Page 54
“Get off my fucking stage right now, or I will break every bone in Zodiac’s wings,” Sebastien growled, “and fuck him so hard he’ll be nothing but dust when I’m done.”
“You are on my Bad People list!” I snapped, then kept my eyes on him, as I quoted, “The licensee shall hereby renumerate fifty percent of all earnings to the licensor for three years.”
“What the fuck?” Someone in the crowd laughed. “Who is this queer?”
Sebastien’s glare thinned.
“This shit ain’t what I paid for!”
“Keep going, I’m hard!”
My throat cinched closed again. “Okay, I just—” My growl cleared it this time.
Sebastien grabbed for my legs. I danced back, into more blinding spotlights. Fingers looped around my ankle. Then Zee leaped onto the stage, wings raised. He slammed his foot down onto Sebastien’s wrist, pinning him.
“Gah! The fuck!?” Sebastien tugged, but he was caught.
“I wanna hear what he has to say.”
Sebastien’s tail thrashed. Zee had stopped him. Perhaps for the first time since being sold into servitude.
“Yeah, me too!” That was Ben’s voice. “Keep going, Adam.”
“Read it!” Ramone bellowed. I couldn’t see them, but they were out there.
“Yeah, go demon bait! Give it all you got,” someone else shouted. “Rub some funk on it.”
My heart tried to thump its way out through my ribs.
Zee’s gaze met mine. “Go on, Adam. We’re listening.”
I hadn’t told him, just in case I couldn’t find it. He didn’t know the addendum existed. He didn’t know he was about to be set free.
I wet my dry lips. A few faces stood out in the crowd now my eyes had adjusted. Faces full of hope. Hope like Zee’d had when we’d visited his general, only to have those hopes dashed. Ben had said they didn’t need anyone to save them. But Ben had been wrong. We all needed someone to save us.
“Terms must be renewed”—my voice wobbled, and my heart lodged in my throat—“by both parties, within three years from the date of this agreement.”
Sebastien’s wings exploded outward. He lunged, coming straight for me with murder in his blue eyes.
Zee launched a right hook. His fist connected with Sebastien’s face, knocking his head back. Momentum carried Sebastien’s feet out from under him. He slammed onto his back, on the stage, wings flapping.
“Stay down,” Zee growled, “and listen to what Adam has to say, or I will rip your fucking wings off.”
“I own you!” Sebastien snarled, clutching his now-bleeding nose.
“Babycakes,” Zee planted his heeled shoe on Sebastien’s chest and leaned in. “I got a feeling whatever Adam says in the next five seconds means you can’t fucking touch me.”
Zee nodded me on.
Here it came. Six words that freed everyone who had been trapped under Sebastien’s heel, or choking at the end of his leash. “Or all contracts will be voided.”
Silence fell over the club.
I dropped my gaze to Sebastian’s fury-filled stare. “You got greedy. You didn’t renew the terms. All contracts are voided.”
“Bull-fucking-shit,” Sebastien raged. “That piece of paper means nothing! Let me up, you cunt,” he snarled at Zee.
Zee checked me. I gave him the okay, and Zee unpinned Sebastien from under his shoe.