Page 190 of Jagged Souls

“I know,” I say, glancing at Khalid as he pulls out Rudy’s soul doll this time, checking in on our brother. If his chaos magic spins out of control, Micha will die too.

I look back at Dayne, and he nods with a small jerk; he’s ready to do what I asked him to – as suicidal as it might be.

When we went to the school to save her the first time, I had one plan. Now I have three. One of them has to work.

“Spread out,” I say, “and look for the cave.”

We’re not looking for the one on Google maps. There’s another one hidden deeper in the rocky shrubland. The sun beats down on us, and the heat of its rays bounce back up off the dry ground, making us sweat. But it isn’t the killer temperature that’s bothering me. It’s the lack of any human heartbeats other than ours. Are we in the right area? Is he not watching it at all? Are we wasting time on a foolish –

I stop, my head jerking all the way around to look behind me. I can smell a wolf, and it’s one I fucking know.

“Antonio,” I hiss. He’s tried to hide his scent, cloaked it with magic. If I was a regular witch and Eduardo wasn’t so weak right now, perhaps he would’ve succeeded. He doesn’t want us to know where the cave is; he’s come in quiet and is most likely getting Eduardo to simply double up whatever cloaking spells he has on it.

Then he’s going to be gone again.

Then this plan will fail.

“He’s here!” I shout to my brothers. We need to catch him before he can disappear. According to all the research Ezriel’s done, only those who have gone through the Lesser Mysteries will know where the location for the Greater ones will be. This is the only choke point in his plan to get into the Underworld. If we miss him now, we will have to wait until February or March, when he actually needs to be here.

That’s months away.

Months of her being tortured more.

Being brokenmore.

No!

Vlad phases in front of me, almost as desperate to get to Rudy as I am to my wife. I don’t tell him that he isn’t strong enough to take Antonio on his own. If he dies, he’ll still buy me a few seconds, and I’m callous enough to take it.

I’m fast with my hybrid speed, streaking away from my brothers and Dayne, but I still don’t know how to phase. Don’t even know if I can. A hybrid’s abilities isn’t always a mix of their parents’.

By the time I spot the fucker I want to kill, he’s already inside a teleportation circle. I don’t know where Vlad is or if he’s dead or alive, but the wolf clearly isn’t concerned with being attacked by him. He smiles at me, even lifts a hand to wave. Then he’s gone, along with Eduardo, and the damn hope that was building in my chest.

But I don’t stop racing towards the spot where they were. In fact, I dig into everything I am and try to sprint faster.

Because the circle is still aglow, still has a bit of power for another couple seconds. It’s wild and dangerous, just the flickering lights of what one needs to safely travel between the circles, but it is enough.

If I get there in time.

Only a few more feet...

“Varius!” Khalid shouts from behind me. He opens up the ground in front of me, covering it in shadows. I leap over them, hoping like hel I can clear the distance. If I touch it, I’ll be sucked down into the Plane of Monsters – safe but away from her and then she’ll be alone until she dies, killed by the blood bond I asked her to start with me. Because Khalid will take me home, lock me up, and throw away the key. My heart will break. All reasons for existing will go, and I’ll have to tell Bambi that I failed her mother as much as I failed her.

My throat closing, I pray I can cross the gap. But it’s growing. Stretching. Following my actual shadow as it races across the ground under me. Half a second. Half a fucking second is all it might take to kill my plan.

But when I hit the ground, the shadows are gone, sucked away, and I know Dayne’s grabbed Khalid, with both his hands on his head.

“Run!” he shouts. “I can’t hold him for –” He bites his words off, struggling to hold my brother. The ex-reaper. The one who knows me so damn well as to think I would try something this stupid.

But it isn’t stupid.

Because everything I want is on the other side of that teleportation circle. Staying out here, away from her, is the stupid choice.

Who chooses hel when there’s a chance of heaven?

I can’t do anything to save her from out here, so I will chance my luck from inside.

I run towards the teleportation circle, to the light glow that’s fading too fast, the final tendrils of the spell starting to disappear.