyes. “This is all my fault. I should’ve left her more weapons. I should’ve stayed by her side. But they were dancing right out in the open! I never thought he’d—”
“Gem.” I put my hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her the fuck down. “Breathe. You need to fucking breathe and tell us exactly what you saw.”
“I don’t know… I mean, one minute she was dancing with Keradoc, and then he just… handed her off. I almost didn’t see it, it happened so fast. But then I caught a flash of their uniforms.”
“Whose uniforms?” Jax asked.
“His guards. They were waiting in the wings, Saint. Fucking guards, like he’d positioned them right there the whole time. So either he knew what Haley was planning, or he wanted her for… for something else. Either way, they nabbed her.”
“Fuck.” It took everything I had not to smash my fist through the fucking wall, but that wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Haley. “Any ideas where they would’ve taken her? Holding cell? Private chambers?”
“Throne room,” Gem said. “That’s where he… I mean, if she’s… if she’s still alive, that’s where she’ll be.”
“She’s still alive,” I insisted, refusing to allow for the possibility of anything else.
“Keradoc took her just so he could force her to bend the knee and kiss the ring?” Jax let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t think so. What the hell is going on, Gem?”
“No, he…” Gem swallowed hard. When she spoke again, her voice was a brittle whisper. “Some prisoners he kills right away. But others, he… He toys with them first. Torments them. And then, once he’s bored of his sick little games…” She closed her eyes and shook her head, tears falling.
“What happens then?” I whispered, my heart lodged so far into my throat, I nearly choked on it.
She opened her eyes, nothing but two pits of hopelessness. “He chops off their heads and adds the skulls to his throne.”
I’d never fallen into a meat grinder before, or been set on fire, or had my skin flayed off and my ass dropped into a salt bath.
But in that moment? I was pretty sure any of those options would’ve felt better than the agony ripping through me.
“If we’ve got any chance of saving her,” Gem said, rubbing the tears from her eyes and straightening her spine, “we need to move. Now.”
“We can’t just go storming in there,” I said. “The castle is crawling with soldiers. We won’t get anywherenearthat room. If they evensuspectwe’re on to them—”
“There’s a back way,” she said. “But if we don’t go now… Look, it’s not just her life at stake. If Haley breaks and tells them she wasn’t working alone, they’ll lock this place down faster than the ghouls in the moat can eat a corpse.”
Jax nodded. Straightened his jacket. Cracked his neck. When he met my gaze again, his blue eye blazed, his whole body trembling with a rage I hadn’t seen since I carved out his other eye.
He looked like a fucking omen of death.
“Lead the way,” he ground out.
We followed Gem back down to the main level, fighting our way through the throng of drunk and filthy masses and out the main entrance. More revelers spilled out onto the grounds, which slowed us down, but made it easier not to draw attention. After what felt like a fucking lifetime, she finally got us to a servants’ entrance at the rear of the castle, unguarded but for a cook on a smoke break.
