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J ace hurt in every bone of his body. But that was nothing to the pain and fury he felt when the night fae went for Evie, and he was too fucking weak to help her.

He ached to get her out of here. If he thought it would do any good, he’d humble himself, plead with Tyrus to let her go. But he knew Tyrus would refuse. It must be a rare treat for the prick to be able to feed on another fae’s energy, even a part-human like Evie.

At least Jace had had the chance to tell her he loved her, that she was his mate. The bond had sprung into being. He had to believe that was a good thing, that together, they were stronger than either was alone.

Evie moaned, and Jace cursed Tyrus, dark and vicious. The wound on his neck spurted blood, and he blacked out. He came back to consciousness to find he was trying to sit up, attempting to get to Evie.

Another harrowing minute ticked past before the night fae released her. She crawled back to Jace and huddled next to him, her body trembling.

He might have gone for Tyrus anyway but the fucking fae had his quartz. The pendant wasn’t alive. It didn’t know it was being used to control Jace. It just called mindlessly to him and he was forced to obey.

Fury condensed in Jace, cold and grim. Tyrus’s plotting made sense now, but he’d miscalculated one thing.

Jace would never harm Merry. He’d kill himself first.

But first, he had to save Evie. He tucked her close to his body, comforting her the only way he could.

Tyrus dozed off and Jace forced himself to relax and conserve his energy.

He must have drifted off again, because he didn’t realize Evie had left his side until she was lifting his head, urging him to drink.

He eagerly gulped the water. It was cool and good, soothing his parched throat. “Thank you,” he rasped.

Then she slipped the quartz into his hand. He went rigid with shock—and admiration. How the hell had she managed to steal it back?

Hope surged. Maybe they had a chance after all.

He gripped the quartz and drew on its energy with everything he had. The crystals’ song was high-pitched, agitated. Drawing on the quartz so hard was dicey—he risked blowing it out— but he had no choice.

The first thing he did was close the wound on his throat.

Replacing the blood loss would take hours, but he could stem the flow.

Next, he pushed energy into his body—a quick-and-dirty fix.

It would take the place of the blood he’d lost, but only for a short time.

But he only needed a few minutes to take Tyrus down.

And he would take Tyrus down. Failure wasn’t an option.

Sweat beaded on Jace’s temples. He drew harder—and hit a brick wall. He hated to ask Evie for help—she was already drained from Tyrus—but he might only have a few minutes. Night fae usually slept in the day, but Tyrus was running high from feeding on them.

“Help me,” he whispered, and Evie gamely added her own energy to his. Pride filled him. His mate had a spine of pure steel.

Tyrus started awake. His eyes gleamed red in the darkness. “You stole from me.” His tone was surprised—and cold as only a fae’s could be.

Jace swore under his breath. “That’s enough,” he told Evie. It would have to be.

“You’re…okay?” She collapsed onto the floor without waiting for an answer, her chest working.

Jace’s heart lurched. He lifted her onto his lap. “I love you,” he said. “So fucking much.” Her mouth curved but she didn’t speak. He rubbed her back, terrified that between him and Tyrus, they’d drained her too deeply.

But Tyrus didn’t care.

Dark energy slipped over the two of them. Soft at first, like the damp brush of fog, then they were enveloped in chilly tendrils. Jace burned with guilt and shame.

He’d failed his sister.

He’d failed Merry.

And now he was going to fail Evie.

The tendrils multiplied like a ball of squirming maggots, enveloping Jace in a slimy darkness. He had the urge to flail at them wildly, but that would only play into Tyrus’s hands. The more negative energy Jace put out, the more Tyrus had to feed on.

Evie wrapped her arms around his waist. “We can beat him,” she whispered fiercely against his neck. “Happy thoughts, right?”

He buried his face in her hair. He didn’t know about happy thoughts, but he knew one thing—this woman was his heart. Warmth flared in his chest. He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed the palm.

A trembling smile bloomed on her lips. She curled her fingers as if capturing his kiss for safe-keeping. “Love you.”

Their eyes met. The blackness receded, but hovered nearby. Testing for weaknesses.

Jace gathered himself for a fight.

The tendrils returned, insidious, relentless. This time they burrowed deeper, sucking at their energy. Evie shuddered and Jace snapped.

Enough.

“Run if you can,” he told her and set her on the floor behind him.

“No,” she said, but he was focused on Tyrus now.

He crouched on all fours, man and jaguar united. “You fucking SOB. Can’t you see it’s too much for her? Feed on me, damn you.”

Tyrus’s eyes bored into him. Icy claws of dread clamped on his nape, but he ignored it to prowl closer.

Something black and sharp bored into his heart.

Tyrus was feeding in earnest now, but a feeding night fae did nothing to relieve the pain.

Instead, he somehow made it double and then redouble, so that Jace was lashed with regret: so many people dead…

so many ways he’d fucked up, let down those he loved.

“ No .” He hunched his shoulders as if the lash were a physical whip, and grimly bore it.

Beside him, Evie swallowed audibly. “Jace…”

She was curled up on the floor, gasping for breath. Tyrus hadn’t let up on her. She was being sucked into the darkness with him.

Fuck that.

His growl was low and primal. He had enough energy now to shift. One chance to save Evie. He’d have to make it count.

The cat was a hundred percent with him. Kill. Save the female .

Jace dropped the quartz pendant over his neck and set his mouth. The shift was agony. His skin burned, and his bones popped and cracked, twisted beyond their capacity. An involuntary groan tore from his lips.

“ Jace .” Behind him, Evie gasped and pushed herself up on her hands and knees. “What are you doing?”

He ignored her to focus on drawing enough energy to fuel the shift. Lights exploded behind his eyes. A fireball of pain scorched through him until it was all he could do not to scream.

He folded his fingers around his quartz and squeezed, sucking every bit of energy he could. Now . He wrenched his form from man to cat—and then collapsed on the ground, weak as a kitten.

Evie sobbed out his name. “Jace.”

He pushed himself to stand on wobbly legs, and snarled at the night fae.

Tyrus stalked toward him—and Jace struck.

A jaguar’s bite was twice as strong as a lion’s. He could kill an animal by sinking his teeth into its skull. Jace went for Tyrus’s spinal cord, determined to end this.

But the night fae was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, he was on the other side of the small room. Still, Jace had him on the run. The dark feeding stopped as the other man focused on surviving.

Evie scuttled into a corner, smart enough to get out of the way. Something glowed in her hand—a fae light. She held it up, casting a light over their battle.

Tyrus raised a hand and muttered a phrase in an ancient fae language. The air gathered into a sharp point and flew at Jace. It would’ve taken out his eye if he hadn’t flung himself to the side, but instead, it sliced open his cheek.

He leapt for Tyrus and again, the fae evaded him. Jace’s jaguar rumbled angrily. They circled each other, breathing hard.

Tyrus raised his hand and muttered another spell.

This time, the air formed itself into a rope that wrapped around Jace’s throat like a noose.

He clawed furiously at it, but it was some magical material that repelled his attempts to dislodge it.

The noose tightened. His vision darkened at the edges.

He made one last, desperate attempt to sink his teeth into Tyrus but the other man easily pushed him off.

“No!” Evie dashed between them, the fae light in her hand, and shoved it into Tyrus’s face.

The room seemed to explode. Tyrus’s body lit up with an eerie blue fire that danced up and down his limbs, burning through his clothes. The scent of scorched flesh filled the air. He shrieked and stumbled backward.

Jace blinked, temporarily blinded, but he could hear Tyrus moaning to his left. He growled and moved toward him, the cat in ascendance. The fae was slumped against the wall, hands to his face.

Jace pounced, slapping his paws on Tyrus’s chest and ripping open his throat.

The sickening taste of metal and decay filled his mouth.

He gave Tyrus a hard shake, and the body flopped lifelessly in his grip.

He let Tyrus fall to the dirt floor and stood over him, still partially blinded.

He was quiet, but was he dead? He cocked an ear and heard the faint beating of the fae’s black heart.

Evie was moaning. “Ohmigod. Ohmigod.”

The rock over the entrance shifted, and shadows moved down the ladder. Jace growled, still unable to see clearly, until he recognized the scents as Marjani and Zuri.

Tyrus’s breath rattled in.

“He’s not dead,” Evie breathed. “Oh, God.”

Jace’s vision cleared enough to see Marjani thrust an iron blade beneath Tyrus’s rib cage. A single expert stab to the heart, one of the only sure ways to kill a fae.

Tyrus grunted and then went limp.

“Now he is,” Marjani said.