Page 66 of Cry of Blood and Joy
Ari’s beautiful face twisted into an expression of pure contempt, his perfect features marred by centuries of hatred and resentment. “You’re an abomination,” he spat. “Not a pure blood, and soon you’ll be dethroned. The rightful order will be restored.”
Rightful order? Was he mad? What did that mean?
Horns grew out of her head as anger flashed in her eyes. “What?”
My God, what was she? I’d never seen anything like that. None of the other Dark Demons had done this.
“You’ll see, my dear,” Ari said with that same angelic, merciless smile, clearly savoring the moment. He lifted his hand and motioned with elegant fingers, the gesture casual but loaded with malicious intent.
The heavy sound of metal scraping against stone announced the arrival of something that made my blood run cold. Two guards struggled through the cathedral doorway, carrying between them a silver cage that gleamed wickedly inthe morning light. The metal was intricately worked but unmistakably designed for imprisonment, with bars thick enough to contain even supernatural strength.
“Put the king in there,” Ari commanded with casual authority, as if ordering coffee rather than the imprisonment of Dark Demon royalty.
The guards moved with brutal efficiency. They grabbed Gunnar—still bound by my shadows and weakened by whatever power had been used on him—and tossed him inside the cage like he was nothing more than a bag of flour. His powerful frame hit the silver bars with a metallic clang that echoed through the cathedral. He winced as the cursed metal made contact with his skin.
The cage door slammed shut with a sound like a coffin closing, and then came the definitive click of an enchanted lock being engaged. Gunnar immediately pressed himself against the far side of the cage, as far from the burning silver as possible, but there was nowhere to escape the metal’s touch entirely.
Ari smiled as if well pleased with himself. “Now he can’t escape.”
How could he be so evil? When would all of this end?
“Ari?” I looked at him with horror. “What... what are you planning to do?”
“Subdue her,” Ari commanded with casual dismissal, his tone carrying the same indifference someone might use when ordering a disobedient dog to heel. My cheeks burned with humiliation and rage.
Marsha approached with predatory satisfaction, the cursed silver bracelets gleaming wickedly in her hands like instruments of torture. “My pleasure,” she purred, clearly relishing the opportunity to strip away what little freedom I’d briefly tasted. The metal was ice-cold against my already raw skin as sheclamped the restraints around my wrists with unnecessary force, the enchanted silver immediately beginning its familiar burn.
The moment the bracelets locked into place, my connection to the shadows severed completely. The absence of my power was like losing a limb—a hollow, aching void where my magic used to live. My knees nearly buckled from the sudden weakness that flooded through my system.
Ari’s piercing blue eyes turned toward me with calculated interest, and for a moment I saw something that might have been amusement dancing in their crystalline depths. The expression on his devastatingly perfect face suggested this degrading display was only the opening act of whatever nightmare he had so carefully orchestrated.
“Gunnar Khan betrayed his people by allowing mixed bloodlines to mingle with pure demon heritage,” he declared with the fervor of a religious zealot. His hands gestured expansively as he spoke, as if he were delivering a sermon rather than outlining genocide. “I plan to restore the natural order that has been corrupted by his weakness. The Dark Demon race will soon be pure bloods once again, and we will take our rightful place ruling over all the supernatural races.”
He was like a beautiful, insane preacher from some horror novel, wanting to remake the world according to his twisted vision of perfection. The worst part was the absolute conviction in his voice—he truly believed he was saving his people rather than destroying them.
And to my eternal shame, I was helping him. My shadows had been the instrument of Gunnar and Ebony’s capture. My magic had made this nightmare possible.
Disgust at my actions made me feel sick to my core. The humid bayou air felt thick and suffocating in my lungs, heavy with the scent of stagnant water and my own overwhelming guilt.
Enzo, where are you? The desperate thought echoed through my mind like a prayer, even though I knew that his arrival would only complete Ari’s trap. But I needed him—needed his strength, his fierce protectiveness, his unwavering determination to keep me safe. Without him, I was just a broken tool in a madman’s hands.
Chapter Forty-Three
Enzo
I wasn’t fast enough. The massive cathedral doors slammed shut with a resounding boom, the sound reverberating through my bones with finality. My heart plummeted into my stomach as I realized I’d been seconds too late. I changed back into human form mid-stride, my body reforming with urgent desperation. “Damn it!” The curse tore from my throat, raw with frustration and self-recrimination.
Rose landed beside me with elegance, her blonde hair whipping around her face as she immediately assessed the situation with keen intelligence. “They’re in there, aren’t they?” Panic flared in her eyes, but she squared her shoulders with determination.
“Yes.” The single word felt like admitting defeat. Joy was in there, trapped with that monster, slipping further and further away from me.
The Unseelie harpies descended from the gray morning sky like predatory birds, dropping their passengers with surprising gentleness. Keir, Nyx, and Lorcan landed in the marshyground with fluid grace their supernatural reflexes making the potentially bone-breaking fall look effortless.
“Nyx, Lorcan, scout the perimeter,” Keir commanded with quiet authority, his eyes already calculating tactical approaches to the decrepit building. “Look for any weaknesses, secondary entrances, anything we can exploit.”
As his lieutenants melted into the surrounding cypress trees like winter fog, Keir came alongside me with that otherworldly calm that both reassured and infuriated me. “Any sign of them before the doors closed?”
I paced back and forth in the muddy ground, my boots squelching in the boggy earth as nervous energy coursed through my system like electricity. I was ready to tear through stone and steel to reach Joy. “The doors shut just as Rose and I landed. We were so damn close.”
