The betrayal shouldn’t have stung. She’d known, deep down, that their sudden helpfulness was too good to be true. And they’d already suspected it. But now, knowing that the remnants of her people had handed her over…knowing they were about to die?
“Come out, come out, little brother,” Lana called in a singsong voice. “There’s nowhere left to run. The facility is locked down. My dear husband’s family has every exit covered. And your fae friends?” She laughed, the sound echoing off the rusted metal walls. “They’re not coming to save you. Not this time.”
Raziel’s hand found hers in the darkness behind the vat. His grip was firm despite his injury, his fingers interlacing with hers in a gesture that felt almost desperate.
They nodded.
Might as well die fighting, together. She braced herself and readied to charge. They wouldn’t make it far. But it would at least be an honorable death.
They never got their chance.
Gunfire erupted from the direction of the main entrance—not the controlled, targeted shots they’d been dodging, but a full-scale assault. Screams followed, human and vampire alike, along with sounds that Nadi couldn’t immediately identify. Tearing. Rending. The wet, meaty thud of bodies hitting concrete.
And beneath it all, a sound she did recognize.
War cries. In a language she’d grown up speaking. In voices that echoed with the wild magic of the deep places beneath the world.
The fae had arrived.
* * *
Raziel couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as Kalo and the worthless fae finally decided to show up. He couldn’t imaginewhy.Their betrayal was almost complete, after all. Why change their mindsnow?
Just a few moments more, and both he and Nadi would have been dead.
Not that he wasn’t grateful, however.
It’d have to be a mystery for another time.
A figure emerged from the chaos at the facility’s entrance. Tall. Lean. Moving with the fluid grace of someone born to violence. His blue-white skin was spattered with blood—most of it not his own—and his silver eyes gleamed in the flickering light of the processing plant’s emergency lamps.
Kalo Lohti smiled, and it was the smile of a predator who had just cornered his prey.
“He’s going to get himself killed—” Nadi hissed.
“Not our problem at the moment,” Raziel replied, holding her back by the wrist. Otherwise, he knew his little murderer would likely charge in to try to rescue her would-be betrothed-turned-betrayer-turned-unlikely-savior.
“You were supposed to stay outside.” Lana’s voice had gone cold. The playful cruelty was gone, replaced by something harder. More dangerous. “That was the arrangement,Lohti.”
“Unfortunately,” Kalo said, still advancing, “there was a change of plans.”
Behind him, more fae poured into the facility. Not just Iltanis—Raziel could see the markings of half a dozen clans, warriors who shouldn’t have been working together, who had been scattered and broken by years of vampire persecution. But here they were, fighting side by side, cutting through Lana’s forces with brutal efficiency.
“You treacherous bastard,” Nabrisi snarled, raising her gun. “We had a deal?—”
“Deals withvuampiare never worth keeping!” Kalo laughed. “Consider this my wedding gift to your whole miserable family! A reminder that the fae are not your dogs to command!”
The chaos was spreading through the facility like wildfire. Guards who had been focused on Raziel and Nadi were now turning to face the new threat, splitting their attention, breaking their formations. It was exactly the kind of disorder that created opportunities.
Nadi saw it too.
“Now,” Raziel hissed. “While they’re distracted.”
They ran.
Not toward the main entrance, where the fighting was thickest, but toward the side of the processing plant—toward a maintenance corridor that Raziel had spotted during their initial infiltration. It was a gamble. There could be guards waiting. There could be no exit at all, just a dead end where they’d be cornered and slaughtered.
But considering their other options?
