Page 42 of Savage Blood (Den of Shadows #6)
By the time we entered Wrath’s private living room, Reese, Ari, Wrath, Ruin, Logan, and Saint were gathered around the soft, tawny leather couches, already discussing the Admordum Nexia Covenant. We’d decided it was time to let Ari know how much danger the bitten shifters were really in.
To say that Ari wasn’t happy we’d kept the truth from him would be an understatement, but Ruin stood by his advice that revealing it would only cause panic. Some of the rage simmering in the shifter’s eyes dimmed. He must have realized the high demon was right.
While Fane and I had showered, Wrath met with Captain Gia to fill her in on what happened at the club. Once she learned of Coltrane’s involvement, she gathered a team of ravens and led the search for the former captain.
But Anna Coltrane was too sly to be caught. She escaped the headquarters in Chicago, for shit’s sake.
Would Coltrane give up her mission for the Infernal Sol now that she knew it was impossible to take from Barric?
Doubtful.
Saint’s gaze attention shot in our direction as we passed by the long wall he leaned against, which contained built-in shelves that held ancient tomes and mysterious trinkets.
With the slightest tilt of Fane’s head toward me as a signal, the alpha of Blackwater Falls approached the couch Logan and Wrath had saved for us.
I held back an eye roll when the two huge shifters squished me between them. Saint’s attention fell on the black veins crisscrossing my flesh before he grabbed my hand. As he looked at Fane and then me, a pang whipped through him.
My breaths faltered for a moment—because I’d sensed his distress almost as easily as I did Fane’s.
Saint knew what Fane and I had been doing in that second-floor VIP chamber, and it hurt him. Was he finally beginning to understand just how strong my bond with Fane was?
Saint claimed he was willing to share me, but neither guy would last long in an arrangement like that. It would tear them apart, or they’d tear each other apart.
Either way, none of us would survive it.
And yet, I held Saint’s fucking hand, giving him hope that he still had a chance with me.
“We’re running out of time,” Ruin said as he perched on the edge of the burnished coffee table, his gray sweatpants and hoodie a far cry from those sleek ebony suits he used to wear. “Barric’s power has grown exponentially, and it will only continue to increase if we don’t stop him.”
Wrath nodded and sipped his glass of water before placing it on a navy coaster on the coffee table near his brother. “After what happened at the club, word will spread within the demon community. Some of them recognized the Infernal Sol. Others will come for it now.”
Dread filled my gut at the thought of someone worse getting the amulet. But at this point, who was worse than Barric?
“Plenty of creatures, fiera mika,” Fane murmured into my mind as he warmed my other side on the couch.
Ruin angled toward me, his lips flattened into a grim line. “We need to get the amulet from Barric now. There’s no more time.”
“I couldn’t get it off.” My hand flexed as I shook my head. “The thing literally wouldn’t come off his neck.”
The high demon’s brows furrowed, and he raked his fingers through his tousled navy hair. “I don’t understand. Your connection to the amulet should have allowed you to take it.”
Reese cleared her throat as she leaned near the enormous door. “Roman enchanted the necklace. No one, not even Tate, can take it. ”
My shoulders slumped as the hope within me shriveled like a dried prune.
Ari narrowed his dark eyes at the female shifter. “You seem to have made a full recovery, Reese.”
“Yeah, that is kind of convenient,” Logan said, scrutinizing her from his seat. “You just happen to have this pertinent information too. How do we know this isn’t a setup?”
Her lips hitched into a sneer, looking very much like an older—barely—version of her daughter. “Barric used me and cast me aside when I was no longer valuable. I’ve been stuck like a fucking vegetable for weeks. That is what my loyalty to Barric got me. And I’m done with him.”
Absentmindedly, Fane twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. “How did you regain your sanity?”
“Maybe it was being in Mohan Wilds and taking the healers’ tonic.” Reese’s nostrils flared, and a golden sheen flickered through her stare. “And maybe it was getting away from Barric and that cursed amulet.”
The Infernal Sol caused madness. And after she stabbed me, Reese had been one step away from a padded cell.
“So if I can’t take the necklace, then what the hell are we supposed to do?” I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose.
“There’s still a way for you to take it.” Reese pushed off the wall, her emerald eyes piercing into me like twin daggers. “You have to kill Roman.”
“Excuse me?” Chills ricocheted over me as her words penetrated the air. “But he’s on our side. He helped us escape.”
Reese shrugged. “Kill Roman, and you can take the Infernal Sol.”
My longing for the amulet swirled forward, but I shoved the emotion back down before Fane felt it.
“I’ll kill him,” Wrath said. “I have no problem with it. ”
“It has to be Tate.” Reese strolled across the room and grabbed a glass of vodka from the bar. “When I stabbed her with that dagger imbued with the Infernal Sol’s power, I saw things.”
Saint’s head tilted, his warm hand tightening around mine. “What kind of things?”
“It made little sense then.” She gave a bitter laugh. “Nothing made much sense until a few days ago. But the small piece remaining inside of Tate keeping her connected to the amulet also allows her to get through most of Barric’s and even the stone’s own defenses.”
That must have been what Reese tried to tell me at the bonfire. Her mind was just so fragmented that her words all seemed like ramblings.
It’s not fully protected. You have a key to the gate.
Barric’s defenses weren’t impenetrable. The piece of Infernal Sol was the key to getting beyond the walls.
I touched the sun tattoo below my ribs. The thing that was killing me was also the thing I needed to beat Barric. How freaking poetic.
“If anyone else kills Roman, the enchantment will not break,” Reese continued. “It will transfer to Barric, and he and the amulet will be permanently connected. No one will be able to remove the amulet, not even Barric.”
Fane scoffed. “Why wouldn’t Barric want that in the first place? He seems dead set on keeping the amulet.”
“Because even Barric realizes he’ll go insane if he never takes the necklace off,” Reese said. “A time might come when he no longer cares, though.”
I certainly didn’t care much about my sanity when that thing had ahold of me.
“You have to do it soon, Tate.” Logan moved across the room and knelt in front of me. “I know you want to help Roman, but he chose to follow Barric in the first place. And shifters will pay the price.”
“We can’t wait any longer,” Ari murmured, his lips set in a somber line.
Fane stiffened, and his attention fell on the still-fading lines across my skin. This sickness still poisoned my body, and if I did manage to take the amulet, there was a good chance it would consume me whole.
It might cure me.
But it would also take me into the darkness I fought so hard to climb out of.
Fane wanted Saint to heal me once and for all. And for that to happen, we’d have to force the fated mate bond to grow—fast.
Saint and I would have to claim each other.