Savannah paused and bared her teeth. “Yeah. Me.”
His glacier-blue eyes flashed with bright light. “You are mine.”
Savannah screamed.
Reeling backward, she doubled over and dropped the talisman in the dirt.
What had he done?
I was at her side in a second, and I shouted at Sam, “Get the talisman! We need to go, now!”
Savy looked up with a distant and volatile expression.
My blood curdled. Something wasn’t right.
Savy’s fangs released, and her body began to quake as she seemed to struggle against it. Violence and rage flashed in her eyes, and before I could react, she tore free of my hands. Her claws burst from her fingers, and she lunged for Sam. “You will pay!”
Sam screamed in surprise as Savy struck her, and she stumbled back, landing in the dirt. Four red gashes of torn flesh glistened from Sam’s chest. Horror and pain cut her face, and she looked up at Savy in disbelief.
Fuck.
I dove for Savy as she dove for Sam, clamping my arms around her like iron bands. But her free arm swung wide, and she sank her claws straight into Sam’s neck.
The color drained from Sam’s face as blood streamed down her front, and yet, she still struggled to free Savy’s hand from her throat.
“Stop! That’s Sam,” I growled, as I tried to pull Savy free without hurting Sam. Savannah’s skin was hot and trembling, and her signature had changed. She wasn’t present any longer. The Dark God had taken over.
I poured my magic into her, letting my alpha signature envelope us. “Let her go, Savy. Now.”
A cry tore from her throat, and her body trembled. I sensed her magic fighting against that of the Dark God’s. I kept my touch firm and gentle and pushed more of my magic into her. “Come back to us, Savy. Come back to me.”
She contorted her spine and squeezed her eyes shut, then screamed as she released her grip. Sam stumbled back with a gasp, and then her legs buckled.
“Oh, my God…” Savy whispered, and sank to her knees. She blinked a few times, as if clearing a haze from her eyes. “What have I done, Jax?”
A roar of rage tore through us as the Dark God bellowed in his cage. There was a resounding crack, and streams of light began pouring from fractures in his golden prison.
We had seconds before he broke free.
Savannah frantically crawled to Sam’s body. Blood flowed from her neck, pooling under her shoulder in the mud.
“Savy!” I seized the Moon’s talisman and tossed it to her the moment she looked up. “We’re in the Dreamlands. If she falls unconscious, she’ll be transported to gods know where! Get us out of here!”
She caught it, and with tears streaming down her face, she shouted the words of the spell. The sky tore open as a shimmering silver portal formed.
The air shook as the golden sphere groaned and cracked again. Rays of light streamed around us as the Dark God began to break through the wall of magic. Fuck!
Savy helped me carefully lift Sam’s limp body from the mud, and we rushed through the portal as the golden sphere exploded behind us, followed by a deafening roar.
We hurled through the ether and stumbled out into the temple in Delos, covered with blood and mud.
The Moon leapt up from a recliner that hadn’t been there before. “What happened?”
“Help us!” Savannah shouted. “She’s dying!”
The loremaster hobbled over. “My dear Sam, no!”
“Put her down!” the Moon commanded.
I brought Sam over to the recliner. Her arm slumped over the edge, and a glistening trail of blood streaked down her fingertips, dripping onto the stones below. The blood flow from her neck had slowed, and she wasn’t breathing.
The Moon knelt and traced her hands over Sam’s body, then shook her head. “It’s too late. She’s too far gone.”