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"Alrighty," I said, more upbeat than I felt, "We're standing here talking when we could be killing someone! Let's go!"
If my mates loved the killer in me, I had no reason to mask any of my crazy. It was time to take down all the walls I'd built around my bloodthirst and let it out.5
Massacre 2.0, here I come!
35
Ilost my nerve five times between Hell and Orchid Vale. Ley line travel was far, far slower than shadow travel. Long enough to give me time to remember all the gruesome ways my mates could die.
I reassured myself by picturing Eidolon's murder over and over. Suffocation. Strangulation. Asphyxiation. Good ol' fashioned beheading. Mutilation—he deserved that one. Mostly I wanted to get out all my rage and bludgeon him to death, but I'd take whatever method presented itself first.
I'd only used a portal once before; when I fell to my almost-death and Dev caught me, but all I remembered of it was an endless wind tunnel and screaming. I didn't scream this time, but only because Joseph tucked my face into his chest and cradled the back of my neck so I had something to cling to while we fell.
Yup, even though we were travellingupfrom Hell, we still fell but in reverse. Magic was such bullshit sometimes.
The ley line spat us out into a fancy-ass garden. I ended up sprawled on a low-lying hedge on top of Joseph, his arms banded around me. I was ninety percent sure he'd rolled us so he absorbed the impact. Squishy-hearted man.
"Joejoe, tell me you're okay." I ran frantic eyes over his body, searching for blood and exposed bones as I pushed carefully off him.
"Fine, my sweet," he groaned. "A little bruised; nothing I won't heal." He kissed my cheek and murmured, "Don't worry. I'm tougher than I look."
"Oww! Son of a motherfucker," Taj snarled across the garden.
I helped Joseph to his feet, and surveyed the mess we'd made of the garden. The hedges were flattened, the rose bushes were ruined, and someone had set fire to an old oak, but at least there wasn't a trail of blood or Mallie baby unconscious this time.
"We're home," X murmured, staring at the palace over my shoulder as he climbed off a flattened hydrangea.
I squeezed his arm when I brushed past, the soft surprise on his face making my heart tight for reasons I couldn't understand. Worried about the cry of pain I’d heard, I crossed the garden to Taj just as Dev helped him off the ground.
"Shit, you've got a little … something…" I hovered my hands over Taj, desperate to help but trying not to make it worse. There was a twig sticking out of his side, lodged right in his body.
My breathing threatened to spiral; all I saw was him cut from side to side, his insides spilling out, the wound too vicious for him to survive to heal—
But he did,I snapped at my panic.He's right here, and it's just a stick. Chill.
"Pull it out; I can heal it," Taj grunted, his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed with what looked like hatred. I knew now it was pain.
"Think happy thoughts," I murmured, sending love and support through the bond. "Puppy piles, torture, knotting—" I caught sight of Dev's face and quickly pivoted— "people who aren't me, obviously."
"Lina," Taj hissed.
I grabbed the end of the stick in two hands and wrenched it out as clean as possible. The second it was free, Dev slapped a hand over the wound, fire bubbling under his palm.
"There," he murmured. "Your body will have to heal the inside. How do you feel?"
"Like I just got speared by a goddamn tree," Taj snapped.
"Been there, done that," I remarked. "Well, it was less speared than stabbed and drugged, but it was a very nasty tree." I leaned in and kissed the angry spot of skin where he'd been stabbed, then cast a glance around the garden.
The rest of our circle were up and fine, and the Malefic circle were all huddled together, no organs hanging out of their bodies. I called that a win.
I turned when someone tugged a lock of my hair, and found Taj watching me with something dangerously close to affection.1"I've got something to show you," he said, a gleam in his chocolate eyes. His hands landed on my hips. I was about to askis it your dicks?when he added, "You should come too, Dad."
Probably not his dicks, then.
"What is it?" I asked eagerly, making acome hithergesture at the rest of our circle. "Is it a chocolate factory? Oh my god, did you buy me a plushie?"
He snorted. "No. Wait and see."
