Page 15

I lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling, letting the anger and anxiety melt away. Guilt gnawed at me for how I had shouted at Will. But I had been so fucking angry. All he cared about was the mission. Not me. Not Morgan. Not even himself, when it came down to it. It was only ever about the mission.

But as much as I tried to hold onto that anger, I couldn’t deny my growing attraction to Will. Part of me admired his dedication, his desire to do as much good in the world as possible. If the circumstances had been different, if we hadn’t met the way we had, who knew what might have happened?

Whatever happened, I wouldn’t be able to forget the sex. He had seemed to know exactly what I wanted every moment, as if in tune with me in a way no one else ever had been. Just thinking about how he had felt inside me set a warmth alight between my legs.

Except it wasn’t that simple. Nothing here was that simple. I wanted to grow closer to him. I wanted to have sex with him again, to get to know him better. If I weren’t his slave, if we were both out in the real world and ran into one another, I would have no issue with any of it. But I was his slave, and that immediately changed everything. I could never fully trust him or feel like his equal as long as this collar remained locked around my neck.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Regardless, I needed to apologize. I could have handled that whole situation better. I shouldn’t have yelled at him. Still, I let the rest of the anger and all the heightened emotions subside as I continued gazing at the ceiling. Once most of the pent-up frustration subsided, I slid off the bed and walked downstairs.

Will was alone, lounging on the couch. That, at least, was a small mercy. The instant he saw me, he sat up straight, getting to his feet, those blue eyes never leaving my face.

“Hey,” he said slowly.

“I’m sorry for the outburst,” I said.

Shaking his head, he said, “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. You’re worried about Morgan.” He hesitated. “If anything, I should apologize to you for how I handled the whole thing. I need you to know that I care about Morgan, and I want to help her. I truly do.”

I believed him. But I also didn’t believe that if it came to it, he would pick her over salvaging the mission. After everything I had seen, all the goodness in him, I wanted to believe he would help Morgan, but I couldn’t be sure. And that uncertainty ate at me. It made it impossible for me to fully open up to him. I respected his determination, but I would throw everything else away in a heartbeat if it meant saving Morgan. And I knew he wouldn’t.

I growled, beginning to pace back and forth as all the pent-up frustration I thought I had gotten rid of resurged.

“I hate all of this,” I ranted, running my fingers through my hair. “I hate the waiting, I hate how utterly and completely useless I feel, and I hate how I have no idea how to help.”

When I turned again, I was surprised to see how close he was. I blinked, almost taking a step back, but not quite. His hand went to my arm, and it was hard for me not to think about how those hands had felt running along my entire body.

“I know you’re upset,” he said gently. The understanding and compassion in his voice soothed some of the thoughts racing through me, as if the simple act of validating my reaction was enough to ease my emotions. “I want you to know that I’m doing everything I can to get her out. I promise.”

I wanted to believe him. I desperately did. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling that he would always pick the mission over my sister. The look in his eyes told me he had asked himself that same question, but I couldn’t tell what conclusion he had come to.

His hand slid down my arm until it reached my hand. His fingers entwined with mine.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

I shook my head. “I’m not going through the portal yet. I’ve told you.”

“I didn’t mean through the portal.” When I gave him a confused look, he added, “I went exploring the other day. I found a little forest area nearby. I figured you’ve been too cooped up lately. How about we go there?”

I blinked, letting the words sink in. “Go out. As in, shift and run through the woods?”

He nodded, raising one eyebrow in question. “I thought that might be something you could use after everything that’s going on. How about it?”

I couldn’t help it. I grinned.

Twenty minutes later, I ran through the woods, relishing the feel of wind through my fur as I bolted after Will. When was the last time I got to shift? My wolf was ecstatic. Despite all the chaos and all the bad things happening, this felt like a breath of fresh air. It was a breath of fresh air. For the first time since I had been dragged to the Underside, I felt like myself.

We came to a clearing surrounded by trees. Bathed in the purple light of the sky, there was something ethereal about it, a beauty that seemed impossible in the Underside. We shifted back to human, and I sucked in a breath, taking in the sight.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” he said.

“It’s beautiful,” I admitted.

He gave a small grin. “I thought you might like it.”

I studied him for a long moment, chewing the inside of my lip. The question that had been pressing on my lips for the last couple of days wanted to come out. A question I desperately wanted to know the answer to, if only because I thought it would help me better understand this shifter in front of me.

He saw me staring and tilted his head. His lip quirked upward. “Like what you see?” he quipped.

Despite myself, I blushed.

He laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Take it however you like,” I retorted.

He gave a half-laugh and shook his head. “You’re a strange one,” he teased.

“Can I ask a question?” I asked before I could lose my nerve.

Will blinked, then smirked once more. “I don’t think I can stop you from doing anything you put your mind to. What is it?”

I took a deep breath, trying to find a way of asking what I wanted to ask without coming across as hostile. “You seem to be reluctant to do anything that might compromise the mission,” I said. “Why?”

He didn’t answer for a long time. Instead, he stared up at the sky, his blond hair splayed in the grass.

“When I was younger, one of the first missions I ever had as a Gold Wolf, I made a big mistake,” he admitted. “I don’t really want to go into the details, but I let my emotions get in the way of the bigger mission. Because of that, I ended up ruining the whole thing. People died. The bad guy got away, and we didn’t catch him for another two years.”

His jaw twitched, and his eyes narrowed as if the memory still made him angry. All of a sudden, the interest and cool-headedness made sense.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sure that was rough.”

He took a deep breath, his massive chest heaving with the motion. “It was. Is. But I’ve made my peace with it. I have just made an effort to never let my emotions get in the way of things.”

“Do you ever regret becoming a Gold Wolf?” I asked, the words slipping out of my mouth before I could realize what I was saying.

He blinked, as if surprised by the question. “No. Not for a second. I get to help people every day. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

I didn’t have a response to that. A silence fell between us, though it wasn’t uncomfortable. It was the kind of comfortable quiet that fell between people who didn’t feel the need to talk every second.

I liked it.

After a moment, Will said, “My turn to ask a question.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Name it,” I said, expecting him to ask about Morgan or any number of other things.

He propped himself up as he turned to look at me. “Can I see some magic?”

Surprised, I gave a half-laugh. “Technically, I’ve already shown you some,” I pointed out.

“Sure, but I’ve always been curious about magic. Witches and shifters don’t typically get along. I’ve always wondered what it was like, only I’ve never been close enough to a witch to ask.”

“And now that you have one forced to talk to you, you figured now was the best time to ask all about it?” I teased.

Will gave a grin that seemed to light up his whole face, and my heart fluttered. “Just making the best of a bad situation,” he said. “So, how about it?”

I tilted my head, considering him as I gave an amused, playful smirk. Then, I raised my hands and muttered an incantation. Two figures made entirely of flame danced around the clearing, bodies pressed together as they waltzed, as music filtered through the air. I didn’t know why I had picked this precise bit of magic, or why the two figures looked like me and Will. But I let them glide around us, their feet of flame grazing the grass but never lighting it on fire.

Will stared wide-eyed, the fire dancing in his eyes until the flame figures dissipated, smoke lingering in the air behind them before evaporating.

“That’s incredible,” he said. He shook his head and turned to look at me. “Seriously. You’re incredible, Kendra.”

I was painfully aware of how close he was to me in that moment, the way his hair blew in the wind, and how easy it would be for him to clear those final few inches to take me in his arms. I remembered how those hands felt as they roamed along my body, and part of me craved to feel it again.

For a long moment, as I stared up at him, I couldn’t breathe. I had this overwhelming urge to grab him and pull him against me, and I realized with a jolt that I wanted him. Despite everything, I desperately wanted him.

I had hoped my desire for him would be a one-time thing. That once I had sex with Will and got it out of my system, it would be over with, and I wouldn’t have to think about it ever again.

It turned out I was wrong.

Which was going to make what I planned on doing a lot harder.

I waited until I knew Will was out of the house, running down some lead or another. Lingering at the bedroom door, I stared at the top of Chris’s head, visible from where he lounged on the sofa.

For a long moment, I debated what I was about to do. Memories of the clearing and that afternoon still lingered in my mind. What I was considering was risky at best. And going behind Will’s back seemed like a betrayal of the trust we had slowly been building.

But it was either this or sit and do nothing while Morgan rotted in Cain’s palace.

I stepped into the living room and rounded the couch, sitting in the comfortable chair. Chris lifted his eyes from his book. He raised his head and gave a small smile in polite inquiry. I knew I couldn’t turn back now.

“I need your help,” I said.

Chris raised an eyebrow. “And you’re not asking Will because…?”

“Because…” I hesitated. If I told him I knew Will would say no, there was no way he would help me. “Because this way, if it goes wrong, his cover won’t be blown.”

Chris chewed the inside of his cheek as he looked me up and down, not without a hint of suspicion. Finally, he sighed and put the book face-down on the couch, spine poking up from where it held his place. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. His face had that same intelligent, calculating look that I noticed Will sometimes got.

“Let’s call a spade a spade,” he said. “You want to get your sister back, and I’m guessing you have some sort of idea on how to get into that palace.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, and I glanced away. I didn’t like being called out that easily. But I wasn’t going to insult his intelligence by lying and telling him that he hadn’t guessed exactly what I wanted to do.

“It’s for the mission,” I said. “Think about it—if we can get Morgan out of there, she’s going to have so much information about Cain and his operation. She’ll be invaluable in helping take him down.”

“And on top of that, you get your sister back,” he said knowingly.

“I never said I wouldn’t benefit from it,” I acknowledged.

He let out a deep breath, staring at me speculatively. “Again, Will should know—”

“If this goes sideways, then they’re going to assume Will had something to do with it because of me,” I said. “This gives him plausible deniability.”

Chris exhaled, brow furrowing as he debated. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll talk to Nolan, and we’ll see what we can do.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I’ve known Nolan for all of a couple of days, and already I can tell he isn’t going to be able to keep his mouth shut. The instant Will finds out, he’ll try and stop it. I’m coming with you.”

“And why do you have to go, then?” Chris asked.

Tilting my head with an amused smirk, I raised my hand and muttered an incantation. Chris’s eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open as I melted away, turning invisible. When I reappeared, it was behind him.

“I can get us there the fastest,” I said, and he jumped in his seat and spun around, gaping at me in incredulity. “And I can turn us invisible to get in.”

“Not going to lie. That was really cool,” he muttered. Once again, he fell silent, debating. After a moment, he let out a long huff and nodded. “All right. And I’m guessing you don’t want to wait?”

“Hell, no.”

He snorted, shaking his head. “You’re honest, I’ll give you that.” He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll go tonight. Just be ready.”

“I will be.”

The hallways of the prison were deserted as we crept through the halls. The closest to danger we got was when a random guard strolled past. He paused, his nose wrinkling as he sniffed. He’d caught our scents. Chris and I waited, neither of us breathing as the other man looked around. After a moment, he shook his head and kept moving.

I didn’t let out a sigh of relief until he rounded the corner. “Let’s go,” I whispered, jerking my head down the hall.

We started creeping down the hall, peering into each room as we passed. Half of them had a girl inside, and the sight of each one made me gnash my teeth in anger. I wanted to get them out of here. But I couldn’t. Not if I wanted to keep Morgan safe and get her out.

The more rooms we looked into, the more my unease grew. Not a single sign of Morgan, not even her scent. The further we got, the more that sickening dread continued to swell and fester inside me.

We got to the final cell. No Morgan.

I frowned, my mind beginning to spin. She should be here, with the other slaves. Where the hell was she? Panic began racing through my head. Had Cain sold her? Decided she wasn’t worth it?

Only that didn’t make sense. When I had scried earlier, I had seen Cain. I knew she was still here somewhere.

I forced myself to breathe. I wouldn’t be any good to her if my head weren’t on straight. As I tried to gather myself and formulate a new plan, Chris’s hand rested lightly on my shoulder.

“Kendra,” he whispered, and I turned to see him pointing at a side door. “Think there might be more behind there?”

Trying to smother the little bubble of hope that had just bloomed, I muttered, “Worth a shot,” and followed him over. He tested the door handle. It wasn’t locked. Slowly, he pulled the door open.

We stepped into a room that had a single cage embedded in the corner. At first, my brow furrowed. What was the point of keeping one slave away from the others? A sort of isolation chamber? Some sort of punishment?

Then I saw the young woman standing in the cage, curled in a ball, back pressed against the stone wall. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew those auburn curls anywhere. My heart leapt into my throat as relief washed over me.

“Morgan!” I raced over, heart pounding.

Morgan’s head shot up. She glanced around, brow furrowed, and I realized I was still invisible. I hastily removed the spell, materializing in front of my sister. Her eyes grew wide as saucers.

“Kendra?” The surprise mutated into fear, and she shook her head. “You have to get out of here.”

“Not without you.” I bent to study the lock. As I scrutinized it, I spoke over my shoulder to Chris. “It’s probably protected by magic, but there’s a chance we can get around it. I—Chris?”

I turned around to see Chris staring at Morgan. His mouth had parted slightly, as if someone had just bashed a mallet against his head, stupefying him temporarily. I didn’t know what had washed over him, nor did I particularly care. We didn’t have time to get distracted.

“Kendra, I don’t—”

“Chris,” I snapped, not even hearing Morgan.

He blinked. “Sorry,” he said. He glanced again at Morgan before coming over to the lock. He crouched and studied it. “I’ve got some experience picking locks. Not as much as Trent or Nolan, but a bit.”

“It’s almost certainly enchanted,” I said. “Using magic won’t work.”

“Kendra,” Morgan said.

I waved her off, still studying the lock. “Don’t worry, Morgan. We’re going to figure it out. Maybe we can still try to pick it or brute force it. Knowing Ronan and Lucas, they’re the types to underestimate their slaves. They don’t think any of them would dare to escape.”

“Kendra!”

The forcefulness in Morgan’s voice was so startling that I finally stopped and glanced up at her. My stomach sank with dread as she shook her head, shrinking back into the cell. Her pretty auburn hair fell in a curtain around her face as she glanced at the ground, but I knew her well enough to picture the pained, guilty expression on her face at that moment.

“I can’t go with you,” she said, her voice strained.

I shook my head. “Don’t worry. We’re getting you out of here. Once you’re here, we can get to the portal and…”

But Morgan was shaking her head. “You don’t understand. He’ll just come after me. He…” She trailed off.

I came up to the bars, stretching my fingers through them to reach out to her. She didn’t reach back to me.

“No, he won’t,” I said, trying to keep the desperation out of my voice. I was painfully aware of the ticking clock, but I kept my voice low and soothing. “I have a way out of here. People will help us to get to the portal, and then we can get out of these chains and…”

My voice faded away as Morgan glanced back up. The pain and guilt in her expression set my stomach churning.

“You don’t understand,” she said again.

“I don’t understand what?” I asked. I would have been angry if things weren’t so desperate. I needed to keep her safe. I had a way to keep her safe. All we had to do was get her out of here.

“Kendra,” Chris muttered, and something in his voice tore my attention away from Morgan back to him. He was staring at Morgan, but this time in a grim, almost resigned sort of way. As if there was something there that I hadn’t noticed yet.

Slowly, more dread creeping into my stomach, I turned back, following Chris’s line of sight.

A golden collar wrapped around Morgan’s neck. Unlike the onyx color of all the other collars, this one glittered, almost ornately. It was the type of collar you only gave to special slaves. One Cain would have taken a particular interest in.

The collar. The special room. The fact that Cain refused to sell her to anyone. It all led to one terrible answer, one that couldn’t be real. Because if it were real, then I didn’t have an answer on how to fix it.

“Oh, God,” I muttered. I took a step back as the implications washed over me.

“I told you. He’s not going to let me go,” Morgan whispered. “He… he plans on making me his mate.”

The world wanted to crash around me, and my head spun as I tried to get a grip. This was like a bad dream. This couldn’t be real. There was no way it could be real. I wanted to collapse on the ground, but knew I couldn’t.

“When?” I asked, my mouth dry as I forced myself to stay composed enough so I wouldn’t break down in front of Morgan. I couldn’t do that to her. I had to stay strong.

“I’m not sure,” she muttered. Her eyes darted side to side, as if expecting someone to show up. “He told me the other day.”

At first, I stared, mouth open, as I gawked like an idiot, disbelief overriding every other emotion. He couldn’t do that. Not to Morgan. He couldn’t. It had to be a lie, some sort of trick.

The more the reality of the situation crashed into me, the angrier I got. My hands curled into fists.

“I can’t let you stay, then,” I said. I hated the desperate edge to my voice, the edge of panic that made it nearly impossible to think straight. Right now, the only thing that registered was that Morgan was in even more danger than I’d initially thought. I turned back to Chris. “Get her out. Now.”

“I’m seeing what I can do,” Chris said, infuriatingly calm and patient amid my own panic.

When I swiveled my head back around to Morgan, she was shaking her head, regret and fear in her eyes. “He’ll track me down and kill all of you if you let me go,” she said. “Then he’ll just take me back, anyway. You’ll be dead, and he’ll have his way.”

“You don’t know that,” I snapped. “You can’t just give up.”

My sister, my sweet, caring sister who didn’t have one mean bone in her body and didn’t deserve any of the things that had happened to her over the years, gave a sad, tired smile. Tears threatened to spill down my cheeks, but I tried to hold them back. I couldn’t let Morgan see me cry. I needed to stay calm for her.

“I’m not letting you stay in here,” I said, unable to hide the crack in my voice. “I’m not letting him do this to you.”

But Morgan was still shaking her head, already backing away from the bars. “There’s nothing you can do,” she said. “You know that. He’s already decided.”

“No,” I said, that edge of hysteria creeping in, starting to overshadow my facade of calm. “He can’t. I won’t let him. There has to be something I can do. I can’t… I can’t…”

I trailed off, snarling as I ran my fingers through my hair, eyes darting everywhere, searching for something, anything , that could help. There had to be something I could do. Because if there wasn’t, that meant I had failed my sister again, and it was all my fault.

“We can try to break one of the bars,” I said. “Then you can sneak out. There are witches who can help us. They can lift the enchantment before Cain finds you.”

A fire I wasn’t used to seeing flickered across my sister’s face, her expression grim but determined.

“Kendra, for once, just listen to reason and get out of here before you get caught,” Morgan pleaded. When I stayed put, she looked at Chris. “Please get her out of here,” she said.

I turned to Chris, desperate. The pained, almost guilty expression on his face told me that he hated this almost as much as I did. For a moment, I hoped that meant he was on my side, that we would find a way to get Morgan out of there.

He glanced between Morgan and me for a long moment. I could sense his reluctance to leave. But then his eyes stopped on my sister, and he gave her a long nod.

“Don’t worry,” he told her. “We’ll figure something out and come back for you.”

“Just get her out of here and keep her safe,” Morgan pleaded with him. “That’s all I care about.”

Before I could move or even react, Chris had taken me by the arm and was pulling me away. “We’ve got to go,” he said.

I shook my head, trying to tug out of his grip, refusing to let Cain get his way. “No,” I said, my voice strained. “I’m not leaving.”

“We have to,” he said. When I continued to fight and struggle, he tightened his grip, pulling me against him.

“No,” I said, struggling to wrench myself out of his grip. “This isn’t right. It’s not fair.”

“We’ll come back,” Chris said, refusing to let go. “We’re not going to let anything happen to her. But we can’t do anything right now. Your sister is right.”

“I’m not going without her.” My voice broke, and I didn’t bother hiding my desperation now. My breath had gone ragged. I couldn’t, couldn’t leave Morgan to this fate. She didn’t deserve it. She was too sweet, too innocent. She wouldn’t last, especially not as Cain’s mate.

“I’m sorry,” Morgan said as if she had anything to be sorry about. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She had just been swept up in the nightmare that I had started and kept making worse.

Your fault , a voice echoed in my head, taking that knife of guilt in my stomach and twisting it. It’s all your fault.

I wanted to crumble to the ground and collapse in a heap. I probably would have, had a sound from the room beyond not sent a jolt of icy panic through me: the sound of a door opening.

All three of us froze. I barely breathed, hoping that the footsteps coming nearer would walk past.

Instead, they stopped in front of the door. The handle rattled. I had only enough time to grab Chris and cast another spell of invisibility. I pulled Chris against the far wall just as the door swung open.

Morgan shrank back, arms wrapped around her stomach as she watched the figure saunter into the room. Her eyes never once darted to the corner where we were hiding. Then I realized who had just ambled into the room, and all my attention locked on him.

It was Lucas, followed by two other guards who marched in after him.

I had to bite back the angry growl threatening to escape my throat. Just seeing him was enough to make my wolf bristle with rage. She wanted nothing more than to tear out his throat.

“Hello, Morgan,” Lucas said, his voice casual and pleasant as if he weren’t talking to someone in a cage. I bristled. “Cain—”

He paused. His head tilted as if he had noticed something interesting. He turned and scanned the area. That oily smile spread across his face.

“Someone’s been casting magic lately, haven’t they?” he said in that same pleasantly casual tone.

“I was bored,” Morgan said quickly. “It’s nothing.”

He ignored her. Instead, he wandered deeper into the room, studying every corner, every inch of the room.

“If there is someone in here,” he said after a long moment, “then they should probably show themselves before I bathe this entire room in fire and burn you to a crisp.”

Flames licked around his feet and began spreading out. I could feel the heat licking my face from here, and I realized that if I didn’t do anything, Chris and I would burn to death. And Morgan might as well.

With a hiss of irritation, I dropped the spell. The flames vanished the instant we emerged. Lucas’s eyes found mine, and he let out a cackle that made my wolf bristle with rage.

“Should have expected you to try a jailbreak,” Lucas mused. “Though I had rather hoped your new master would have you on a tighter leash by now. Who’s your friend?” he asked, jerking his head at Chris. “I remember him from that second fight, but I have a funny feeling he has no interest in a slave. So, who are you?”

“No one you want to mess with,” Chris growled. “Walk away while you still can.”

Lucas laughed, throwing his head back. “Have you forgotten the slaves here can’t use magic against us? It’s effectively one-on-three.” He gestured at his two guards.

Chris gave a wild, almost sinister grin. “Fantastic,” he growled, his fingers lengthening into claws. “In that case, it’ll be a fair fight.”