Page 51 of Brutal Alpha Bully

“You go back to my place—” I start, but Phina cuts me off as we move together, heading toward the high school parking lot.

“No,” Phina says, her voice and face stormy. “I’m looking for my kid.”

Soren raises his eyebrows, glancing between us. I bite my tongue, knowing I’d fight back against that order, too. But I hatehaving her out here, hate knowing that something could happen to her.

“Fine,” I growl, “but stay close to me.”

“Xeran,” Kalen says, cutting me off. “You need to listen to me. I know where she is.”

I stop, staring at him, questions piling up in my head. But there’s only one that really matters. “Well, where is she?”

“At the ridge,” he says, swinging his arm in the direction of the ridge that makes up half this town’s name. “Declanwasinvolved with the fires, X, and it—”

But all I’ve heard is that Declan has Nora, and I can’t stand around talking anymore. “Come on.” I push past him, knowing he’s frustrated, but I can’t stay still. “Tell me on the way.”

Chapter 26 - Seraphina

The climb to Silverville feels endless. Xeran moves ahead of me like a man possessed, his sense guiding us through the smoke-filled darkness. Behind me are Kalen and Soren.

Each step sends jolts of pain through my exhausted body. I know that I’ve already pushed myself too hard tonight. My hands shake with magical depletion, and there’s a ringing in my ears that tells me I’m close to burnout.

It’s the same thing I heard right before blasting Tanner Sorel into that tree. Before crumpling to the ground, my consciousness blinking to black.

As we move, I can’t stop myself from thinking of another time I was on this ridge. More than ten years ago, with four other girls.

Fighting. Crying. Having no idea what was happening until the first burst of daemonic energy ripped through the air, hitting the trees and gripping them, setting the leaves alight.

That first daemonic fire, the energy ripping up from under the crust of the earth, startlingly blue, so potent the air crackled around us, turned my saliva bitter and metallic. I had no idea what was going on—other than the fact that it seemed like our group was falling apart—but whatever happened that day seemed to open up a fissure, allow the constant pressure of the daemonic energy around us a path into our little town.

Aurela had cried. Valerie had run away. And I watched, screaming for her to stop, for her to be careful, as the fifth member of our group laughed and dipped her hands into the writhing, oily blue flames.

“There.”

Xeran stops, pulling me out of the memories, and I realize my hands are shaking harder now from my mental detour.

Our group comes to a stop, and Xeran points through the haze, and I can only barely make out figures at the top of the ridge, looking for all the world like they’re just waiting for us to appear.

“They’re waiting for us,” Kalen says, speaking my thoughts out loud. “They knew we would come.”

Xeran glances at him, and I realize Kalen hasn’t been able to tell Xeran his important thing in the truck. It was too loud and too tense, with Xeran trying to dodge debris in the road, fires raging outside on all sides.

As though realizing this as well, Xeran turns to his brother. “What’s going on?”

“I was trying to tell you—”

“Xeran! Kalen!” Declan’s voice booms through the space, magnified by something, and the sound of it makes a shudder run up my spine. “Don’t be shy—come on up here. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

The look on Xeran’s face is murderous, and when we move closer, the smoke lessening from an all-out blackout to a haze, I’m able to make out the shapes of the other Sorels. Farris and Dallas. Even Tanner, who looks at me with an apathy just this side of rage.

They’re all standing near the edge of the ridge, far closer than I would ever dare to stand. And when we get close enough, I can make out the shape of something smaller.

My daughter.

“Nora!”

“Uh-uh,” Declan warns, and I realize he has something in his hand. A knife. Pressed to her throat. “Not another step closer!”

Fear and anger and protectiveness roll through me with the speed of a shockwave. My body moves on its own accord, but Xeran reaches out, putting a hand on me and holding me back.

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