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“Noooo!” My nails dug into the asphalt, every ounce of me needing to protect Katrina. If they killed her, they’d better kill me right after because I would eradicate every one of them and burn them to ash in my vengeance, using their bones as kindling.

The blade sliced through Katrina’s leather backpack’s strap like paper; the leader clutched the bag with her skeleton hand, taking it from Kat.

Shouts and gunfire headed for us as Killian’s men moved in. Ripping the blade from my leg, the necromancers backed away, slipping into the darkness like ghosts, taking the nectar of life with them. The only thing that might cure Annabeth and save Katrina from her oath was gone. But we had no time to think about it; Killian’s guards were gaining ground.

“Kitten.” Agony coursed through me as I tried to pull myself up, blood gushing down my leg, so I crawled to her. Grief crumbled Katrina’s features when she heard me call to her, her body scrambling to me. Her emotions over losing the nectar pierced me like needles, and I felt her devastation.

“I’m so sorry,” she muttered in my ear, anguish sobbing up her throat.

Cooper’s half-naked frame, which had been covering AB, rose next to us, Annabeth lying limply under his protection. Her chest moved up and down to tell me she was still alive, but barely. The last of AB’s energy had blinked out, like the necromancers had stolen it, feeding off her, robbing us of weeks we had with her, leaving us only hours, possibly.

Bullets zipped through the air.

“We have to go,” I yelled through clenched teeth to Cooper and Katrina.

Kat propped her shoulder under me, getting me up to my feet as Cooper scooped up Annabeth’s body, her head flopping over his arm.

“Ahhhhh!” I tried to walk, but my wounded leg folded under me, landing me on the ground. “Fuck!” Seething in pain, bile burned up the back of my throat and panic raced through my veins.

“Croygen, come on!” Katrina tried to get me up again, her head whipping to where the guards were approaching, desperation in her tone. “Please!”

Even if I did, I would slow them down. Get them all caught.

“Go!” I waved them on with a bark. “Get out of here!”

“No!” Katrina yanked on my arm, trying to get me to rise, but my leg was useless.

“I. Said. Go!” I growled, my nose flaring.

Cooper hesitated, his arms filled with his mate. My gaze met his, knowing he understood my look.

Get Annabeth the fuck out of here now.

Even if she was going to die, it should be at home with the family, with Cooper. Not here. And not now.

His head dipped in sorrow and regret, though I could tell it wasn’t easy for him to leave me. Once the Dark Dwellers took you in as family, which somewhere along the way I became, they protected you. They didn’t turn their backs on those they considered part of their pack.

But he had to protect his mate first.

“Kat, go!” I nodded after Cooper’s fleeing form.

“No!”

“GOOO!” I roared, hearing the footfalls coming up on us.

“No.” Katrina dropped down to me, her jaw set, stubbornness streaking her expression. “If we die, we die together.”

“Kat…” Anger and emotion clogged my throat.

“What’s that saying? A pirate will sink you with a kiss, steal your heart, and sail away with it. You already sailed away with it,” she muttered to me as two guards stepped up, putting guns to our heads. I recognized both.

Connor and Vale.

“Get up,” Connor ordered us.

“You know, why didn’t I think of that earlier?” Sarcasm dripped off my tongue, along with beads of sweat. The wound hurt like nothing I had felt before, as if their blades were poisoned with death too. “Wish you told me that earlier. That would’ve been helpful.”

Connor’s lids tapered, peering at my slashed leg. It was trying to heal, but the muscle ached and throbbed, making me lightheaded.