Page 105 of Tethered Fates

“No, I…” Golden shakes his head, looking stunned himself. “Apollo’s right, we gotta go.”

Kai slumps against the wall.

“You okay, big bro?”

He nods, his smile strained. “I’ll text Vidar what happened.” Kai takes his phone out—freezes in place, his phone clattering to the ground.

I try to frown, but my face isn’t moving. I’m not moving.

I can’t.

Panicked, I dart my gaze to Emma to see if she somehow survived.

She doesn’t budge.

Her shadow does.

I watch, my pulse hammering against my neck, as her shadow darkens, lengthens, stretches wide like a hungry mouth and then Summer steps out. The First Blood Mage Tome at her side, and a ball of darker-than-normal blood swirling in her hand. Her eyes are an eclipse ringed in glowing red.

“Found you.”

I struggle against her spell, but I can’t even twitch a finger. None of us can.

“I tried, you know.” Summer shakes her head as if genuinely disappointed. “I tried to get an ancient vampire’s heart. But once we arrived at the mansion, I knew it didn’t matter how many numbers I had. We were always outmatched.” I rage against her. They weren’t numbers. They were her fucking family! “But I realised something in that moment.”

Summer’s rings oscillate as light is sucked towards them. Then I feel myself begin to sink. Frantically, my gaze darts down, and with horror, I see I’m falling into my own shadow.

I look around, find that Kai, Golden, Apollo and Rurik are falling too. Kate makes a strangled noise, but she’s frozen, and left behind as we dip into a pure, suffocating darkness.

It’s like blinking—one moment we’re in the police station, and the next we’re in the basement of King’s tattoo studio, facing the twisted demon door that Summer once tried to open with our blood, creating the tether between us.

“I realised…” Summer says as she moves to the door to lay her hand at its centre. “I just need someone who drinks ancient blood regularly. Someone whose heart courses with it.”

Summer turns sympathetic eyes in Kai’s direction.

Inwardly, I’m thrashing against Summer’s spell. Outwardly, I’m a statue, and I have to watch Summer step towards my brother. Looming over him.

“I realised,” Summer says as she gently lays her palm over Kai’s heart.

A single tear rolls down his frozen cheek. I’ve never wanted to hurt another person more. I want to rip her to pieces, use my nails, teeth—anything to get her away from Kai.

“I can just take their heart, instead.”

Chapter Thirty-Five - Sen

“Emma.” I nudge her body with my shoe and find her neck twisted at an impossible angle. “They killed Emma.”

Elio stumbles over, his bad ankle buckling under his weight.

He stares down at the dead mage, his mother, the woman who carved a spell into his stomach that stole his free will.

“Good riddance,” he spits, before turning on his heel as his face crumbles into an expression more complicated than simple hate.

“Kai’s phone.” Vidar bends to grab the shattered phone stuck between charred bodies.

“Golden isn’t picking up,” Luc growls, pacing with his own phone pressed to his ear. “Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”

“Wait.” Ramy tilts his head up and frowns. “Do you hear that?”