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When she lifted the floorboard, she reached in and retrieved the amulet on its silver chain. It pulsed with magic.
Stolen power.
She’d been the one to steal all that power.
“It would have been so much easier if you’d just told us where it was from the start,” Xantha said. “No matter, we have what we need now.”
She let go of the string, and the whole apartment around me crumbled and disappeared, giving way to the storage unit I was kept in. My hands were still tied behind my back, and I sat on the crate.
My head ached like a bitch now.
When I blinked my eyes open, Xantha stood in front of me, a big smile on her face… and the amulet in her hand.
“How…?” I asked, blinking at it. That wasn’t possible.
“Xantha, darling,” my dad purred, coming into the storage unit. He smiled broadly and held his arms wide open as if he was going to give her a hug. “I knew I could count on you. You should have added her to the mix.” He pointed at me.
“She would have ruined it for you,” Xantha said, looking at me. “She’s bound to another with power. It’s not so easy.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “I’ll just have to kill her, then.” He grinned at me as if he was planning to do me a favor.
Dad held up the amulet and looked into it. Magic pulsed from it, growing stronger and stronger. I felt it on my skin, pressing against me like a giant hand. It filled the storage unit until it was hard to breathe.
“Yes!” Dad laughed, tilting his head back. “That’s what I’m talking about! That’s—”
The sound of a car engine revving high sounded a moment before the nose of a car crashed through the door. I cursed and threw myself backward. Dad and Xantha jumped away, and half of the storage unit came down in a pile of bricks on the car.
I coughed in the dust and lifted my head from where I lay on the ground. Jameson kicked the door open as if a lot of debris didn’t actually block him in, and he climbed onto the car.
“Tate!” He roared, and there was so much power behind it, the remainder of the building trembled.
Warmth rushed over me.
He’d come for me.
Which was exactly what my dad had wanted.
Shit.
Dad and Xantha were in a corner. Xantha’s hands were up as if she’d created some kind of shield, and she and Dad were untouched. Neither of them had so much as a speck of dust on them.
“Ah,” Dad laughed. “The alpha comes for his damsel in distress.”
“You’re not supposed to be in my territory,” Jameson said in a deep voice. His muscles bulged, and his chest rose and fell. Magic pulsed all around him, and he was a sight to behold, more powerful than anything I’d ever seen before.
“I thought we were past all that,” Dad said with a smile.
Jameson turned to look at Xantha.
“You,” he said. “You’re the one who created that thing.”
Xantha smiled, clasping her hands behind her back before she offered a small shrug. “I am.” She was proud of her work.
“You stole the souls of the innocent.”
“I stole their power,” she said, looking Jameson up and down like he was an idiot who didn’t know what he was talking about. “Where their souls ended up isn’t my conce—” Jameson moved so quickly, before she could finish her sentence, he snapped her neck.
Xantha’s limp body sank to the ground, her black hair creating a pool around her like an oil spill. Her pale skin became paler, the life draining out of her.
