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“Nolan,” Sadie says, a pulse of fear thrumming through our connection.
I want to reassure her, to protect her, to help her find her vengeance, but I stumble to my knees. I’m failing her.
With a warrior’s cry, Sadie sends her whip lashing out, tearing through the air above my head and slicing into the Huntresses. On its recoil, it catches Devlyn in those horrible bone wings of hers, shattering them and leaving only jagged splinters behind.
Devlyn howls, but Sadie’s already drawing back her arm again. This time, it opens the Huntress’s neck in a way no ordinary whip could. My Fury’s magical weapon to call? It takes Devlyn’s head. The sick thud of the Huntress’s body signals the end of their fight.
“For my family,” Sadie says. “For my parents, my sisters, Lowell, and me.” A glow of divine energy shines from her—the mark of her deity-sanctioned destruction of a woman so evil she killed any child, shifter, or innocent who stood in the path of the chaos she sought. Sadie has saved us and maybe, just maybe, saved herself in the process.
I stare in awe. My woman’s spattered in blood and filth, and she’s never been more spellbinding. The wails that go up around us have my attention snapping back to the other Huntresses.
My mate strokes my fur, whispering quick words of magic and mystery. Powers so strong they must be gifts of her gods and immortal creators pour through my wounds, mending and healing as they surge through my veins.
“Ready?” she asks.
I bump her thigh with my head. The sooner we end this, the faster I can kneel at my mate’s feet to worship her, no matter how unholy or unsanctified my adoration for her lethal qualities may be.
Sadie rips into the other Huntresses with a viciousness my beast can appreciate. With each step she takes and every strike of her whip, I move with her in a partnership that doesn’t require planning or communication. This deadly dance comes naturally to us.
No thought or reason remains. There’s only my mate and the final strokes of her revenge.
When the last Huntress falls, the rage goes with it. Adrenaline and magic buzz through me with no release.
“It’s done.” Sadie sounds as if she doesn’t believe it.
Another wave of magic hits us from the terrible god battle. This one brings healing and hope instead of fear. I breathe it in, letting it settle deep in my beast’s lungs despite the awful stench of cat.
“I did what I promised. I found vengeance for my family.” Sadie drops to her knees and buries her face in my fur. “So why do I feel empty?”
Because the loss never ends. My beast knows. The missing of Lowell and Sadie’s family won’t stop with any amount of bloodshed. The destruction of the monsters didn’t cure the hurt. I curl into her, listening to her sob her pain into my fur while I watch over my mate, our incomplete bond not letting me push solace into her.
Not yet anyway.
One victory at a time.
26
SADIE
Syn City will never be the same.
A week after the fight with the Huntresses, and the smell of smoke lingers. The sound of Bunny working with her crew to salvage what they can? It jars me with every strike of hammers, shrill scream of saws, and pop of nail guns.
“I can’t imagine how our deity town will survive.” I lean into Nolan from the now open-air colosseum left behind from The Rink’s partial destruction. We sit in a salvaged section of the stands, near my Fury sisters and their mates.
He presses a kiss to my hair. “Do you want to stay? Or would you rather the immortals move you to another deity city?”
“While I’ve only lived here since the start of my second life, it’s home, and I don’t plan on giving it up without a fight.”
“Then it’s good the Syndicate seems to be overthrown.”
No one knows in truth.
The good part about a shadow government? It keeps people from knowing who to bribe, who to blackmail, who to bomb and replace. Not that anyone from Syn City did the actual bombing. No, that’d been Captain Zaleski, formerly of the marshals which seems to be a defunct organization as far as we can tell since Nolan holed up with other shifters to sort out the pieces.
The bad part about a shadow government? It operates in such cloaked mystery that its fall is more about the loss of its following than an actual coup.
“Let’s hope it stays silent,” I say. “The last thing we need is another war between the Houses.”
