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Delaney. Has he been telling them everything?
“That’s bullshit!” Nix shouts. “Sera, he’s lying. It was real. It was all real. The bond.”
“That magic we all witnessed? Nothing more than an enchantment he bought off a succubus. You’ve heard of a succubus? A lady of lust.” Hynde drags his nose up the column of my throat and my lip quivers in disgust. “I can only imagine how he paid for that. I have to give him credit. I wish I had thought of it.”
“I would never touch you.” I grit my teeth.
Hynde pinches my chin between his fingers, making my eyes meet his. One eye is a deep brown, the other burns like a blue flame. “I can’t say the same.” His mouth is inches from mine as his other hand trails from my throat, down the center of my chest, and reaches the waistband of my skirt.
Nix roars in the distance as I glare at Hynde, with all the strength I can muster not to crumble.
He looks past me with a wicked smirk pulling at his lips. “Say goodbye,” he taunts before his mouth smashes against mine. My stomach falls as my feet lose contact with the ground. Instead of landing, I’m free-falling into darkness and the echoes of Nix’s cries.
23
She’s gone, and it’s all my fault. I should have told her about Catori and why we were really here. Hynde constantly questioned my loyalty to Catori, to the only family I’ve known in my afterlife. He challenged me to prove where my loyalties lie, and now I know it’s to Sera, except it’s all too late.
“Nix.” Jett coaxes me from the ground when my fingers claw at the dirt. “They took Len.”
“Demons,” someone hisses, but my heart is too broken to lift my head and see.
“No, wait. We’re good demons,” Jett says, and the air around us falls silent. “Yeah, I know how it sounds, but it’s true.”
I know that’s the story we came up with, but even I’m starting to believe it. I don’t think I have to be this way. I don’t want to be.
“I can vouch for them.” A huge, tattooed guy steps out from the bushes wearing nothing but a pair of gray sweats.
I’ve seen him at the inn.
“You’re the wolf?” I ask in a daze.
“Rowan.” He nods at me then turns back to the other witches. “Sera and Nix are… umm.” His words trail off, letting the sentence die, probably like any trust Sera once had in me. He doesn’t know how to answer the question much more than I do.
I sit back on my heels, wiping a hand under my nose as I suck up the grief. “She’s my love,” I croak.
An older witch with silver hair steps forward. “A demon in love?”
Another witch shakes her head. “It’s not possible.”
“I will not prove myself to you when her life hangs in the balance.” I turn to Rowan. “Where’s Sloane? Why wasn’t she here fighting too?”
Rowan’s shoulders drop. “She returned home earlier.”
“Well, I need to find her. I need her help,” I beg. Rowan’s jaw ticks, torment evident on his face. “Please. You know how to find her? Will you convince her to help me?”
Rowan nods once just as the white wolf beside him runs behind a nearby bush. Seconds later, a young woman appears in a light cotton dress.
Jett gasps, clutching his chest as the gold of her wolf eyes dim to a more natural amber.
“I’m not a miracle worker.” Rowan scoffs, drawing my attention back to him. “But Sloane won’t stop once she learns her sister’s been taken.”
“We’ll help any way we can,” the she-wolf says, stepping forward.
“No, Nikita, you’ll stay here.” Rowan shakes his head, making the woman huff in annoyance. “I don’t want you mixed up in this.”
“I’m helping, and don’t even think of using your alpha command on me to change that.” Nikita crosses her arms over her chest, squaring up with Rowan.
He glares back at her before his chest caves in defeat. “Fine. But you listen to me every step of the way. We need to get on the road now. It’s just over an hour to Salem.”
