Page 46 of Reaper Unhinged
He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me to his chest. “I fucking love you, Fee. More than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. Please, don’t put yourself in the line of fire like that again.”
His tone was calm, but his heart was thundering against my cheek.
I slipped my hands up his back and clasped him to me. My breasts were squished against his hard torso. The contact was warming and soothing, and for a moment, I allowed myself to imagine we were back at quarters and everything was in order—no looming war, no quest for a queen, nothing but the regular grind.
Keon’s victim’s shrill scream of pain pierced my head.
I pulled sharply away from Mal, stomach churning as the scream tapered off into a gurgle. “How can he do it? Hurt someone so coldly?”
“He’s not Lilith’s Blade for nothing,” Mal said.
But I’d seen the vulnerable side of him, the soft side, the side that could save a life, not take it. “It’s just so brutal. He’s so brutal.”
“I have something,” Keon said from behind us. His tone was even and cold.
I looked at his blood-spattered face. He leaned his head to the side and regarded me evenly.
“He’s a grunt. Doesn’t know details but had a location. Something he overheard.” He dragged his attention from me to Mal. “The pit.”
“Fuck.” Mal blew out an angry breath.
“What? Wait…Weren’t the circles called the pit?”
“Maybe as a nickname a long time ago,” Mal said. “But the real pit is several hundred miles north from the keep. It’s a no-man’s land. Nothing survives there, and the air is toxic.”
“Sounds like the perfect place to hide out.”
Azazel and Conah joined us.
“We never considered it as an option,” Conah said. “Not many daemons or demons can process the air there.”
“Mammon obviously can,” Mal said.
“Lilith would be able to,” Keon said.
“And he could have the others on Limarax,” Conah said.
“Oh, shit,” Mal added.
“What’s Limarax?”
“A rare herb that can counter the effects of the toxic elements in the air,” Conah explained. “We’ll need to harvest and create a tincture.”
“How long?” Azazel asked.
“From what I recall, it can take a week to steep; that, coupled with the time it would take to locate and harvest…probably ten days to two weeks.”
Two weeks? “We can’t do nothing for two weeks.” I looked from Conah to Keon. “Mammon has Lilith. He could attack Imperium at any time.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Conah said. “We need the tincture to go after her.”
“I might not need it,” Azazel said.
Mal rolled his eyes. “You’re not a one-man army, Az. We need to play this smart.”
Azazel made a sound of exasperation. “Fortify the city and find plans of the pit.”
“I’ll get on it,” Conah said. “You should get back to quarters. Rest up, and I’ll send a phoenix when the tincture is ready.”
