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“What the fuck is going on?”
My head swiveled to Fane who suddenly stood in the middle of the room, his eyes lit up like blazing stars.
I groaned, not because of the pain but because of his ghostly presence. None of the other spells or experiments had called him. Had our little sensual rendezvous last night caused the lines of communication to widen again? Would he find his way to me more frequently?
Could I visit him? Maybe if I irritated him, gave him a taste of his own medicine, he’d leave me alone.
The Infernal Sol slammed against my rib cage with enough force to jolt me to the left.
“I think it’s working.” My head lifted off the metal table to see a glow emanating from the sun tattoo. “It’s trying to—”
Blinding pain exploded through my center, and I screamed, the sound like a death cry on the battlefield. My veins burned red like they had when the stone slithered inside me. A coppery tang filled my mouth, and I wanted to lean over the table and puke, but I couldn’t move. I was frozen in agony.
Fane appeared over me, resting his hand on my forehead. The tendons in his neck strained as he tried to take my pain away like he’d done a few times before.
But it didn’t work. Like he said last night, he wasn’t really here.
The demon shifter cursed and tried to shove Nadia away to interrupt her spell. When that didn’t work, he snarled and punched Ruin, his massive fist sailing right through the demon lord.
Fane couldn’t react with anything except me.
“Just stop, you idiot,”I said into his mind.“I let them do this. I want this thing out.”
His lips curled back, revealing his teeth as they sharpened. “Getting the Infernal Sol out by killing you won’t do you any good.”
“Like you care, Maverick.”A bitter laugh slipped out, and Ruin’s brow knit as he scrutinized me.“You want me dead, remember? I killed your brother.”He knew I hadn’t done it in cold blood, but it didn’t change the facts.
“I know exactly what you did, Teague.” He leaned over the table, his face inches from mine. “You took my brother away. He was good and innocent, and you took him.”
Tears that had nothing to do with the physical anguish ravaging my body blurred my vision. “They were all innocent.”
Nadia moved in my periphery and pressed her hand against the sun tattoo, her lips thinning. The candles flickered as a wind whipped through the lab. “The power does not want to leave her!” she yelled over the howling. “It has made her its home, its shelter from others that seek it.”
“I don’t want to keep it.” I didn’t ask for this, and I sure as hell didn’t invite this thing in. Was I going to need an exorcist to get this demonic stone out?
“I’ll try something else.” Nadia angled her back to Ruin as she withdrew a curved dagger from the pocket of her jeans, the blade crackling with her purple magic.
Oh, shit.
Fane lunged, but he stumbled through her as she raised the dagger, holding it over my abdomen.
“You son of a bitch, Ruin!” Fane roared. “You gave your word no harm would come to her.”
My world went into slow motion as Nadia brought the knife down toward the center of the sun tattoo. Did she think cutting me open to remove the stone would work?
Ruin’s eyes widened as he realized her intent, and he moved to grab her.
But the demon lord wasn’t fast enough.
Nadia put the tip of the blade to my stomach and cut. Well, she tried. Power erupted out of me, slammed into her, and knocked her across the room. She crashed into a cabinet, shattering the glass doors into a million pieces.
The spell disintegrated, and the candles extinguished as the wind died. Pain still crashed inside of me from the Tempest Miserae pissing off the Infernal Sol, but it faded to a manageable level. My veins didn’t burn either, and my vision cleared.
Ruin frantically examined me as Fane did the same on the other side of the table. A breath of relief poured out of the demon lord once he was satisfied that I hadn’t been sliced in half.
He turned to the witch as she climbed out of the pile of metal and glass. “That was not part of the plan, Nadia.” Ruin’s voice drifted out like a winter storm slowly icing everything in its path. “I warned you of the consequences if you went rogue.”
Frost skated down my back at the threat building in his words. “I’m fine.” I pushed onto my elbows again, wincing. “The amulet wouldn’t even let her scratch me.”
