Page 20 of Mage Massacres

“Ya need to eat, Millie,” Murphy chastised.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Palmer asked her.

She turned her head, looking away from her brothers.

“She’s just had another breakup,” Murphy grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“Don’t be a dick, Murph,” Palmer said, stepping in front of Miller so she had to stop walking. “What happened to Korbin?”

Murphy sidestepped to move out of Miller’s line of sight, frantically waving his hands at Palmer. Whatever happened with Korbin, he didn’t want anyone bringing it up, but it was too late.

Miller looked up, blinking back tears. “He rejected me. His parents don’t want their lycan heir to mate with a lowly mage. They said the Devil would forbid it too. If we ever had some hybrid children running around...”

She snorted. “His parents might actually die then.”

“We can kill them too…” I offered quietly.

Palmer shot me a dirty look, and I shrugged my shoulders in return. Fuck those people. I was the Devil, and I actively encouraged the shenanigans, the killing… and the hybrid children.

We walked down the hall to the kitchen, and Millie dragged her feet beside me. She needed some time to herself too, or tequila.

That was the answer to everything.

We needed a girls’ night. Too bad Jack and Hyde weren’t here.

“You could tell them the Devil is a hybrid,” Palmer offered.

“You could also tell them that the Devil will kill them for using her name to further their own selfish agendas,” I growled.

He spoke over me. “Though I don’t see why that matters. Boys are stupid, Mills.”

He was doing so well until the end. It wasn’t not true, but it wasn’t helping her either. Maybe plotting her in-laws’ murder would put me in a better mood.

“Even Palmer,” Novak agreed, casting wide eyes at my mage. “He may be book smart, but he lacks in the common sense department when it comes to women.”

“You’ve been around all of us enough to know this, Millie,” Stone reprimanded gently.

“You’re not stupid.” She pointed to my demon. “Novak and Palmer, though? I can’t say the same for them.”

5

Sloane

Tuesday, June 9th

Evening

I still had the Pith Tokens stacked together in my shirt. They sat in my lap as I soaked in the chatter around the large table. Whatever Briggs had cooked smelled amazing, but I had no appetite. I picked at the tiny seeds on the strawberries in my bowl, using my black nail to scrape them into a pile.

Palmer was across the table from me, and I studied him as he pushed his untouched food around his plate. I had quickly taken to blocking out my mates’ emotions when the bonds were sealed, but like his thoughts, my mage’s feelings of bitterness seemed to seek me out.

The conversation flowed around the table, though not everyone spoke at once. I didn’t speak at all. I was content to sit and listen to them, but my mind wandered between their subject changes.

There was a noticeable difference in my bonds after absorbing the tokens. I felt as if the door between my connections with Stone and Palmer had been obliterated. Where it was only cracked a few inches before, now it was a wide-open archway. I had three partially opened bonds in comparison, and I still had one that was closed.

I glanced from one mate to the next, searching for which token belonged to each of them. Picking out Vaughn’s was easy; it was the only one that resisted me. It called to me—sang to me—but a layer of… something cold covered it; magic that I couldn’t figure out, though I assumed it would be gone by the time we sealed our bond.

Of the other tokens, one was a bundle of chaotic energy. That one had to be attached to my vampire. And one was heavy in my hand, grounding and soothing. York. The last token tugged at my spirit, causing my wolf to howl in the back of my mind. It was dark and light, powerful and gentle, and it was all Briggs.