by Cynthia Eden
“H-how did you know I was in the cell?” How did you get past the locked cell door?
“We can see everything when we’re down there. See the whole fucking world,” Dax whispered, “but we only feel the fire.”
Tears pricked her eyes. So she’d still see the world when she was down in the flames. She’d still see Leo. That was good to know.
“How can you get past the bars?” Leo’s great plan never would have worked, not if they could get in and out of the paranormal proof cells—
“Hellhounds aren’t like the others.” It was the redhead who spoke. Reever. “Only the fire contains us. Nothing else.” There was no rage on his face as he stared at her. He was just…waiting.
Waiting for the end? “I’ve…lied,” Mora confessed.
The men around her had formed a circle. Men, not beasts. Not right then.
“I said that I couldn’t see my own fate,” she murmured. Mora shook her head. “That was the lie. I’ve always known fire waited for me.” That was why she’d been so terrified the first time Reever and his men had come for her. She’d thought her time was up then.
It hadn’t been. She’d had a few more centuries waiting for her.
But not any longer.
“It will hurt,” Dax warned her.
“I expected nothing less.” She’d try not to scream, but she’d never liked pain very much.
***
The dragon vanished. Luke stood in his place—dressed in one of his damn fancy suits and with a smirk on his face. Luke tugged on his sleeve and lifted one pompous brow. “One problem eliminated…for now.”
Enraged, Leo leapt at his brother. He drove his fist at Luke’s jaw. Luke’s head whipped back, and Leo took aim again.
But Luke caught his fist. “That’s one hell of a way to say thank you.”
“I had a plan! We were going to lock them in the cell! Now we don’t know when they’ll come back!” Leo jerked his hand free. “You screwed it all up.”
Luke’s face tightened. “I helped. I took a stand. It will be twenty-four hours before they come back. That gives us time to come up with a better plan because in case you missed it, I’m not ruling the dark any longer. You are. And you don’t know a damn thing about running the prison on this island. It’s not safe to keep the hellhounds here. We need something better. We need—”
A scream. High, pain-filled. Desperate.
Mora’s scream.
Leo’s eyes widened in horror, and then he was shoving past Luke, shoving past Luke’s friends and the allies that had gathered now that the flames were gone. He ran past the vampires, the shifters, the angel—
He thundered through the old tunnel that led to the cells. He burst into the secure area—what should have been secure—and his heart stopped.
A circle of familiar figures were in that cell. He recognized the redheaded bastard on sight. Reever. How many times do you have to die?
And…Dax was there, too. Dax had his hand on Mora’s shoulder.
Mora was in the middle of that group.
He grabbed for the cell door. The fucking thing was locked!
“I’m sorry,” Mora cried out. “It just hurt so much, I didn’t mean to scream—”
Didn’t mean to fucking scream? She’d been attacked, she should damn well have screamed. She should have screamed when she first saw those bastards.
Luke leapt forward and unlocked the door.
Leo lurched inside. The plan he’d originally had to trap the beasts could work. The hellhounds were back—he didn’t understand how they’d gotten back so soon—but they were in the cell, just as he’d wanted. Now he had to get Mora out, and he could seal them inside.
“Don’t watch, Leo!” Mora shouted.
What?
The men moved closer to her. They all put their hands on her—some on her shoulders. Some on her back.
“Get away from her!” Leo bellowed.
He could hear snarls and growls behind him. The others had chased him and Luke back to the cell. They’d help him. They’d all fight.
He lifted his hand, intending to rip right through that circle of men.
Then the flames erupted. Bright and hot, blinding with their intensity. He tried to reach through that fire. He just had to grab Mora—
The flames vanished. Mora vanished. Leo stood there a moment, stunned and lost as his gaze flew around the cell. There were black char marks on the floor. Nothing else.
“Mora?” He whispered her name at first. He spun around, desperate. “Mora?” She wasn’t there. She wasn’t fucking there.
She wasn’t anywhere. Not in his world. He could feel her absence already, like a great, yawning hole inside of him. His body began to shake. His claws sharpened even more. His fangs were bursting out of his mouth. His wings had shot from his back. The beast was taking over. It was desperate, in agony, broken without his mate. “Mora?”
“Leo.” It was his brother’s voice. His brother who now stood before him with a face that was tense and a gaze that was sorrowful. “I…didn’t know. Didn’t suspect…”
Leo shoved his claws into Luke’s chest. “You did this.”
He and Luke were the only ones in that cell. The others were outside, watching, waiting, on the other side of the bars.
“You sent your fire at them…and it didn’t stop them. It just distracted us all while they came for her.” Each word was savage, because Leo was more beast than man. “I…lost her. Because of you.” Gone, gone. Mora’s gone. I can feel…emptiness. She’s…
Luke didn’t fight. He just looked down at the claws in his chest and the blood that had soaked his fancy suit. “Is this supposed to be the part where I fight you?”
Leo needed Luke to fight him. He needed something to stop the pain he felt. Because that yawning hole inside? The one that told him Mora was gone? Now it hurt. Agony poured through him. Knives seemed to rip him apart. “Fight me.” That was what everyone had always wanted. A brawl to the death.
Mora isn’t on earth. The world went darker. I felt it when she left. Because she’d taken his soul with her. The pain was excruciating.
The hounds took Mora away.
Leo raked his claws down Luke’s chest.
More blood flowed.
Luke still didn’t fight back.
“Fight me!” Leo bellowed.
But Luke held his ground. “Why? Do you think it will bring her back?”
Leo stumbled away from his brother. His gaze swept around, and he could see all of the others still standing just beyond the bars. He choked out a breath, and smoke drifted in front of him.
Mora. Gone.
Julian and his vampire were watching Leo—and pity filled their eyes. A tear had slid down Lila’s cheek, and her beast wrapped his arm around her. Trina and Merius just stared with stunned, wild gazes. Luke’s mate was there, too…Mina stood beyond the open door and her face was so pale and sad.
Why does Luke get a mate…when I have lost mine? Mora is gone…Mora is burning… “I said she’d be safe…”
Luke was still right there. Not attacking. Not…
He’s blocking my path. He thinks I’m going to break loose and attack all of the others here. Leo could see it, in the battle ready tension that coated Luke’s body. In the way his twin kept glancing nervously over his shoulder…
At his mate.
“I said she’d be safe,” Leo whispered again. The rage built inside of him. Rage and pain twisted in a fire-soaked fury, until he could feel his very skin start to shred as his beast took over.
Luke won’t fight me.
And Leo had never wanted to kill his brother…
He’d gone to Mora in the beginning, to try and change fate.
Fate. She was my fate. She was mine.
He’d hunted her down to Resurrection…he’d built that bar back for her…
Because Leo had wanted to give her the world.
He dropped to his knees. His hands slapped against the stone floor, right over the
charred black stains that were all that remained of Mora. “Get…out…” He was losing himself. The pain and fury were too great. But this line…this line…I will not cross. His head jerked back. He glared at his twin. “Get out…” While you can. While my control holds. Before I give in to the darkness and kill you.
Luke backed away. He kept his gaze on Leo as he walked—backwards—through the cell door. As soon as he was clear, Luke swung that door shut. The clang of metal was loud.
Too loud.
Mora?
The beast erupted. The man’s pain was too much. The dragon sprang to life and the beast opened his mouth to let his fire reign.
“Get the fuck out of here!” Luke yelled. “Everyone—now!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Luke Thorne was used to getting what he wanted. He was used to ruling over the paranormals in his world—and he was used to the sweet rush that came from being the toughest badass in the room.
What he wasn’t used to…what he damn well didn’t like…pain.
Luke strode through the old tunnel that connected his home to the paranormal prison. He’d been warden at that prison for longer than he liked to remember. The worst of the worst were housed in those cells. The beasts who were beyond control. The predators who would attack humans if they were ever freed.
His steps echoed as he approached the cell on the right.
Now my brother is in the prison.
A week had passed since Mora had vanished. A week since rage and pain had broken Leo.
Luke had gone to that cell every single day, hoping to see a change. But every single day, his brother’s fire had greeted him. Madness. Luke knew what stared back at him when he gazed into the dragon’s eyes. Mora had known what would happen to Leo without her. She’d worked so hard to make sure that he would survive…
She even played me.
More than he’d realized.
But as he approached the cell today, the dragon wasn’t there. Leo was back in the body of a man. He gripped the bars tightly with his hands, and his head leaned forward, resting against them.
Luke stopped, stunned…and hopeful. “Brother?”
Leo didn’t move. “I still can’t feel her.”
Luke crept closer.
“When she was close…I swear, I could feel her before I saw her. Like a touch on my skin. Now…she’s just…gone, and I’m empty inside.”
The cell door was still shut. Luke walked to it, but he didn’t open that cell. After all, he didn’t want to kill his brother. And if Leo tried to come out of that cell, if the rage still ruled him…
“There…has to be more.” Leo’s voice was desperate. “It can’t…it can’t just end like this. I have to…Mora can’t stay in the fire.”
Luke glanced around the cell. He’d been here, talking with Mora, trying to figure her out…and that seemed like a lifetime ago. “She loved you.”
Leo’s shoulders stiffened. “You aren’t helping.”
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Actually, I think I am.” And he walked around the cell, moving until he was next to the bars that Leo gripped so firmly. “You’re alive. I’m alive. I’d say Mora’s plan worked, as far as that is concerned.”
Leo slowly lifted his head. His face was ashen. His eyes lined with dark circles. He wore his grief like a shroud.
“I was a player…” Luke murmured, thinking this through, “and she played me. Mora…she even said…she couldn’t have done it without me. That it was almost like we were partners.”
Leo just stared at him with dead eyes.
Luke licked his lower lip. It was the first time Leo had been rational, and he needed his brother to stay that way so they could figure this shit out. “She said we both wanted the same thing.”
“What…was that…?”
“For you and me to survive.” Luke gave a rough laugh. “Sure, there are bars between us, but at the darkest moment of your damn life, you didn’t kill me.”
Leo lowered his lashes. “Never wanted to kill you…”
“Yes, I get that now…certainly explains a bit of your asshole-ness.”
Leo’s hold on the bars tightened.
Luke rolled back his shoulders. “She told me she knew what was coming…” Fuck, he was terrible at offering comfort. He was screwing this up and probably about to drive his brother straight into another dragon shift.
Leo’s face became absolutely…blank. “Lie.”
“No, it’s the truth. Mora knew what was coming. She told me, right in this room. And if she knew, then you have to see how this isn’t anyone’s fault, right? It was just—shit, I don’t want to sound like the greeting card I accused her of being, but…meant to be.”
Leo’s hand flew through the bars and fisted in the front of Luke’s suit. “You lie. Mora could never see her own fate. She told me…”
He looked down at his brother’s hand, then back at Leo’s ravaged face. “Maybe she didn’t want you to know.” Luke tried to make his voice gentle, a nearly impossible task. He wasn’t exactly a gentle guy. “Because she knew there were some things that couldn’t be changed. Maybe she lied to you so that she could spare you.”
“This isn’t fucking sparing me…I’m in agony. I need her. She’s in the fire. She’s—”
“Cordelia!” Luke called, cutting through Leo’s rasping words. “It’s safe for you to come in now.”
Silence and then…the softest tap of footsteps. A few moments later…
“Ah, there she is.” Luke smiled at his guest. “My favorite witch.”
Cordelia stood uncertainly, holding a scrying mirror in her hands. She was a beautiful woman, bewitchingly so with long, dark hair and warm brown skin. As far as witches were concerned, she was powerful beyond belief. Though now Luke did have to wonder…
Did Mora play with Cordelia’s fate, too?
“This is it,” Cordelia announced, a sharp edge in her voice. “After this, we are done, Luke, you got me? No more deals. And no more frantic phone calls from you. My husband is tired of your crazy ass calling me in the middle of the night. You do it again, and he’ll come after you.”
Cordelia was married to a human, so Luke wasn’t particularly concerned about the threat of an attack from him. But… “See something that helps my brother, and I won’t be calling you again.”
She cast a nervous glance toward Leo. “He looks…bad.”
“You have no idea,” Luke murmured. “Just…scry fast, will you?” Because I’m not sure how long Leo’s control will last.
“I could use some of his blood…and yours.” She didn’t sound happy.
Not like he was in the mood to give it up, but…Luke’s claws flew out. He sliced open Leo’s hand, cutting his brother fast through the bars. The blood sprayed, and Luke caught a few drops in his palm. He strode toward the witch and smeared that blood across her mirror. Then he used his claws on his own hand.
Cordelia didn’t look down at the mirror. “I’m not Fate, you know.” Her voice was shivery. Nervous. “I can’t get the types of visions that she does.”
Luke understood that. “What I need you to do…” Leo was still dead silent. Luke risked a glance at him and saw that Leo’s wings were coming out. Shit. “I need you to focus on Mora. On Leo. See if there is something we all missed. She planned everything…so my money is betting on the fact that she had to plan for you, too. She had to know I’d use you.” It’s like we were partners…Once more, he heard Mora’s words in his mind. “Hell, I even think she was counting on it.”
“What if I can’t help?” Cordelia still didn’t look into the mirror. “Is he going to attack?”
“I won’t let you get hurt.” He was standing between Cordelia and Leo for a reason. “But if you could speed things along, it would really help.”
Her gaze dropped to the glass.
“This won’t work!” Leo bellowed. His voice was distorting. “Mora is burning…We have—”
“Resurrection,” Cordelia whispered. Her head tilted up.
Her eyes had gone jet black with power. “Resurrection. He gave her…Resurrection.”
Luke wasn’t following along. He threw a fast glance over his shoulder. “Leo, what the hell is she talking about?”
Leo blinked. His face was savage. “Mora’s bar…in Nevada. It’s called…Resurrection.”
“That’s good to know.” Luke rolled his eyes. Hardly helpful intel. A damn bar—
“I…rebuilt it for her. After a fire. And she told me…said it mattered. More than I realized.”
“Glad you rebuilt the bar.” Luke exhaled on a frustrated breath. I need fucking more.
The blackness of power slid from Cordelia’s eyes. “Did I…help?”
No. You—
“Resurrection!” Leo shouted.
Luke winced. “Yeah, bro, you said that before. The witch said it before, too—” But when he focused on Leo’s face again…
Leo was smiling. It was the smile of a madman. “Don’t you see? I can bring her back. I was so stupid…blind with pain…I can bring her back.”
Then he leapt away from the cell bars. He went to the middle of the room and stared down at the black char marks.
Probably not a good thing to be focusing on…
“I think you should go now, Cordelia,” Luke advised. “Like now.” Because Leo’s claws were out. He was slashing his own arms and blood was flying.
Cordelia didn’t have to be told again. She ran toward the tunnel.
“Leo, what are you doing?” Luke demanded. He thought he sounded relatively calm. Or not. Maybe he was shouting.
Leo didn’t look up from the char marks. “My blood worked before. It was how Ramiel—the fucking bastard—used his spell. And I…I remember the pattern on the ground…”
Leo’s blood dropped all over the stones. As Luke watched, Leo immediately fell and began using that blood to write symbols on the stone.
He is too far gone. “Brother, I’m sorry…”
Leo’s head whipped up. “Don’t be sorry…fucking help me! If Mora knew…if you aren’t lying…then she was trying to tell me…in a thousand different ways…Resurrection! Didn’t you just hear your own damn witch? Resurrection!”
And Luke hesitated. Mora had been good at altering lives…Could she really have found a way to cheat her own…fate?