Page 61 of Broken Souls

Maddox is helping her out of her room, one arm around her waist. His eyes find mine as they come down the hall. The challenge in them is unmistakable, as is the worry.For me like he said or for Micha?Is he fucking her too? They have always seemed so damn cozy together, laughing with each other, talking so easily.

“You can still fix this,” he says softly. “Just let us in.”

“She’s faking –”

“You fucking paranoid –” Maddox starts, but he cuts off as Mother’s shadows lunge for me. I scramble back into the room, the only way I can go, and she moves in, pulling free from Maddox as she does so.

“You can either leave us and call Aleric to find Khalid, Varius, or you can spend the time in the Shadow Domain, but youwillget out of my fucking way so I can save my grandchild.”

“It’s not your gr–”

Her shadows swirl around my feet, but it’s Micha’s cry that shuts me up.

“Sau!” she sobs. “I can’t stop the bleeding.Please.I can feel him leaving me…Please.”

My heart twists in my chest, but I fight the instinct to go to her, to soothe her in her pain. But nor do I stop Mother from reaching her even though a part of me whispers that I can find Khalid’s location if I just deny Micha care until she tells me where he is.

He’s my brother. I should be able to endure anything to save him. But this? Hurting the woman I love even though she is a traitor…

I feel fucking sick.

Moving slowly, Maddox comes up to me. “Let’s go talk to Zita,” he says softly. “We can call Aleric on the way over.”

“We shouldn’t leave Mother alone with her. She could be faking.”

“You destroyed her hands, Varius. She’s no threat to her. Now come on. Let’s go find Khalid.”

My tongue is heavy with more words until I realize they are just excuses for me not to leave her.

Micha is a traitor who let the Death Hunt into our home so they could kidnap my brother and his girl. As much as I want to forgive her for this, I can’t. If I don’t kill her, Khalid will.

And then I will kill Khalid for hurting her.

I look down at my hands, the blood on them mocking me for that statement.

Clenching my fists, needing tomovedue to the sudden tightness of my skin, I push past Maddox to get to the door. As I move down the hall, I rub the two fingers I ran between her thighs, those marked with the blood of her child, on the back of my left bicep – a clean patch of shirt in case the baby turns out to be mine and all I have left of him is that stain there.

My throat tightens as Micha’s screams intensify behind me, and I close my eyes briefly, wondering if she lost the child.

Antonio’s child?

She kissed him in my fucking house.

How many times has she spread her legs for him? Told him she loved him? Moaned his name as she came on his godsdamn cock? Was she even a virgin when I met her, or has everything out of her mouth been a fucking lie?

And is her father in on it? Her whole fucking Family? Has the Death Hunt made alliances like we have with the Blood Fang?

“Get Zita talking,” I snap as Maddox comes up beside me. I don’t want to hear any of his fucking thoughts about how I can’t kill Micha until she gives birth. How in those five, six months, I can salvage what I’ve broken.

She’s still a traitor who hurt Khalid’s girl. Once that child is out of her womb, there’ll be no stopping my brother from killing her.

As Maddox peels off to head to the garage, I pull out my phone and text Aleric.

Varius:House has been hit by the Death Hunt.

Aleric:k

My jaw locking, I call him. When he doesn’t answer, I only just manage to stop myself from throwing my phone. Forcing my rage down so I don’t do anything stupid, I text him again.