by Lila Jean
Good. Despite all this crazy, Ray was definitely not in a cool and collected mindset, and whatever Tina had interrupted had thoroughly thrown the woman off her game. If Tina could keep Ray talking, she could subtly raise Ray’s heart rate, so slowly that the woman wouldn’t even notice it, until Tina could take over and push her over the edge.
All that time she and Damara had mistrusted Ray, it was for a good reason. Tina simply hadn’t realized who Ray really was, and not even Damara had been able to guess what the woman was truly capable of. Murder. Deception. And from the looks of Miranda’s arm, torture. Tina gritted her teeth, determined to fulfill her promise to kill the Widow even if she had to do it with nothing but magic and her bare hands.
Tentatively, slowly, Tina tapped into her magic, felt the thundering rush of Ray’s heart, already beating quickly. Good, this would be easier than Tina thought. Now, she just needed time. She had to stall. It would be difficult, maybe even impossible, to use her magic without glowing, but damn it all Tina had to at least try.
“Why did you keep Miranda alive?” Tina lifted her hands, cautiously watching Ray and the gun. “If she was getting in the way, why keep her around? She was obviously trying to warn me.”
“Information.” Ray chewed her lip, annoyance spreading across her face. “It seems Miranda has a few friends in high places, too, people who want you protected.” Ray chuckled darkly. “I had to see if they were a threat.”
“Are they?” Tina asked.
“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Ray’s smile fell, and she again glared at Miranda. “You liked the water boarding, right?”
Miranda whimpered, and Tina stepped protectively between her and Ray on instinct. No one hurt her priestesses, and while she had failed to protect them from Ray, it was a failure she would rectify.
“Right, our big protector.” Ray scoffed. “The little host who ran away, who didn’t even have a good enough connection to her goddess to know she could have awoken the temple, who has no idea the depth of the magic at her fingertips.” Ray spit on the floor in disgust. “And yet, you’re so damn lucky. I’ve done everything to kill you, Tina, but you just won’t die!”
“Like what, exactly?” Tina bristled, caught off guard. “You’ve done a pretty good job of hiding yourself, Ray.” Tina smirked, knowing the gesture would piss Ray off, knowing it would set off another round of confessions, knowing it would buy her more time to continue raising the woman’s heart rate. “Hiding behind codenames. Hiding in tunnels. Hiding behind other people doing your dirty work, too, I’ll bet.”
“You have no idea what I’ve put up with,” Ray seethed. “Everything in your life, everything that’s kept you up at night, that’s all been because of me, Tina. Me!”
“Doubt it,” Tina said, interest piqued as she egged the woman on. “You’re just one little priestess.” With that, Tina knew she’d hooked Ray completely, knew she would get every drop of information she wanted. “What can you possibly do on your own?”
“I called the gods!” Ray’s grip on the gun shook as Tina continued to push the woman’s pulse slowly higher and higher. “They’re here because I called them, because I told them all the ways you’ve failed.”
“And some lies on top of it, I’ll bet,” Tina seethed, temporarily lost in this new discovery, disgusted at Ray’s betrayal. “Anything to get me out of the way, right?”
“Oh, but that wasn’t enough, was it?” Ray trembled, the gun shaking with her racing pulse, which was no doubt flooding her body with adrenaline and anxiety. “No, you eluded the gods for ages. For-fucking-ever. I figured Odin would be more than enough, but no, not for the great and powerful Tina, queen of safehouses!” Ray chuckled, the dark sound filtering through the room. “But when those corpses started showing up, tell me, were you surprised?”
“How—” For a moment, Tina dropped her focus on her magic, lost as she was in her surprise at Ray’s implication. “How could you have possibly …?”
“You missed one of my bugs on your phone.” Ray sneered. “It was so tiny no one would have caught it unless they were well versed in that technology, and it was perfectly placed to blend with the phone’s electronics.” She laughed. “I’ve known where you were since you left Epara, and I fed everything to my friends at Noxxom. They might have been the ones kidnapping diplomats, but they owed me. I wanted them to frame you for it.”
“Those were innocent shifters,” Tina seethed, regaining control on Ray’s pulse, pushing it harder as their conversation got more intense. “You knew who had taken them, but you let them die?!”
“Not my problem.” Ray shrugged. “I want Damara. She’s all I’ve wanted since I was a little girl, and I will have her, Tina.” Ray’s finger itched on the trigger. “We’ve been working rituals on these tunnels, Tina. No matter where you are down here, when you die, Damara will be trapped here. She’ll finally belong to me, like she should have from the start.”
At this point, Tina had pushed Ray’s body to the max, and it took everything in her to keep her veins from glowing to give away the sheer volume of magic she was using. She eyed the dagger where it lay on the floor, judging the distance and the risk she would take by diving for it.
It was now or never. She wouldn’t be able to keep Ray talking any longer, at least not predictably so, and she had to make her move.
In a sudden rush, Tina glowed white and placed the full weight of her magic on Ray’s heart. It skipped beats, behaving erratically, thundering like a drumbeat in Tina’s ears. Ray gasped, her grip slipping, the gun trembling as she fought to aim. A shot fired, hitting a crate behind Tina, and Tina dove to the ground as another shot fired into the air, Ray’s aim horribly awry with her heart reaching its limit.
In one fluid movement, Tina grabbed her dagger from the floor, infused it with her magic until it glowed as bright as her, and dug the blade into Ray’s chest.
Around the blade, the skin on Ray’s body glowed white as well, reflecting the light in the dagger. The woman dropped the gun, the metal clattering over the floor as she opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out at all. Her eyes were wide with pain, and she arched her back, but not a single sound escaped her. Bit by bit, the skin around the blade turned to ash. It spread like a disease, consuming her entire body, wrapping her and dissolving her into dust as she tried desperately to scream and writhe away, but Tina pressed the dagger deeper to speed it along. When the ash spread to Ray’s face, she looked pleadingly at Tina, as if silently begging her to stop it, but Tina knew it was far too late. The ash consumed Ray, swallowing her hole, eating her alive and leaving nothing but dust in its wake.
The pile of ash fell to the ground, a small plume rising into the air as the High Priestess died, and Tina warily stood, body still shaking from adrenaline and her own brush with death. She stared at the pile of ash, a surreal sense of achievement hovering over her.
“I’m sorry,” Tina said softly to Miranda. “I’m sorry I attacked you.”
“All is forgiven.” Miranda smiled warmly and sighed with relief, slouching against the crates. “I live but to serve, dear goddess.”
Tina shook her head, furious with herself for hurting someone who had only tried to protect her, and it didn’t entirely matter to her guilty conscience that she’d had no way of knowing the truth. “No, it’s not okay—”
“Oh, thank the gods,” a worried and familiar voice said from the doorway. Tina looked up to see Flynn, and he rushed in almost as soon as their eyes met. Anthony, Killian, Draven, and Zane rushed in after, all of them surrounding her, their eyes drifting warily to the woman with the broken arm.
“We finally broke through that damned door.” Draven frowned, shooting a glare over his shoulder at the hallway. “Even Zane’s enhanced strength was hardly a match for it.”
“Have you ever broken through solid rock silently?” Zane rolled his eyes. “I got us in, and thank goodness, Tina’s safe.”
“It’s all right, guys,” Tina said reassuring
ly. “It’s taken care of, but Miranda here needs a hospital.” She leaned her head against Flynn, smiling with relief that the source of so much of her pain over the last few months had finally been dealt with. “The Widow’s dead, and Jesus, do I have a lot to tell you all.”
37
Killian
Killian was about to kill someone.
He had never felt such despair as he had in the moment Tina plummeted into the darkness and the trap door closed behind her. He had been certain he was about to lose his mate, his love, his reason to carry on despite the chaos. Horrified and worried, he had envisioned finding her corpse at the bottom, a gunshot through her heart, and the overwhelming sense of impending loss had almost made him go mad.
Worse than that, he had failed to protect her, his mate, the love of his life, and even though sleeping with Tina had made him indestructible, losing her would have destroyed him. True, no one could hurt him physically. No one could shoot him. No one could so much as cut him, not with Damara’s magic infused in his body, and that meant he was all the more suited to protecting her and the beautiful host she had chosen. It was his duty, above all else, to keep her safe, and he had nearly lost her for his failure.
Now that he had her back in his sight, Killian never let Tina go more than five feet from him. He hovered like a predator, never far, always ready to grab her at the last second and yank her to safety should the need arise. The terror at feeling like he had lost her was more than he could bear again so soon, and he vowed to never feel it again in his life.
With the Widow dead, Killian and the team systematically cleared each tunnel, killing anyone in a black armored suit or any priest who was stupid enough to aim a gun at them.
One such moron lifted his pistol, aimed right at Killian’s head, and Killian would have laughed if he wasn’t so livid at the near loss of his mate. The man fired, the bullets ricocheting off Killian’s indestructible frame, the sensation like mild bee stings instead of the piercing agony anyone else would experience, and Killian found himself growing fonder and fonder of the ability sleeping with Tina had given him.
As Killian ran the man through with his sword, the mercenary choked and sank to the ground, nearly taking Killian with him. Though he might have been indestructible, he still had his normal enhanced shifter strength, and even that was pushed to the limit as the massive mercenary leaned his lifeless weight against Killian. Killian nudged the man aside, grunting with the effort, reminding himself that each of the bodies littering the floor would have, if given the chance, happily killed him, every man in his brotherhood, and the woman they loved.
Beside him, Draven landed a single blow to a mercenary’s head, rendering him unconscious, and the man slumped to the floor. In these close underground corners, Tina had forbidden him from using his magical fire for fear of suffocating them all as he burned the oxygen in the air, and thus he had resorted, rather begrudgingly, to more traditional methods of fighting.
Still, he seemed to enjoy hearing the crack of his knuckles on skin, rarely drawing or using his sword, and Killian couldn’t blame the dragon shifter. All of them were tense at their close call in nearly losing Tina, and he suspected Tina wouldn’t go unattended for months, if not years, after this. She wouldn’t get a moment’s peace, but they all needed to know the love of their lives was safe.
The shouts of a half dozen more soldiers came from down the hall, and Killian glanced over his shoulder at Tina, who began to glow. She would handle them effortlessly, killing them with nothing more than Damara’s magical connection to the human body, and he felt the blurred emotions of pride and concern as her power grew. On one hand, she would be able to protect herself even if he tried and failed to do so, as she had proven with her traitorous High Priestess. On the other hand, her enhanced power meant she would join more of their battles, putting herself in greater and greater danger, risking the one thing he loved most in this world: her.
Down the other end of the hall, a mighty wolf roared. Anthony growled and snapped at the head of a mercenary, the man’s semi-automatic rifle firing as he screamed his final words, blood already dripping from the wolf’s mouth. He snarled, lips curling, as he tossed the body like a ragdoll and jumped back into the melee. Beside him, Zane, also snarling in his tiger form, and Flynn made short work of the remaining soldiers.
Miranda remained along the wall between the two war zones, nursing her broken arm in the makeshift sling Killian had made for her as she watched the carnage with wide and terrified eyes.
In moments, the halls were quiet. The stifled whimpers of a few women down the hall could be heard over the shuffle of Killian’s boots as he kicked aside one last gun, and those must have been the priestesses who were still loyal to Tina.
“Where are Ray’s minions?” Tina asked, turning to look over her shoulder at Miranda.
“Probably running away,” Miranda admitted, wincing as she adjusted her broken arm. “I know their names, though, and will provide anything you need.”
“Good.” Tina nodded. “I think we should speak to each of them.” She smirked and looked at the dragon shifter. “If they don’t talk, though, I assume Draven will want to sharpen some knives in front of them to see if he can change their mind?”
“Definitely.” His voice was a low growl, one that threatened just what he could do with a blade and three hours.
“Not all will need torture,” Miranda said, her voice wavering with nerves and a twinge of fear. “Some were coerced or threatened.” The small woman’s eyes drifted to the floor. “Many have been outright killed for disobedience, and others are simply trying to survive.”
“I’m so sorry. I failed you all.” Tina’s shoulders drooped, and she stared absently at the tattoo on her wrist.
“No!” Miranda’s eyes went wide. “No, my darling goddess, not at all! We priestesses have failed you.”
“It’s my responsibility to keep you safe.” Tina shook her head, dismissing Miranda’s comment with a wave of her hand. “I won’t fail you again.”
“You’ve done everything you could.” Killian kissed her forehead, holding her close and rubbing her back, which always soothed her and relaxed her body. “Come on, Tina. We should get everyone out of these tunnels.”
“I agree.” Tina nodded, turning her gaze on the priestess. “Miranda, who’s in charge now that Ray is dead?”
“I don’t know,” Miranda confessed, wringing her hands as her sad gaze drifted to the floor. “Her second and third in command were loyal to her, to the point of torturing some of us for disobedience when we tried to fight for you.” Miranda sniffled, but her face grew hard with bitterness and hatred, her eyes glazing over as she lost herself in some memory. “What they did was unforgivable.”
“You’re safe.” Tina set a hand tenderly on her priestess’s shoulder, and the woman softened under her touch. Tina offered her a small smile, and Miranda returned it, a bit of the anger leaving her thanks to Tina’s comfort. “In fact,” Tina continued, “I declare you the new High Priestess, Miranda.”
“What?” Miranda’s eyes widened in disbelief. “My goddess, I am so sorry if I overstepped my bounds! I wasn’t—I didn’t mean to—I don’t deserve—”
“Nonsense.” Tina waved away the thought. “Through torture, deceit, and betrayal, you stayed true to me, suffering through pain to warn me of the danger at hand.” Tina smiled. “You deserve it.”
“But the others …” Miranda ran a hand through her hair. “There are rules, orders, ranks I would be skipping over. There are far more qualified priestesses.”
“There really aren’t.” Zane smiled. “I checked.” Her tiger had shifted back, naked after his change, and Miranda’s cheeks burned red as her eyes drifted south to his thick cock. Tina chuckled, figuring the priestess would need to get used to seeing naked men.
“Besides, she sets the rules.” Flynn crossed his arms and nodded his head toward Tina for emphasis. “Remember?”
“Right.” Tina winked. “Regardl
ess of their ranks, none have proven their loyalty like you have.” Tina chuckled and nodded. “You do deserve this, Miranda. I promise.”
“Thank you.” Miranda sniffled, tears beginning to brim in her eyes. “Oh, my goodness, thank you.” She grabbed Tina’s hand and kissed the tattoo on her wrist, and Tina just chuckled, a little embarrassed by the gesture but trying to be a good sport about it. She hugged Miranda tightly, careful to avoid the girl’s broken arm.
“Right, that’s settled.” Zane set his hands on his waist. “I’ll get a cleanup crew in here.” He gestured around the corner, no doubt referring to the motionless bodies in the hallways beyond. “We’ll even bury them, Tina, if you want.”
“I do.” She nodded. “But first, we need to face the truth.” She sighed. “We knew Noxxom was behind the missing dignitaries, but now we know also that they were tracking us. They could have exposed us at any time, but they didn’t. Why?”
“If I may?” Miranda said, her voice quiet and timid. “From what I overheard, they wanted you framed so that the kings would want you dead.” She shrugged and held the shoulder of her wounded arm for support. “I don’t know why, but that was important.”
“The kings are already out to get you,” Flynn said, rubbing his thick beard. “They want to use you, but Noxxom really wants you dead.” He grumbled in annoyance. “I’m not sure how beneficial it would be to frame you for the dignitary murders, nor do I think the kings would have believed it.” He shrugged. “It’s an odd thing to be adamant about.”
“It is,” Zane said, nodding. “However, we have a more pressing issue.” He looked at Tina, his face gravely serious. “The god challenge is in forty-eight hours, Tina. We don’t have much time left for you to finalize your connection to Damara.”
“You’re right.” Tina nodded, rubbing her eyes, and Killian wished he could whisk her away from all this. “One disaster at a time. Miranda, let’s get you to a hospital. In the meantime, I’m going topside.”
