Page 106 of Tethered Fates

I’m about to ask what he’s talking about. But then I do—the heavy pounding of approaching footsteps.

Beside me, Ramy squares up just as a door bursts open to reveal Kate storming out with a shotgun.

“Finally.” She rests the two-barrelled gun on her shoulder. “You’re here.”

“Kate.” Within half a second, Vidar, Lucero, Ramy, and I surround her.

There are too many questions—why are officers compelled and locked away? How did Emma die? Where did all the undead come from? But all I really care about is, “Where the fuck is Teagan?”

“Summer rose from a shadow.” The no-nonsense detective doesn’t look shaken; she has the same expression as when I saved her from blood mages all those years ago—pissed the hell off. “She took the boys and another vamp. Rurik?”

“Rurik was here?” Ramy asks, confused.

“He tore through the zombies. Then twisted that bitch’s neck one-eighty.” She nods to Emma’s corpse, where Bran stands over it with a look of smug satisfaction. “Then Golden compelled all the officers.”

Luc sucks in a breath. “All of them?”

I can understand his shock. I’m surprised. While no one says it, Golden is a weak vampire. Compulsion takes years to learn, longer to master, and to do it to more than one person?

But I don’t give a fuck about any of that right now. “Did Summer say where she was going?”

“I have no idea,” Kate replies.

“Fuck!” Vidar shouts, clutching Kai’s phone to his chest.

“Be sensible, boys,” Bran calls as he strolls towards Elio, who’s pointedly staring out a window. “You know where your soulmates are; you can always find them, correct? So follow that instinct.”

I suck in a deep breath.

He’s right. I need to focus my mind to find sweet tea and warm sand and…comfort—a comfort without limits, where I can find thrill and quiet and him.

‘I’m coming, sweetheart,’ I think as I move. And I imagine him saying, with his big eyes staring up at me, ‘I’m waiting, slick.’

Elio is already on Bran’s back, Ramy on Vidar’s.

“I’m coming with you—” Kate begins.

“Stay here!” I bark.

“Sen!” Kate argues.

But I don’t have time to tell Kate that I don’t need her or her moral code anywhere near me as we race out of the police station and into the dark streets, the three of us following the connection that leads to the people we’d sacrifice everything for.

My anger is palpable. I’m tired of these fucking games. Summer dies.

I’m not surprised when we find ourselves at King’s Tattoo Studio. The skeleton king grins, all the lights are turned off, and the door is locked—not as if that’ll stop me.

I rip it off the hinges, bell and all, tossing it away as we sprint inside.

“I realised.” I hear Summer’s voice as we charge towards the closed basement door. “I just need someone who drinks ancient blood regularly and whose heart courses with it. I realised I can just take their heart instead.”

We dart down to find Summer with her hands splayed on Kai’s chest, a tear rolling down his cheek.

Relief crashes through me at the sight of Teagan alive. Terrified, eyes darting wildly—but alive.

Vidar roars, loud enough to shake the concrete walls, and throws himself at the blood mage. But she’s quick and throws the ball of blood swirling in her hand up. It expands, quickly becoming a glass-like bubble to separate us from them.

Vidar throws himself against the barrier. Cracks appear, but the red-tinged dome holds. But it comes with a price. Summer trembles with the effort to hold us back and keep the others frozen in place.