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Raine turned to Ryder. “Is there a way to sever her connection to Killian without killing him?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Ryder’s eyes flickered in the moonlight. “I have a plan, but I doubt you’re going to like it.”
CHAPTER17
Dannika blitzed along the shadow pathway on the brink of flying apart. The fight to keep her body in non-corporeal form was a losing battle, but she slowed her pace, searching the pathway for the first time.
Raine had always rushed them through the slipstream, cautioning her that the longer he stayed within the pathway, the higher the chances of a mistake where a body part arrived at a different location than its host. While she had no desire to experience that again, she needed the distraction from her reality. Her betrayal. She wanted to blame Fallon or Maverick, but this was on her. She fell into Killian’s trap.
The pain of slowing her descent in the pathways was nothing compared to that of losing Raine. Her family. Her father had taken everything from her, and he would pay.
The shadow pathway was like a long tube of moving darkness that occasionally refracted tiny bits of light, small sparkles that were only detectable when you slowed to a snail’s pace. It was more beautiful than she’d imagined. Another universe within her own. One you could visit, but you could never stay.
Dannika tried not to think about Raine, the amazing man they’d forced her to leave behind, or the child she’d betrayed.
Her vision tinged with red as her reaper blood reacted to the shadows. She should be bitter about her choice to consume Killian’s blood, but that was the crux of the problem. That had been her decision but being forced into a traitor was a torture beyond any other.
The shadow pathway rushed with the flow of shadows, but as her vision turned crimson, the tubes became like satin. The pain dissipated, and it became easier to control her pace. Zade had told her that becoming a reaper would make her shadow abilities stronger, as it strengthened her demon.
She now understood how Zade could be a reaper and so different from his brethren. Embracing her demon abilities gave her the strength of a reaper, despite not having crossed that line. Unlike Zade, her animals were very much alive, but they huddled in her soul, crying in pain. They may survive her turning reaper, but they wouldn’t survive losing Raine. She had allowed Killian to manipulate her into betraying her mate, her clan, but he should have watched her more closely.
Dannika’s loyalty was unwavering, and she would do anything to save Sammy and interfere with Killian’s plans. Her anger at her father continued to rise, but her thoughts about the reapers had changed. Some had sacrificed their souls to turn reaper, had been forced into blood slavery, but they didn’t seek immortality. Events had diverted her from her original plan, but now she believed that some reapers could be saved. She just had to sell her soul to the devil. Her demon soul.
Dannika altered her trajectory, coalescing from the shadows of the Bokor’s shop. She welcomed the pain of her body reforming, the scratching along bone as her skin reformed. Her eyesight remained grey with tinges of red. Hakim would know she had fed her demon reaper blood. He wouldn’t know it was Killian’s and she didn’t care. It should have been a warning sign that she would threaten the Bokor if he didn’t give her what she wanted. It wasn’t.
She slammed open his door and strode towards the counter before it swung shut. “Hakim, get out here.”
Hakim exited the back area he lived in, holding a sandwich. “How did you approach my shop without tripping the alarm?”
Dannika glanced at the dusty shelves packed with occult items. “I don’t know, but we need a new plan.”
Hakim put his sandwich on the counter.
“Where are your bodyguards?” he asked warily.
“They’re gone. I need to remove Killian myself. I have a blood bond with him—long story—and I need to break it. That means I need to kill him.”
Hakim wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving a stain on the bright yellow robe. “You’re committed to removing Killian as the reaper leader?”
Her vision flared with red. “I will do whatever it takes to kill my father.”
Hakim nodded. “If you travel this path, there is no turning back.”
“Killian started this when he forced me to betray Raine and the shadow wolves. I will finish it.”
Hakim took out an old leather-bound book from beneath the counter. The pages were tattered and written in a script she didn’t understand. He flipped through a few pages, running his finger over several lines before moving to the next. “Here it is.”
Dannika leaned over the counter, looking at the strange book. “What is it?”
Hakim’s yellow eyes met hers. “It’s a recipe for a poison.”
She shook her head. “Killian will recover from that. He’s more powerful than I gave him credit for.”
Hakim tapped his finger on the page. “A shadow or reaper expels any foreign substance from his body. This poison will kill him because his body will not reject it. I will make it from your blood, and he must choose to take it.”
