Page 62 of Broken Souls

Varius:Use your pigs to find Khalid. Antonio took him.

Self loathing builds at the sight of that message. I could have fucking texted him earlier, could’ve tried to find Khalid without hurting my girl, but instead, I wanted to punish her. Wanted to hurt her for kissing Antonio, for letting him fuck her behind my back.

For making me fall in love with her when all I was was a mark.

For trusting her when I shouldn’t have.

She might be with child, but she’s still a fucking traitor.

Shoving my guilt down, I call Talon.

“Where are you?” I ask as soon as he answers.

“Ocala. Did you get a location from Micha?”

“Not yet.”

“Shit. What are we going to do if she doesn’t break?”

“She will.”

“Before Antonio kills Khalid?”

My voice flattens. “Maddox is talking to Zita, and we’ll raid every one of his fucking compounds if we have to.” He wouldn’t have taken Khalid just to kill him immediately. He probably wants him for his – “Shit.”

“What?” he asks, sounding panicked.

I hang up and run towards the basement. Khalid’s magic targets the soul, which allows him to hurt all creatures, even werewolves despite their natural resistance to magic. He can also kill someone anywhere in the world if he has their DNA and alexandrite – a material that is rare on Earth. Our supply of it is extremely limited, having all been brought over from the other Planes when our family first migrated over to Earth. Micha knows we have her DNA, that we can kill her even if she runs. There’s no way she would have accepted this job if she didn’t have a chance of living after.

So I leap down the stairs of the basement and run inside. As soon as I cross the threshold, an electric shock hits me. It isn’t enough to make me stumble, but it causes me to pause nonetheless. Pivoting, I turn to face the door frame again, my eyes narrowing.

There is a slight tinge of blue in the air – an active ward.

Was it there the first time I came in?

It had to have been. I just must not have felt it in my grief, when I saw Micha lying in her own blood.

Because the ward doesn’t have the same feel as any of those made by someone in my family. I’ve been hit by all of them over the years. I thought they didn’t like me crossing through them because I didn’t have any magic, so they couldn’t tell I was a witch. But now I know that the reason was because I’m a hybrid. So I have felt each signature of my brothers’ wards, as well as Mother’s. This wasn’t any of theirs.

But the only witch Antonio had here was Micha.

And I can’t think of a single fucking reason for her to have warded the door against everyone but witches. Sau can pass through this. As can Khalid. It’s almost as if –

My stomach drops and I race back up the stairs, ignoring the original reason I came down here, which was to check on our supply of alexandrite – the green stone Khalid needs to make his soul dolls.

Pulling out my phone, I text Aleric:Check for Talonjust as Maddox comes in from outside, looking pissed. “Zita’s gone,” he says. “And she didn’t escape on her own because I used fucking silver.”

My pulse racing, I say, “Micha isn’t the traitor.”

He glances at me, but there isn’t any surprise there. He figured that out already. His face grim, he says, “Talon.”

The fucker who set her up, who made me believe it was her in the first place. When I get hold of him, I’m going to kill him.

But first I need to save my brother. If he dies because I’ve lost my head, I would’ve tortured Micha for nothing.Fuck!

“Fucking idiot letting Zita go,” Maddox mutters as I force myself to breathe. “We might not have figured out it was him if –”

“He knew he was fucked when he told me it was Micha.” When he saw how I was ready to kill him if he was lying to me about her. Now they all know that she’s a weakness, that they can target her to get to me. Or perhaps a silver lining has come from this whole shit show. After what I did to her, what I proved I was capable of doing to someone I loved… Maybe they won’t bother her at all.