Despite it's monstrously martial exterior, the inside was surprisingly comfortable. The seats were made of butter-soft leather and there were screens in the backs of the seats in front to provide some kind of entertainment. I buckled in and waited as Rasz spoke quietly to his daughter before closing the door. It was strange being seated in the back like I was someone important. As Lilith's PA, I usually rode up front with the driver, but I was sure that would only make Nascia uncomfortable.

  She was silent as the door closed and she began the drive through the long, dark tunnel. It was slightly disconcerting, but I didn't mind. I slipped into a daydream as I waited for the darkness to end.

  Once it did, I wasn't disappointed.

  Blinding, snowy mountains surrounded the road like stony guardians. I had to blink several times to take them all in after being in the darkness for so long.

  “It's beautiful,” I whispered.

  Nascia nodded, clearly still not in the mood to talk. After a while, I began to feel uncomfortable with the silence.

  “You don't like me much, do you?” I muttered.

  She shook her head. “I don't hate you.” Her words are so heavily accented that it's hard to understand, but she spoke English better than I assumed she would, given that she'd always allowed her father to translate for her before. “I hate my grandfather for putting me in this situation.”

  “And Neo too?” I guessed.

  She didn't deny it, and I felt a pang of sympathy for her. For some people, living their entire lives knowing their destiny has been decided for them would be a comfort. For someone as independent as Nascia, it must have been a personal kind of hell.

  “I will try to get him to dissolve the bargain,” I promised. “It's not fair on you, or your father.” Or her future child, who would be just as trapped by the bargain as she was.

  Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, but she said nothing. The car turned a corner and jerked to a stop. The seatbelt cut into me and the air whooshed from my lungs as Nascia braked, just in time to stop us colliding with the pile of dirt, rock and snow that covered the road.

  “Has there been an avalanche?” I asked, unbuckling the belt and leaning forward to take a closer look.

  That was when I finally got a good look at Nascia's face. Silent tear-tracks had carved wet paths down her cheeks, and her wide eyes were fixed on the covered road. She looked just as shocked as I was, probably more so.

  “It's okay, we'll just get out and clear it,” I soothed, opening the door and stepping out into the cold mountain air. “A bit of PK and we can have the road cleared in no time.”

  Nascia followed me out, but instead of moving toward the obstruction, she started backing away.

  “He'll never let us go,” she said, voice shaking.

  That was when my gut started telling me something was wrong.

  “What are you⁠—”

  “I'm sorry.”

  She took off at a run, just as a blast knocked me off my feet.

  “Ne—”

  I lost consciousness before I could finish my thought.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  When I came to, my head was ringing and all I could see was the darkness. It took several seconds of panicked confusion before I figured out they'd tied a bag over my head. My nostrils were filled with the scent of my own blood and sweat. I was tied, spread-eagle, to some kind of frame at my wrist, neck, and ankles, kept upright but unable to move.

  “The time has come,” an ominous voice announced. “The Whore has been discovered, and now, with this blade, I will cleanse this world with her blood. In her suffering, the Strange God will find salvation. In her death, He will be released from his mortal prison and be returned to his godly form.”

  The speaker must be Marcus, I guessed, grimacing and tugging at my bonds. There was no give in them. A shove outward with my power proved useless as well.

  They must have thought of that as well.

  With any attempt at escape looking unlikely, I reached for my mating bonds, only to panic when I couldn't sense them.

  Why couldn't I feel them?

  Oh god. Were Neo and Matteo still alive? How long was I out?

  I delved deeper, searching frantically, only to have my mind dragged back to the present by my fingers being forced open and crushed against the wood hard enough to bruise. I barely had time to brace myself before a line of fire spread across my palm.

  This was no ordinary wound. The more time passed, the sharper the burn became, until I couldn't hold back the tiny hitch in my breath. I bit my lip, trying to deny the urge to scream.

  Then he traced another cut into my hand.

  The sick bastard was drawing into my skin, I realised, by the third cut. I grimaced at the thought of yet more scars.

  What was on that knife? Each cut hurt more the longer it took.

  “Neo? Matteo?”

  No answer. I forced back a sob as I failed once more to clench my fingers closed and cut off the torment. I'd know if Neo and Matteo were dead. I'd feel it. I couldn't feel my power either, which must have meant they were using restraints designed to suppress demonic energy. The instant I was free, I'd feel them again.

  All I had to do was survive until Neo got here and rained hell on their asses.

  Which he would. I knew he would.

  “The first holy symbol is complete.” He let go of my fingers.

  Holy symbol?

  The seven-pointed star instantly came to mind. Cringing, I tried to close my hand around the wound, but it hurt too much.

  Anger flared, but I was too focused on holding back a scream to cuss them out like I wanted to. Was I not sufficiently covered in scars for this bastard? Hadn't I suffered enough?

  My anguish was cut short by the blade digging in again. This time Marcus started on what remained of my other arm, carving into the very end of my stump. Somehow, that was almost more painful than the palm of my hand had been.

  “Any time now, Neo,” I thought, grinding my teeth to stop myself from crying out.

  But the pain built. And built. Eventually, I had to let loose the shriek I was holding back. The noise echoed above the jeering of the crowd, the hood over my face doing almost nothing to muffle it.

  They only cheered harder as Marcus made his final cut and moved to the skin of my stomach. His hands roughly shoved up the hem of my shirt, exposing my midriff to the charged air.

  He didn't stop. My screams had turned to sobs by the time he moved from my stomach to my feet, repeating the process on both soles. A sixth star went just above my heart, and I screamed again as he cut right down to the bone.

  “Behold, the ritual is almost done!” Marcus announced, pulling away. “The final holy symbol will purify her corrupt soul before it is destroyed, and our Lord's place on the Shadow Throne is secure once more!”

  The hood was torn from my head, yanking more than a few strands of my hair out with it. Blinking through tears, I groaned at the brightly lit room I was being tortured in. Every wall was painted a blinding white and illuminated from multiple angles by floodlights.

  No shadows, I thought, dimly. All of the light was to stop Neo from travelling here using the shadow realm.

  I was tied to a wooden structure in the very middle of the crowd, surrounded by a shield that kept them from storming the stage. There must have been over two hundred demons watching Marcus's sick butchery of my body, all of them staring up at me with expressions of disgust and hatred.

  As for Marcus himself, he was dipping his blade into a bowl of some kind of foul-smelling brown paste. His classical, slick features were illuminated by the brightness, and I got my first, clear look at him as he turned to face me. Black hair and small eyes made him look shifty, but the charismatic smile he levelled at me was all charm. Desperate to look at anything else, I glanced at my hand, only to gag.

  Whatever that brown paste was, the wound on my hand had turned a fizzing, awful black. Dark branches of it were pulsing underneath my skin, which explained the pain that lingered. Poison, in case I somehow managed to escape.

  I breathed through the terror that threatened to overwhelm me. Poison was survivable. Neo could fix that. He had toxikinesis.

  But where was he?

  My eyes sought out the door, hoping and praying for my mate to come barging through it.

  Instead, my view was obstructed by Marcus, moving in front of me and grabbing my bangs to force my head back.

  His blade touched my forehead while his grip on my hair kept me still.

  Gathering all the strength I could muster, I pooled as much spit as I could in my mouth and launched it directly into his eyes.

  That sent him rearing back with a yell of disgust. Obviously, he'd expected me to just lie there and demurely let him carve into my face. Fuck that. His hand left my hair to slap me so hard that my ears rang and my mouth filled with blood.

  So I spat that at him next.

  I missed, disorientation and distance making my aim faulty. Instead, I ended up hitting the base of a pedestal I hadn't noticed before. My eyes travelled up it until they focused on the skull resting on a cushion at the top.

  Neo's skull!

  Marcus demanded my attention again as his hand grabbed my hair once more. He raised the knife, and I glared at him, daring him to do it. I could keep spitting all day. Fuck, I'd become an alpaca if that's what it took to keep him from cutting me again.

  Our silent war was interrupted by a boom that shook the building. As one, the crowd turned from Marcus to the door.

  I grinned. “Expecting someone?”

  Marcus's angry expression melted into fear.

  “Evacuate!” he called, turning away from me and heading for the skull on the pedestal.

  Too late.

  The doors flew open, thrown into the room by a wave of fire that consumed everything in its path. Destroying the floodlights and bathing the room in smoke and shadow.

  Some of the crowd turned to flee, sending PK blindly at the entrance like it would save them. But the figures who emerged from the fire were brandishing powers of their own. Tears slipped free as I recognised Lulu, Lilith, and their mates, but I only had eyes for Neo as he strode through the flames like the god he was. He ignored the battling demons all around the room and kept his burning eyes on the stage where Marcus was frozen.

  Of course, Marcus didn't have the sense to just give up and die. The knife in his hand came up to my throat, and I watched Neo's expression turn from furious to deadly in a matter of seconds.

  “She has to die, my Lord!” Marcus whimpered. “You'll thank me when you're free.”

  Neo strode through his shield as if it didn't exist and took his first step onto the stage.

  Marcus dug the knife deeper into my neck, then stopped. Every part of him went unnaturally still. His eyes moved frantically in a face that was slowly reddening, because his body wasn't even breathing. Neo held him that way until his face had turned a deep puce before allowing him to breathe once more.

  Marcus's arms moved like a robot and his blade left my neck and moved to his own hand. Without blinking, Marcus sliced off his own finger.

  Neo didn't let him scream. Instead, the cult leader stood silently in the middle of a battleground, mutilating himself, finger by finger.

  “You deserve to die slowly for what you've done,” Neo said, once only his thumb remained. “But I also don't think you deserve to breathe the same air as my mate.”

  At that, Marcus whimpered, the sound pathetic and quiet as the knife in his hand moved to his own abdomen.

  He stabbed himself once. Twice. Three times, then took the knife to his neck and drew the blade across the vein there. A fountain of blood coated the white floor when Neo was done, glinting in the flames.

  Neo regarded the corpse for a second, then, with a flick of his wrist, turned it to ashes. He barely spared Marcus's corpse another glance as he rushed to my side.

  “Cornelia,” he whispered, tearing away the metal cuffing me to the wooden frame with one hand. “You are never, ever leaving our home again. Now stay still. I have to heal you.”

  I sighed, a single tear leaking from the corner of my eye as our bond sprang back into its rightful place. I couldn't say anything as I let him lift me down with a wince. All I could focus on was the checking on the two bonds, relief filling me when I saw that Matteo's was still there, although incredibly weak.

  He crouched over me, fingers tracing the marks Marcus had left on me with a quiet fury that pulsed down our bond. As I watched, the black liquid ran away from my body like water, pooling on the ground.

  “The poison is gone,” Neo said, not letting go of me as he stood once more, carrying me over to where the others were just finishing off the last of the cultists. “I'll heal the rest when we return to the fortress. You won't have any scars.”

  “Wait,” I groaned, turning my head back to the pedestal. “Your skull.”

  At my words, it disappeared, shadows enveloping it.

  “I've got it.” His voice was rough with disbelief, but further conversation was cut off by my twin and my best friend swarming us.

  Lu and Lilith were both surrounded by a group of their men, but Aeron, Jin, and Kain remained across the room, arguing over who had the most kills. Bane was with them, but he wasn't taking part in the competition. He was focused on searching the bodies, probably looking for trinkets to refuel his power.

  “Nelly! Oh shit,” Lilith gasped, then frowned in concentration. Within seconds, the lingering pain I felt disappeared.

  I grinned at her. “You're so good at doing that.”

  I felt Neo's displeasure down the bond, but I knew it wasn't at Lilith for helping me. It was frustration that he hadn't thought of doing it first. I locked eyes with him and sent a soothing wave of my own relief and happiness at him. I was rewarded with a rare half-smile.

  “They're making eyes at each other,” Lulu stage-whispered to Lilith, leaning back into Dorian.

  “I think they might need a room,” Lilith agreed, giving me a wink.

  “A few people escaped.” Daron cut through their byplay. “I've got their faces on the building's CCTV, and I can put contracts on them⁠—”

  Enzo shook his head, bending down to pick a large flake of ash out of his fluffy slippers. “Why on earth would you waste our hard-earned money when we have an in-house assassin for these kinds of things?”

  Lulu and I exchanged a look, and I knew she was thinking what I was. My tongue burned with the need to tell him about Matteo. Only my mate's insistence held me back.

  So I was surprised when Neo interrupted. “You will have other demands on your time shortly.”

  Enzo speared my mate with a look of pure disdain. “My mate made me agree not to kill you…”

  “I'm aware you're angry, but there's a high likelihood your brother will be returned to you within the week,” Neo retorted. “Killing Marcus has given me the final pieces I need to create my own body. When I leave his body, I hope that Matteo will return fully healed and alive.”

  Enzo was stunned into silence for a long second before Lilith nudged him.

  “I'm not about to thank you,” he muttered.

  Neo's grin was fast and savage, and I could tell whatever he was about to say would probably just anger Enzo further, so I cut in.

  “The building is still on fire,” I noted, dryly. “Maybe we should get out of here before we start another fight?”

  Lilith snorted. “Good plan. I say we burn the building to the ground before we leave, as a message. Blaze?”

  Her enormous Wrath mate nodded once. “I'll take care of it.”

  Neo nodded. “I'm taking Cornelia home to heal her wounds.”

  “I'm coming too,” Lu insisted.

  I thought Neo would disagree, but instead, he gave my sister and her mates a curt nod. “Now that the main threat has passed, my mate's family is welcome.”

  “Lilith too?” I pressed.

  “Actually, we're going to get back to honeymooning,” Kain interrupted with a lazy grin, breaking away from the huddle he, Aeron, and Jin had been in to join our group. “Not that a good fight against a crazy cult wasn't fun, but I had plans for our girl...”

  I raised a brow at Lilith, who looked slightly guilty as she blushed and looked away.

  “Go. Enjoy the rest of your honeymoon. When you come back, you can visit Neo's icy castle of solitude.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Once back at the Fortress, Neo wasted no time in healing me. It took him a while, the poison having wreaked havoc with the wounds, but he kept his promise to remove my scars, then insisted on making me rest, even though he'd healed me himself and knew I was fine.

  My twin kept me entertained. Now that she was finally free to explore the fortress, Hadrian and Dorian had their work cut out for them. On her way to bring me coffee, she somehow stumbled on the armoury. She returned clutching a dagger that looked like it had fallen out of the thirteenth century.

  That Rasz hadn't been the one to deliver coffee worried me more than I could say. I had no idea how much he'd known about Nascia's plot, but I doubted it was much, if anything. The idea that he could be languishing in Neo's dungeon disturbed me more than I wanted to admit.

  But Neo wouldn't discuss a betrayal that personal in front of my sister and her mates. So I waited until that night, when he'd shown them to a guest room, to press him with my questions in privacy.

  “Nascia—” I began, cuddling up to him in bed.

  “Is dead.” He didn't cushion the blow, and I grimaced against his chest. Sure, she'd betrayed me, but it didn't mean I hadn't felt sympathy for her. “It wasn't my doing,” he continued. “Marcus's men beheaded her and left her body in the avalanche. Rasz requested a few days to mourn her, and I granted it.”

  “She told Marcus where to find me,” I admitted. “She didn't want to be trapped in the same bargain her family had been.”

  Neo's arms tightened around me. “I know. She left a note of confession for her father in her room. I believe she planned to go on the run until she was certain I was no longer a threat and she wouldn't have to face any reprisals for her actions…” He paused, sighed and then kissed the top of my head. “Perhaps I should have granted your request to release her from the deal when I first brought you here, but I couldn't afford to lose the power I was generating from their centuries-old bargain when I was funnelling so much of it to heal Matteo. When I made the bargain, I was thinking of a safe place to raise our family. I didn't look too closely at the Web of Fate to see the consequences of the decision.”