Shara

I couldn’t stop crying. Which I supposed helped sell the deal all the better to Keisha. Gina and Ezra both had their arms around me, supporting me as we rode up to the hundredth floor again.

The doors opened, and my Blood immediately breathed a sigh of relief when they saw me.

Until they realized Rik wasn’t with us. Until they saw my tears.

Daire jumped up and draped his paws over my shoulders to lick my face frantically. :Where is he? What happened? I can’t feel him.:

I buried my face in his fur and clung to him a moment. I wanted to say, be glad you can’t feel him.

Because his pain had started as soon as we left the room.

At least I could still feel his bond, though it felt stretched and fragile. We’d shared so much blood that even Tanza’s blood circle couldn’t keep me fully out of my alpha. But that meant I knew exactly what she was doing to him.

He wasn’t bleeding. Yet.

But she screeched so high and shrill that his eardrums had almost burst, and he’d fallen to the ground, clutching his skull.

The less Daire and the other Blood knew, the better we’d be able to conceal our plan. But it fucking broke my heart to let them believe that I’d actually be willing to trade Rik’s life for mine. I shook my head, refusing to answer Daire even in the bond. He paced frantically around me, his tail lashing my legs, but he sensed a purpose in my actions. He trusted me to have a plan. To do something.

Even as we stood in front of Keisha’s throne, waiting for her sibs to come filing back in.

Rik was bleeding now from his eyes, nose and ears, and Tanza hadn’t even touched him yet. She lay on her back, staring up at the ceiling, giggling.

While my alpha twitched and bled and moaned with pain.

Panic welled inside me, but I beat it down. I wouldn’t allow panic to affect my judgement or control. We had a plan. It would work. I just needed to get through this without falling apart.

Leviathan bellowed in my head. Night had fallen while we were down in the basement and I saw him fly past the cracked windows. Keisha had warded them with her magic, so even though the glass had cracked, he couldn’t break them open, though he made a great show of trying. He landed on the roof and I felt him clawing at the stone and cement, trying to break through to reach me.

I clenched my jaws and clutched Gina’s hand in mine, our knuckles white with strain. She didn’t know the full plan either. Hopefully she knew me well enough to know that I’d never sell my alpha to save my own hide.

Finally, Keisha stood and raised her voice. “House Isador and House Skye have come to an agreement. The blood debt has been paid. Shara Isador is free to take all her Blood from Skye Tower when she leaves us. I formally withdraw my petition from the Triune.”

“Duly noted,” Madeline said, typing furiously on a small laptop. “I’m communicating your agreement to the Triune. It’ll take a few minutes…”

I swayed, fighting down another wave of pain from Rik. I could only imagine how bad it really was. Even through the dimmed bond, the pain was nauseating.

Blinking away the tears, I focused on Keisha. She stood before her throne, smiling at everyone. Even me. She’d gotten what she wanted. She believed that once I healed Tanza that their lives could continue however she wished. All those alphas who’d died to keep her daughter alive were commodities. A sad casualty in her war to keep her daughter alive. If Tanza could live, she’d snuff out every single life in this room, if necessary, even though they’d sworn their blood to her for one reason only.

Her protection as the Queen of Skye.

Something flickered behind her.

Xin. He silently flowed closer to her, no longer in his wolf form, but still invisible.

My assassin Blood, who couldn’t carry a blade on his wolf.

I met his gaze, his eyes flashing ghostly silver. Swallowing my tears, I let go of Gina’s hand and stepped closer to Keisha.

She focused on me, a frown spreading on her face. A moment of doubt. Her eyes narrowed. She started to turn toward her consiliarius, but Madeline looked up with a bright smile. “Marne Ceresa replied. The Triune acknowledges and nullifies the blood debt.”

I smiled at Keisha. Xin materialized and seized her, one arm around her waist, the other around her throat. She pulled on her power and lightning crackled and arced around her, but Xin refused to let her go. I lunged forward and sank my fangs into her throat.

I drank her down. Her power. Her blood. I claimed her in front of her people. She struggled a moment, wind tearing at me, whipping my hair and dress in a furious, desperate hurricane, but my assassin Blood had her locked tightly in his arms.

She tore at his skin, reaching back to claw at his face, but another Blood came to our assistance. The gryphon chomped down on her arm and held her pinned while she screamed.

Her mind opened to me and it was a horror story I didn’t want to see.

I didn’t care how much she loved her daughter.

All I could see were the countless broken, bloodied bodies of alphas who’d died to keep Tanza alive. The head rolling across the floor. The screams and wails of pain while she’d stood at the edge of the circle and watched her daughter feed on their pain. She’d known her daughter was possessed by something dark and demonic. That Ra had corrupted her from the beginning.

Yet she’d refused to end her daughter’s torment.

Her power filled me. The deadly might of a hurricane. Million volts of lightning. The thousand lives that looked to her for support and protection. They fluttered into my consciousness like frantic moths circling the last gleaming lamppost in the middle of nowhere. They were mine, now.

Not that I gave a fuck about any of them.

The cold chill of the grave filled me. I remembered going to Isis’s pyramid the first time, when she’d given me Her power. All Her powers, because I was Her last daughter. Keisha’s mind flickered like a candle almost blown out. Its wick burned to nothing. I felt the choice. I could release her. Let her live. I could pull her back from the grave, like I’d done for Rik before.

But I chose death. I chose retribution.

The goddess’s cold, hard smile confirmed Her acceptance of my choice.