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Not hesitating, I spun, snapping his arm in the wrong direction. He howled and let go of the gun before I dropped him with a punch to his head. Other soldiers rushed for us, and as good as I was, I had no weapons, and they had many.

“Croygen!” a familiar voice rang out, freezing me in place. My head craned to the side, and I saw a slim girl being hauled into the room by a handful of men, a dozen behind her bringing in someone else.

Oh. Fuck. No.

It was like the earth under my feet fell away, my gaze landing on the girl shoved to the ground. Slumped over, she looked so frail. Her blonde hair hid her face, but I could see her chest heaving for air.

“Annabeth!” The need to run to her made me want to drag my boots across the gravel, but the soldiers held me back.

My attention went to more figures moving in after her. A dozen men huddled around Cooper, a metal collar around his neck keeping him from shifting. His eyes blazed red, his body puffed up and ready to kill, but he contained himself, letting these small men move him, his gaze locked on Annabeth. Seeing only her.

“How exciting.” Amara smiled coyly. “It’s like a reunion.” Amara sauntered over to AB. Cooper’s head jerked at seeing her, his nose flaring. His shock was brief before it turned into fury. He didn’t have much interaction with her the last time she crossed our paths, but he knew her, knew all about her.

“I’m going to fuckin’ kill you,” he rumbled, leaning forward. It took all the men to hold him back. “This time I will make sure you don’t escape. You’ll stay dead for good.”

“I don’t understand all this hostility,” she taunted, reaching down to AB. Amara cupped her chin, drawing her face up, the flashlights showing her features.

Arms grappled for me as I dragged men over the dirt. Several more held me back, and two punched me in the stomach, though I didn’t feel it.

All I saw were the bruises and cuts on AB’s face, and my vision went red.

“Stop, both of you.” Amara pulled out her gun, pointing it at AB’s head. “You know how trigger-happy I can get.”

Ice solidified in my veins, halting me where I stood.

Annabeth glared up at her; not an ounce of fear showed, just pure hatred.

“Look how you’ve grown up,” Amara said, lowering the gun slightly. “Such a beauty.” She curved her head to me. “Maybe you went after the wrong little sister, Croygen?”

Bile burned in the back of my throat. Amara had a way of making everything ugly. She didn’t understand anything pure, sweet, or kind, so she had to twist it, make it wrong.

Cooper let out a low growl.

Amara’s gaze went to him, her thumb rolling over the trigger. It was a warning, a reminder to behave. She was holding all the cards.

Amara knew what the Dark Dwellers were capable of. They were the most feared beasts in the Otherworld at one time. Only a handful remained, but they were just as dangerous and vicious.

AB was a pawn because Cooper would do anything for his mate. Even submit to Amara.

“What do you want, Amara?” I was still trying to capture my breath.

“What I wanted before.” She kept the gun up, turning more to me. “The nectar.”

“We don’t have it. We don’t know where it is any more than you do.”

“But you have more incentive to find it, don’t you?” When she flicked her head, a guard near me shoved Kat forward, moving her away from me. My eyes caught with her yellow and green irises, reflecting in the light like a cat’s. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t do the same.” Amara moved up to me, purposely in front of Kat, cutting off our connection. “At one time, you were a man with no scruples.” She lowered her voice, her hand tracing up my torso. “Who would doanythingfor me.” She once again peered up at me through her lashes, her gaze heavy with meaning. “We used to have a lot of fun together, didn’t we?”

“The manipulation, cheating, and scheming?” I huffed, trying to ignore how low her hand was venturing. “Yeah, great time.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t love it.” She moved in closer, fingers under my shirt, dragging her nails across my abs to my V-line.

At one time, I did. I couldn’t deny that, but that guy was long gone.

“Someone’s been working out.” She bit down on her lip, giving me every indication she would let me fuck her right here, in front of everyone, if I wanted.

She liked that kind of thing. Power games. But that’s what it was to her, control. Not only showing her hold over me, but wanting Katrina to know it too.

I don’t know if it was Zoey who cracked the shell on my blinders before, or it was me finally having enough, but I stared down at the woman who would’ve had me back in her web just a handful of years ago and feltabsolutelynothing.