Page 68

MALACHI/ORCUS

Like I was tending a small, pitiful fire, I kept a shadow of myself alive.

A reflection of the male I’d been, pale as one of my illusions, something I was sure would fade away. But for now, I grasped onto my past like a drowning victim held onto a rope, because only one thing mattered.

Evangeline was alive.

And even though she didn’t realize it yet, she was now bound to me.

She’d sealed her fate the moment she’d launched herself into my arms and joined her blood and her magic with mine and changed fate itself. I cursed her reckless, foolish nature and as much as I wished I could take back that moment…I was grateful, too.

I now had a tether back to the world, to my old self… to her .

She had kept her word and done the impossible.

She had saved me, otherwise, I would have wholly become Orcus, Devourer of the Wicked Dead, God of the Underworld. As things stood, I was stuck halfway between here and there. Wherever the fuck there was.

At the moment, I still had control of my mind, even if my body was…different.

Bigger, stronger, certainly more primal than what I was used to.

I kept her pressed tightly against me, shielding her from these strangers, and fuck if my entire body wasn’t responding to her softness, lust surging through me like fast running lava, driving every logical thought from my head. Somehow, this all felt right—wrong, in so many ways—but right, too.

Like we were meant to be here, like this. Together.

I kept replaying her flying across that room, reaching for me with bloodied hands, face hewn with such fierce determination, my heart had stopped.

Just like my vision.

My new power allowed me to see the cosmic tether stretching between us like shadowy chains, golden, shining links clinking faintly every time she strayed too far away, my fingers itching to drag her close.

I was only half listening when the blond vampire invited us into the castle and I nudged her in that direction. I wanted her out of the weather, somewhere safe, and if any of these fucks so much as looked at her wrong—Elders or not—I’d shred their flesh from their bones. Fear seeped from her and I squeezed her shoulder, as gently as my clumsy, oversized paws could manage.

Somehow, with her blood and her impulsive decision to hurl herself into the center of the spell, interrupting the transformation seconds before the change fully took hold, she’d altered the course of Ravok’s future. And mine.

And hers.

And now the only person who might be able to unravel this disastrous mess was Brendan Thorne, because I knew two things for certain.

The world might be ending, but I cared little about the world.

In a few days, there would not be anything left of the male I’d once been. No compassion, no empathy, and no love for this fierce, brave female who was my everything.

And I would not allow her to wake up chained to a monster who might devour her.

Thank you so much for reading!