Page 163 of Wicked Bonds

That had been the last time Melanythos had altered their minds.

Leela had gone into reformation again soon after, starting the process over entirely.

Balthazar hadn’t known, his grasp on reality utterly altered by Nythos’s arrival. She’d played him so perfectly, appearing as a ghost from his past and destroying the moment he’d shared with Leela.

A part of him had felt the wrongness of it, something that radiated now within his gut, but he’d been lost to her manipulation.

His link to Leela’s psyche this time had thwarted any and all attempts to dismantle his memories.

Not via the blood bond they’d just formed, but per the fact that he now knew her mind.

A fascinating development because it’d always been his inability to hear Leela’s thoughts that had drawn him to her each time they’d “met” over the millennia. When what he’d really needed was that mental connection to break their tormented cycle.

Perhaps he’d suspected that on some level, thus prompting him to pursue her.

Or maybe it had just been fate.

Another sharp crack pulled his focus upward to where a Seraphim fell lifelessly through the sky. The bulky mass crashed into one of the tables, causing the mortals to scream as the angel turned corporeal.

Stark wasted no time in the sky, slamming another Seraphim with a similar bolt of light that sent him spiraling downward as well.

However, a hint of concern clouded Stark’s aura. There and gone in a flash. Balthazar sought the cause of it, as the warrior seemed to be slaying his brethren with fluid ease.

Distraction, Stark thought.This… distraction.

Balthazar frowned and took in the scene again.

Melanythos had Vera wrapped up in a battle of mystical energy while Stark handled the warriors. It’d been four against one, with only two Seraphim left to subdue. One of whom didn’t have a sword like the others.

He was the one who initially froze the humans, Balthazar recalled, studying the male’s lengthy physique. He appeared more clinical and thoughtful in his approach, creating some kind of rune he clearly intended to release on Stark.

But the warrior Seraphim caught it with his sword, crumbling the energy to dust before volleying a fiery sphere of magic at the male. He dodged it. However, the ball rotated and exploded at his back, ensnaring his pale feathers and sending him soaring toward the earth.

He landed among the mortals he’d originally frozen, their bodies long since freed from whatever mystic hold he’d cast over them.

Many of them were taking pictures and videos rather than running for their lives.

The definition of humanity today, Balthazar thought, disgusted. No one wanted to help. No one wanted to protect others. They were too busy being bystanders through their damn phones to do much else.

Distraction. The word caught Balthazar’s attention again, only this time it came from Leela.

He met her alert gaze, her journey down memory lane temporarily subsiding in favor of their current surroundings.

Leek and Kital are missing,she continued, her eyes darting to the three incapacitated Seraphim before flicking upward into the sky.Something’s very wrong, B. These warriors are too young for this mission. Which means the elite members… are somewhere else.

He glanced upward at Vera and Stark once more and noted the missing Seraphim in the sky.

Patreel’s gone. Yet he’d seen the tracker arrive with the other two.

Which could really mean only one thing.

The council knows about Vera and Stark,he said on a low growl.Either Patreel had told them, or they’d found out another way. But the rest was clear.The council lured Vera and Stark here in order to leave Hydria unprotected.

Because they were Hydria’s primary allies, apart from Leela, who knew how the council and warriors functioned.

Caro knew a bit, but her recent reformation left her out of the loop.

So the council had set up a situation they knew would attract Vera’s and Stark’s attention—by putting Balthazar’s and Leela’s lives in jeopardy.