Page 41 of Broken Souls

Bitch, did you just threaten me?

My gaze locked on Sau, I start to stand. “I know you will die protecting her, but if I’m here, you don’t have to.” If the werewolves happen to come while the boys are gone, I can burn them all with my magic. “The wolves –”

“Don’t?” Sau cuts in, the air electrifying like a coming storm.

“Did I say that?” I cock my head to the side, but my mind is already off the conversation. I’ve just felt something – a crawl of danger across my skin, raising my hairs. My eyes flick towards the window, trying to discern what’s caused my sudden paranoia. Is it Varius through our bond? He’s with Aleric. That’d be enough to make anyone –

No.

There’s a break in the air. It’s like the white noise I never noticed has now quieted. Like the wards –

My eyes widening, I throw up a shimmering blue shield of magic. Dark-red bolts crackle around the edges of it as I stumble back. The tendrils reach for me, searching for my flesh, and I send a pulse of fire into my shield. Purple flames race out from my palm in all directions. As soon as it hits Sau’s magic, it intensifies in color and length, consuming every drop she threw at me. If I wasn’t so fucking pissed, I might’ve found all those colors beautiful.

But I thought we were friends. I thought Sau liked me. I never thought she’d blackmail me. Never thought she’d try to attack me while the boys were out. To fucking blame me for tearing down the wards – that break in the air, that halt of white noise I felt earlier. I can hear exactly what she’s planning on telling Varius when he gets back.

“I know I lied to you before, but youknowI would never take the wards down. I wouldn’t risk it.”

Fuckingbitch.

Lowering my hand, I watch as she runs from the kitchen. I let her go. Let her take those first few steps away from me because I am going to enjoy hunting her down. Then I am going to catch her and beat her into a godsdamn pulp.

My rage building, I take that first step. Purple fire flickers between my fingertips. I open my mouth to call her name, to let her know I’m coming, but just as the S hisses from my lips, it’s killed by a chorus of howls.

I stop, my head snapping towards the window.

They sound close.

Tooclose.

And the timing of this can’t be a coincidence. If it was just one wolf, then maybe. They could’ve been watching the house. Once the ward went down, they saw an opportunity to sneak in and kill the women who’ve been left on their own. A dumb strategy, but men wanting to climb the ranks and impress the Boss have done dumber things. But this isn’t just one wolf. It’s the entire fucking pack.

Meaning Sau must have gotten Antonio to be here either through trickery or by making a straight-up deal with him. Either way, I’m killing her for it. Because she clearly doesn’t want to merely frame me for her sins. She wants me dead. Or worse, taken by the wolves.

What the fuck did I do to make her hate me so much?

Biting back the urge to set the house on fire, to kill the bitch that way, I run out into the living room. I veer towards the hall, and as I enter it, I catch sight of the two women up ahead.

I start to call my magic to my palms. The wall explodes right in front of me though, sending plaster and splinters of wood flying everywhere. A werewolf’s arm has smashed a hole through the side of the house, blocking me from taking a shot at Sau.

Snarling, I grab hold of its wrist. “Get out of the fucking way,” I snap as I shoot fire up its arm, burning it into ash.

The wolf howls as it yanks away from me, leaving behind the smell of burning hair and meat. A flurry of ashen flakes drift to the floor in front of me.

Stalking through them, I catch sight of Sau just as she reaches the stairs. Pissed as all hel, I throw a black ball of magic at her. It feeds on my anger, growing in size, taking up nearly half the corridor. She turns at the last second and catches it. Then dispels it like it was nothing. I don’t know how much life she just burned through doing that because of her curse, but I hope it was fuckingyears.

“Keep going!” she snaps at Khalid’s girl. “The stairs are just there.”

Gods, that must be the panic talking; the girl’s one foot away from the stairs. In fact, I’m pretty sure they ran down a few steps before running back up so she could fend me off on level ground. Good. I hope Sau is fucking terrified I will kill her. Because I’m going to.

“I’ll hold Micha off,” she says.

“But –”

“Go! And after you shut the door, call Khalid.”

My heart trips over my feet.Khalid is in on this?As terrified as I am of him, of how he can kill me without even being here, it’s pain and grief that fills me. I’m going to die, and Varius is going to believe whatever lie his mother tells him. Worse, the brother he trusts, the only one left he has to trust, has also betrayed him.

Now this is fucking personal.