Page 138

This was insane. “And who are you?”

“Your cousin, and if I’d killed Vesa instead of knocking the fucker out, you wouldn’t be here now, but if I get my way, he and our piece of shit great grandfather will be dead by the end of the night.”

We rushed down a long hall, my mind spinning. We rounded another corner.

Shit.

Several males, warriors, stepped out, blocking our way.

“Fuck,” Daire muttered and spun around, dragging me back the way we came. More warriors approached, blocking our escape.

Daire backed me into a wall, standing in front of me, trying to protect me as they moved in. He pulled a knife free, and his fangs punched down as he exploded into action. He took down one warrior after the next, but there were too many. They overpowered him, and he snarled and bucked as they dragged him away.

Two of them closed in on me then, and as the fear in me exploded into rage, I felt myself transform.

I lashed out, clawing at them. My magic swirled inside me, coming alive, but then they had hold of me, gagging me again and bound me tight.

I screamed, but there was no one here to help me.

* * *

Ronan

I climbed higher, nearly at the cave opening, over a hundred yards from the ground. I gripped the small ledge and pulled myself higher. Far in the distance, too far for human eyes to see, there was another settlement. Not a cave though, tree houses by the looks of it. Which meant it probably wasn’t more bats. Thank fuck.

Hours had passed since I spoke to Mags. I’d run through Oldwood Forest, then deeper, into places I’d never been to before. The demons who lived here were different, and there weren’t just demons. Creatures I’d never in my life laid eyes on crept and slithered through this part of the woods. It had been untouched; the creatures left to take over.

It was a good strategy. Protection for the colony. The first defense against anyone who didn’t have wings from getting close to them.

But nothing would keep me from Rose, and if anything had happened to her—if they’d hurt her—

I shook the thought from my mind. She was alive. I knew that much. I felt her heart beating right along with mine.

With a snarl, I heaved myself over the edge and got to my feet.

A large cave yawned ahead of me. Strengthening my powers and concealing myself, I ran into the cavern. Light flickered ahead, and I turned a corner, running by doors until I reached the end.

Several more caves branched off this one. I closed my eyes and called on Rose’s blood—something was blocking her from me, something dark and volatile.

Something violent and pure evil.

I opened my eyes and took in the three tunnels ahead. All I could do was guess.

With a growl, I made my choice.

CHAPTER 40

Rose

They stripped me down and made me change into a sheer white dress that covered nothing.

I stood in a large cavern with no natural light and only a few lit wall sconces. The flames danced against the stone walls, and even though it was still too dark to see much of anything, I recognized the room immediately. It was the room from my vision.

Evil saturated it, a dark magic that felt like a physical weight pressing down on me, suppressing my own completely. I was helpless, a feeling I was all too familiar with.

The two males holding me dragged me around the edge of the room, then out to the middle. Rough hands shoved me forward. My chest slammed against a cold slab of stone, and they quickly chained me to it with iron cuffs around my wrists and ankles.

They vanished into the shadows, and all I could do was wait helplessly for whatever was about to happen.