Page 147 of Wrath

Mary-Lynette glanced at Axel, as if seeking his approval, before refocusing on me. She nodded once. “She was nice. I thought she was my friend.” Tears filled her large, guileless eyes. “She told me she was like me—a halfling.”

Aaliyah was a halfling.

Half demon and half angel.

Just like me. Or…like I was, in my past life, before I died.

“Where did she go?” Jax asked, kneeling on my other side.

Once again, Mary-Lynette glanced at Axel, and at his nod of approval, she said, “She just wanted to find her sister.”

Understanding dawned, and with it came a strange sense of…comfort. She wasn’t after the others or even the kings. The shifter sneaking into the dungeons was no doubt a distraction to separate our forces.

Aaliyah was after me. Only me.

Good.

Hopefully that meant no one else would be caught in the crossfire.

“How did you let her inside? Where did she go?”

Mary-Lynette began to fiddle with the bottom of her shirt, her tiny hands wringing the fabric repeatedly. “Umm…she said she was nervous about all of the guards on patrol, so I let her in through the kitchen entrance when the guards were chatting. She was supposed to come to my room with me, but she went…somewhere else.” Tears flooded her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Mare. It’s not your fault.” Axel held the younger girl against his chest.

It was strange to see the fierce, psychotic assassin being gentle with anyone, let alone this half-human child.

“It’s not your fault,” I agreed, straightening to face the others. “Okay, so Aaliyah is already in the building. We just need to find her and?—”

“No need,” a deceptively sweet voice said.

A second later, raw, unencumbered power flooded the room, blasting all of us in every direction. Axel gripped Mary-Lynette tightly and twisted his body so he received the brunt of the impact. Devlin cursed, Killian shouted, and Jax cried out as they hit the wall, bed, and table, respectively.

I fell on my back, an unnatural wind blowing my blonde tresses away from my face.

Aaliyah stepped through the shattered doorway, her black, skin-tight dress a contrast to my similarly colored fighting leathers. She smiled as she stepped over me.

“Hello, sister.” With an almost blistering speed, she gripped my neck and held me off the ground, my feet dangling. “I think we need to have this conversation alone, wouldn’t you agree?”

Then, before I could even lift my hands to fight back, she threw me out the window.

Glass shards bit at my skin, and I screamed as I fell onto the hard, unforgiving ground below. Pain reverberated up my spine.

The world spun, and bright lights flashed across my vision. All I could see was an endless expanse of inky-black sky riven with twinkling stars and a crescent-shaped moon.

From the window, Aaliyah materialized and began to float to the ground. Power thrummed through her like an electric current, and every hair on my body stood at attention.

She landed gracefully on the grass before me and smiled. “I’ve come to talk, sister.”

FIFTY-TWO

RYLAND

The capitol building had descended into chaos in a span of minutes.

After Lupe and I found Atta, Mali, and my father, we headed in the direction of the dungeons, planning to reconvene with the others.

Only to discover the entire world had gone to hell.

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