Page 33

33

JACKSON

“ L io and I are grabbing dinner at that little spot on Hawthorne. Come by when you’re done, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I say, watching the rain smear across my windshield. “I’ll be there soon.”

Sera laughs softly, something I don’t think I’ve ever heard. “Don’t get lost in your own head, Cole.”

“Too late,” I mutter, and she clicks off.

I sit there for a moment, the silence in the car pressing in. The city outside is a blur of neon and wet asphalt. I’m surprised she’s actually having dinner with Lio, let alone with anyone. And that she sounds calm for once.

I take a deep breath, start the engine, and pull out into the night heading to my apartment to check on some things before I meet Sera. I need the files, I feel like I’m missing something.

I park and step out, the rain immediately soaking through my jacket.I find my apartment keys, mumbling annoyance to myself for not finding them and getting them ready in the dryness of my car.

I’m halfway to the door, eyes still down, when I hear a familiar voice behind me.

“Jackson.”

I turn, and there she is, the woman who Sera took me to to get the mark off of me from Echolight’s ambush.

“Hessa?” I ask, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.

Before I can respond, something slams into the back of my head, and everything goes black.

I wake up in a dimly lit room, my hands bound behind me. The air is thick with incense and something metallic. I try to move, but the ropes are tight.

Fuck. Not again.

“You gotta be shitting me,” I mutter to myself hating that this is the second time in this case alone I’ve been knocked out and bound.

“Welcome back,” Hessa says, stepping into view.

I look around and realize it’s the same place Sera took me.

“Why?” I ask, my voice hoarse as I try not to visibly show I’m trying to find a way out.

She shrugs. “Orders. You’re the key, remember? Can’t have you running around with Sera. Not when we need her focused. But now, you’re the perfect leverage.”

I glare at her. “She trusted you.”

“She’s a fool,” Hessa snaps. “And so are you.”

Hessa goes back to what she is doing and I can tell that she is preparing something. A ritual circle is drawn on the floor, symbols I don’t recognize glowing faintly.

“You’re going to help us bring him back,” she says.

“Who?” I ask.

“Tharos,” she replies, her eyes gleaming.

I struggle against the ropes, but it’s no use.

“She’ll come for you and be more than willing to let us use her. So, thank you for that.”

I’m trying to buy time. “You knew what she was all along?”

Hessa laughs. “Of course I did, sweetheart. I’d be blind not to for as much time as I have spent around the girl. I just didn’t know she was dumb enough to allow herself to become so vulnerable by being attached by you. But I guess, there’s a first for everything.”

I continue to watch and listen as I hear Hessa chant, make markings and talk to someone in whispers I can’t see.

Eventually, she comes up to be, kneels in front of my bound body and clasps my wrists. Her eyes go white as she cants, a cruel smile forming over her face.

After more than long enough, she stands and steps away, still smiling like she’s th devil himself.

“There. That should be just enough for her to fig–”

Sera suddenly bursts into the room, magic crackling around her. Hessa turns, surprised. “Well that was faster than I anticipate–”

Sera’s power slams into her, sending her crashing into the wall.

...She rushes to me, cutting the ropes with a flick of her wrist.

“Are you okay?” she asks, breath coming fast, magic still rippling off her skin.

“I’m fine. What the hell is this?” I nod at the ritual circle etched into the ground, the sigils humming, pulsing with some deep, old current.

Before she can answer, a laugh cracks through the room.

Hessa.

She pushes herself off the far wall, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, but she’s still grinning like the devil got her favorite soul.

“You think this is over?” she sneers, dragging herself upright. “You really thought you’d waltz in here and stop it?”

I lurch forward, but I’m too slow.

From the hallway, two massive figures stride in—warlocks, power etched across their arms, faces veiled in old protective wards. They slam into the room like a wall, and before I can react, one of them grabs Sera.

“No!” I shout, lunging, but I’m yanked back by a ward that flares alive across the floor.

Sera twists violently in their grip, shadows coiling, but they’re prepared. Bound glyphs trap her hands. She snarls—inhuman, primal—but they don’t flinch.

“Sera!” I roar, slamming into the barrier again.

Hessa steps forward, brushing herself off like this is a goddamn meeting and not a kidnapping. “You want to save your precious human?” she says, eyes locked on Sera. “Then you’ll complete the ritual.”

“I won’t open that door,” Sera spits.

“You won’t have to,” Hessa replies. “Just... loosen the locks. Give us the key.”

Her eyes flick to me.

And I know.

I know Sera sees what I already feel crawling in my blood: the bond is their way in. I’m the key. But they still need her to turn it.

“Don’t do it,” I growl, trying to meet her eyes. “Don’t?—”

“I don’t have a choice,” she says, her voice tight, eyes glimmering. “They’ll kill you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do. ”

I see the moment it breaks in her. The decision. The surrender.

“I’ll do it,” she says quietly.

“No—Sera?—”

The warlocks drag her backward into the circle.

“I’ll find you!” I shout, shoving myself against the ward with everything I have. “I’ll burn this world down if I have to?—”

A flash of light blinds me.

Magic slams into the room like thunder.

And when the heat dies, they’re gone.

All of them.

Just the sigils left burned into the stone. Just silence. Just me.

Alone.

I sink to my knees, fists clenched, breath shuddering in my chest like it’s trying to break out.

She gave herself up for me.

And I’m going to get her back.

Whatever it takes.