“I…I…” I scratched at my neck, heat flaring just about everywhere. “I’m so…I’m so grateful you saved me. All of you.”
I felt Jenny’s eyes boring into me, her distrust palpable.
Say it. Beg for mercy, get back to yourself.
Yeah, but myselfneeded Silvanus in his life.
“I—”
Every set of eyes in the cave turned gold, Declan’s lips spread wider.
Oh. Shit. I pushed myself across the rock, the fur bunching up beneath me.
“We see his truth,” Jenny proclaimed.
“We see what you’ve done,” a guy called Mike contributed.
Aidan. He had them, just like he’d taken control of those Acolytes back in Glimmer City.
What was this? Some kind of deity hivemind shit? If this was Aidan’s power watered down, then him gaining full access didn’t bode well.
“And it’s disgusting,” Declan drawled. “You’re a traitor to the word of Aidan. You’re a dirty vampire fucker.” His head tilted from side to side. He bared his teeth, rising to his feet, claws elongating from his fingers. “Vamp shaggers are scum.”
“And scum has to die,” Jenny chimed in.
The wolves gathered together, blocking any route out of here. I checked, scanning the darkness, finding one exit only, blocked by two big guys.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I was screwed.
CHAPTER FORTY
SILVANUS
It was quicker to return to the palace and find Medusa than fly across the world to save him. There were vampires on my trail, refusing to obey my commands to leave me alone.
I felt their relief as I returned to Hurlock Island.
Briefly.
I found my friend in my chambers, standing at the balcony in humanoid form.
She turned as I hurried over. “You’re back?”
“He’s in the Werewolf Domain,” I told her. “I can sense him. I don’t know why, but I can.”
“What—”
“Please. I have to get to him. Action now, questions later.” I fell to my knees, the Heart of All anguished as much as I saw she was. “I’m begging you, Medusa.”
My friend. My loyal friend tangled in the shared memories of me and my people. She deserved to be free of me, of everything I’d inflicted upon her.
One day. Soon.
Her lips trembled. “Do you have an exact location?”
I did, the brightness a pinpoint on a mental map. In a cave within the Lost Valley.
