“I knew she was a plant from the moment she showed up in the middle of one of my missions. I was just trying to see how much information I could get out of her before I gutted the bitch. I never thought… Shit, can you get the others?”

  I shook my head. “The bonds are all muted.” And the emptiness hurt.

  “Have you still got your bracelet?”

  “What’s Daron’s bracelet got to do with anything?”

  Bane rolled his eyes. “Have you got it?”

  I nodded, running my thumb along the silver that hung below the cuffs on my wrist. “I never take it off.” I couldn’t without Daron’s help, and that had obviously been why it remained whilst the barrier ring on my horn had disappeared.

  Fraxis would have known about the ring from the exam where it had been the only thing that protected me from Circe’s gunshot. Blaze had never figured out how she got a gun into the exam in the first place, but now I realised that Fraxis had likely provided it for her. It must have been easy for Circe’s father to ask a favour of another Syndicate member and give his daughter an edge.

  “Good. Did they know you were taken?” Bane snapped me out of my thoughts with his words.

  “I don’t know I—”

  The sound of footsteps on stone returned and both of our heads snapped up. The Incubus, Fintan, shuffled into view, eyes still fixed to the floor.

  “Let us go,” I pleaded with him. “Please, you’re like me. You have to let us out.”

  He stared through the bars, but Bane spoke before Fintan could. “He’s sold his soul to them already. He won’t help us. My father told me some of the Incubi and Succubae pledged allegiance to the Syndicate rather than be purged with the others.” He looked at Fintan and spat at him. “Coward.”

  I ignored Bane because something in my gut was telling me that Fintan was important. “Please.”

  “Do you know another Tester?” Fintan’s words were whisper-soft and hoarse, his demand so quiet I could barely hear him. “A female with my gift and scarlet hair. Do you know one?” He had a strange accent that sounded almost nordic, but his voice was so crusty from disuse that it was hard to tell.

  Did he mean Rina? I hesitated before replying. “I do.” The moment I said the words, my head started to itch, and I cursed the cuffs that prevented me from scratching as I so desperately wanted to.

  Without a word he turned and shuffled away, and I stared after him as the itch on my head slowly morphed into a burn in my horns. With a pained gasp, I toppled over. Feeling the skin of my scalp rip once again as my horns grew.

  “Lilith?” Bane reached through the bars, but I shook my head.

  “It’s my horns.” I grimaced as the pain flashed bright. “Why can’t there be a less painful method of the Strange God expressing his approval?” My horns felt heavy on my head, and I tried to focus on how odd the weight was instead of how much they hurt.

  Bane gave me a small, grim smile. “Well, at least he finds something in this fucked up situation worth approving of.”

  “Distract me,” I muttered, my eyes watering.

  He flounders for a second, finally blurting, “I’m leaving the Resistance.”

  My head snapped up. “Why would you do that?”

  “I told them I was at the beginning of this year. I’ve only stayed this long because I thought I’d try and get whatever information I could out of Lucinda before I left. I know my duties as a Knight require me to focus on keeping you safe above all else, something I appear to be doing a right shite job of right now.”

  I shook my head, sighing as the pain began to dull, turning into a steady throbbing ache. “I don’t want you to give up the Resistance for me. I was going to let you leave, you looked like you were happy with Lucinda… I don’t want you to give up anything to be with me.”

  Bane caught my eye and gave me a look that ignited my blood despite the dire situation we were in. “I know what I want. I’ve known it since I first figured out you were my mate. I know I need to apologise, and I have no doubt Aeron and Blaze will want to box my ears before they let me near you again. But when we get out of here, you have to know I will do whatever it takes to get you to give me another chance.”

  “If we get out of here…” I muttered, as the sound of Lucinda’s shoes echoed once again and we both turned to look in the direction of the noise.

  “Lucinda, you have me. Let Lilith go,” Bane began the instant she came into view, Fintan following quietly behind her.

  She let out a little sigh. “You know, dearie, I really would, but I have orders and depriving Fraxis of a trophy just doesn’t go well. He may be a brute, but he’s useful and he does deserve a reward or two every now and again.” She flicked a gaze behind her at the Incubus. “Fintan, grab the Succubus.”

  The door to my cell was unlocked and I shuffled backwards awkwardly. He caught me easily, lifting me up by my arms with a surprising amount of care. When I was standing, I felt something small and cold press into my palm and I barely had time to clench my fingers around it before I was shoved out of the cell.

  “Let her go, Lucinda, or I will fucking end you!” Bane roared.

  Lucinda just smiled, skipping up to me and grasping my chin, staring at me. “You know I really don’t see what you see in her, dearie. But I suppose pesky mating bonds aren’t really a matter of choice, are they? Don’t worry, after she’s out of the picture we’ll get some more one-on-one time.”

  She said the last words with a purr in her voice that made my heart drop as I stared between the two of them... surely, she couldn’t be suggesting what I thought she was? Mating bonds made couples monogamous, Kain had proved that, but Bane said nothing. Instead, he rammed himself against the bars of his cell, roaring for me. Lucinda barely spared him a glance. Instead she flicked another, stronger PK missile at him and giggled when he was slammed against the wall again. When she let me go and started walking away, I stared at Bane, unmoving on the ground, until Fintan forced me forward until I couldn’t see him anymore.

  As we walked, I felt the tiny object he’d passed me. It was a key, but I couldn’t find any keyhole in the cuffs on my wrists. Fintan kept guiding me forwards till we reached a door which Lucinda skipped through, leaving me to follow reluctantly, a sense of dread filling my veins with every step.

  Chapter 28

  The light of the dawn outside made me blink after the darkness of the cells. Fear settled like a stone in my stomach as I spotted Fraxis sitting on a bloodstained, wooden block, sharpening an axe. Beyond him, the sun was rising over the endless blue of the ocean, and my brain struggled to comprehend the contrast between the beauty of that and the macabre executioner's block.

  We were at some kind of coastal fort, the blue of the sea before me just visible over the parapet. The sound of gulls and the crash of waves would have been pleasant if not for Lucinda’s inane chatter rising above it and the noise of the axe against the whetstone. It was the first time I had ever seen the sea, and the wonder of the moment was completely spoilt by the people responsible for my seeing it.

  Fintan forced me forward, as I fumbled desperately with the metal, searching for the hole that would fit the tiny key. Fraxis leapt up as he saw me, his expression so gleeful that I struggled against Fintan, almost dropping the key in the process.

  The moment I got close to the block, Fraxis kicked my legs out from under me, and I landed with jarring force on my knees, crying out as the shock of hitting the stone reverberated through my entire body.

  “After you get your trophy you will be patient,” Lucinda reminded him over my crouched figure. Fraxis’ boot settled on my back, keeping me in place, and she obviously felt her warning hadn’t sunk in enough because she continued. “I need the information from the rebel before you turn her in to the Grand Master.”

  “Yes, yes.” Fraxis didn’t seem to be really listening, instead he wrestled my head to one side.

  Where the hell was the keyhole, I wondered as I thrashed against the boot on my back and the hand pressing my head to the block. I fumbled again and almost jumped in surprise when I found the tiniest indent with my thumb on the inside of the cuff.

  “Hold her still, I don’t want her ruining it by moving,” Fraxis snapped as I struggled to find the hole with the tip of the key.

  Before I could do anything, my head was encased in a shield. It held me down against the block without any room to wriggle, and I almost dropped the key as my body writhed, trying to free my skull.

  “Fintan, open the door, I want Bane to hear this.” Lucinda’s voice was almost bored as I finally managed to slip the key into the lock.

  I was just about to turn it when I heard the strangest thud, right by my ear. Followed the clatter of stone on stone.

  It wasn’t until I felt wetness pooling around my face that I realised Fraxis had taken off my left horn. The shock was enough to rob me of breath, but the pain and reality didn’t sink in for a few blessed moments.

  But when they did, I screamed.

  I screamed and screamed till my voice gave out and Fraxis turned my head to the other side. I could hear Bane yelling for me, the sound blending with the roaring of blood in my ears. Above all those noises was Lucinda’s high-pitched giggle.

  Once again immobilised, the key was still in the lock, but it was like all my muscles were locked in place. I barely managed to move it before the second thunk of the axe into wood heralded the loss of my second horn.

  The world was silent for the strangest moment as I watched it bounce to the stone in front of me and Fraxis pick it up. I’d thought I couldn’t scream anymore, until I watched him lift both horns to his head and mockingly press them against his own scalp.

  A screech, born of all the fury left in me, erupted from my lungs. The force of it gave me enough strength to finally turn the key.

  The moment the cuffs fell off my power erupted, reaching out of me towards the two people responsible for my anger.

  As one, Lucinda and Fraxis turned to face me, their eyes going hooded and slack as I pushed myself up into a standing position. They moved closer like puppets on strings, my power like siren song drawing them in.

  “Kiss me,” I whispered, my voice hoarse.

  They both reached for me at the same time, almost butting heads before I caught their power with my own and yanked it from them. My power gorged on the two, and I didn’t have the presence of mind to stop it, or the will to keep it from guzzling down the feast that Fraxis and Lucinda presented.

  My head burned, and I heard voices around me, but I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Lucinda was the first to fall to the floor, she’d been young, with only a fraction of the power I was yanking from Fraxis. With her corpse discarded at my feet, I savoured the power from my other prey, trying to use the pleasure and bliss of devouring his energy to cancel out the ever-growing pain in my head. The more I took the more I wanted, and the familiar whirlwind of addiction tugged at me, urging me to take more.

  It took a long time for him to crumple, and with the loss of his power as a distraction, the pain burst to the forefront of my mind. The world spun, or maybe I did. It all blurred, the strange combination of power and exhaustion flooding every cell and conspiring against me.

  The last thing I felt was a tearing sensation across my back and a warm set of arms and the scent of rain on the sea surrounding me.

  Chapter 29

  I woke to a purring in my chest.

  All seven mating bonds were vibrating with pleasure, the calming sensation overpowering the uncomfortable, lumpy surface I was lying on and the crick in my neck. It was heaven, and I luxuriated in the feeling for a few seconds before my brain kicked in. All seven bonds... Bane’s wall was down.

  I jolted upright, terrifyingly aware that I had no idea what had happened after I passed out. My eyes snapped open, taking in the familiar black walls and huge window of Enzo’s Parisian apartment. The sound of my own short, sharp breaths filled my ears as though I’d run for miles and something heavy on my back tried to drag me back to the mattress beneath me.

  Onyx and Ivory both leapt into the air, hovering in front of me and stroking gently at my face with tiny hands. Seeing them with their horns reminded me of what I’d lost, and I let out a tiny shuddering whimper. My head felt so heavy, and I couldn’t control the shaking of my fingers as I reached up to where my horns had once been.

  The motion was halted as the door crashed inwards and all seven of my mates crowded around the bed.

  “Lilith, you’re awake.” Jin leapt for me, only to hold himself back as if scared of injuring me further.

  Kain had no such self-control, diving into the bed and pulling me to his side, lost for words as he pulled me close. Someone had washed me and redressed me in a black nightdress and the soft fabric got tangled in my legs as he dragged me onto his lap. Jin gave in pretty quickly, climbing carefully onto my other side and joining in on the hug.

  “You will never scare me like that again.” Blaze’s voice was so commanding that it made me shiver and drew my gaze to where he stood, flanked by Aeron and Enzo. My eyes sought out the final two, Daron and Bane were standing off to the side, and to my relief Bane looked completely healed.

  “Are you feeling okay?” Enzo asked. His face was completely unreadable, but the mating bond between us pulsed with the potency of his fear and relief.

  “My head’s a bit heavy… My back too,” I replied, surprised that my voice sounded so normal.

  His mouth twitched. “I can’t do much about that I’m afraid.” He reached into a shadow and pulled out a mirror. “But perhaps this might explain things.”

  Blaze snatched the mirror before Enzo could pass it to me. “She needs a bit of time to adjust.”

  “She needs to get it over with.” Enzo flicked his hand and the mirror sank back into shadow, reappearing on my lap.

  I grabbed it before any of the others could take it from me. Jin and Kain moved to give me some room and I smiled slightly at them, but the expression felt like a grimace as I tried to psyche myself up for what I was about to see. But whilst I had prepared myself to see two stumps on my head where my horns had once been, I was not prepared for what confronted me in the looking glass.

  “Four?” I whispered, raising a shaking hand to my head and feeling them for confirmation. “Four horns?”

  My previous horns were back, albeit missing the silver streak from Circe’s bullet, but they’d grown to almost the same thickness as my wrist, and underneath them a second, more slender pair of horns had grown, almost identical in shape to the top ones but not as long.

  Then my eyes caught on the slightest movement behind me. Two hooked talons curved over my shoulders, and they were connected to two strange, leathery poles, which seemed to be moving of their own accord … As my mind figured it out, the talons stretched outwards, flaring the two, small bat-like wings outwards for everyone in the room to see.

  For one heartbeat, I disbelieved what I was seeing. Then I remembered that last ripping pain along my spine before I had blacked out.

  “Shit,” I whispered, before I fainted.

  When I came to again, Jin was in bed with me, snuggling me. Although I was sure he had been asleep before, he woke almost as soon as I moved. His hand coming around to stroke my hair as his sleepy brown eyes stared into mine.

  “You okay?” He yawned, eyes sleepy as he blinked himself awake.

  I started to nod, then, because it was Jin and he would know it was a lie, I shook my head instead.

  “Oh, Pet.” He pulled me flush against him, rubbing my lower back in comforting circles. “I’m so sorry we weren’t there.”

  “I can still hear them,” I confessed against his warm chest. “My horns bounced off the floor and he picked them up and wore them while she just laughed.” I shuddered.

  Jin just hugged me harder. “We got there as soon as we knew where you were.”

  “You caught me when I fell,” I remembered.

  “We were so caught up looking for Bane that we only knew you were missing when Nelly ran into Blaze’s office to tell us. Whatever they did to our mating bonds made it so that we couldn’t find you, and Enzo nearly lost his head before Daron pulled out his tablet and told us he could track you.”

  “Track me?”

  “I’ll let him tell you about it.” Jin smirked, as though he found the idea of Daron explaining humorous. “He got the co-ordinates and Kain and Enzo took us all straight to you just as you finished off Lucinda.”

  I shuddered at the reminder. “Is Bane okay?”

  “Yes, we found him quickly after we got to you and we finally pulled all of the details out of him about Lucinda. Aeron gave him a complete dressing down for being such an ass, but I think he’s got it out of his system… Blaze too. As soon as he was free, and Enzo had patched him up, he helped us clear the place of Syndicate guards.”