ChapterTwo
SUNDAY
Tears tracked down my cheeks as I watched Alek step through the portal. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared, as though he had never existed, as though he hadn’t taken a piece of me with him. Grief and anger swelled, breaking me open until I was nothing but a tempest of white-hot fury.
I raged, thrashing in Caleb’s hold as I tried to chase after Alek, even knowing it was too late. He was gone. Somewhere I couldn’t follow.
The emptiness was unbearable.
“A stor, you need to calm down.”
“No, you just let them take him.”
Wrath boiled to the surface, and before I could stop myself, I slapped him. Needing someone else to hurt the way I was hurting. Needing an outlet for this all-consuming rage.
I’d never been so furious in my entire life.
Caleb staggered back, but even seeing the pink imprint of my hand on his cheek wasn’t enough to satisfy the beast in me. With a scream of primal fury, I spun around, eyeing the pile of demon bits on the ground. Still shrieking, I grabbed a dripping torso and hurled it blindly. Nothing helped.
I reached for another piece of demon, but a hand with the strength of iron shackles caught me around the wrist and yanked, pulling me roughly into a hard chest. The scent of incense met my nose. Caleb.
His hands lifted, cradling my face.
“Look at me,a stor.”
My ruined tattoo ached from where Chad had dragged the dagger through it. The connection I felt with Alek was gone, broken, severed. The uncontrollable urge to destroy the world around me had my body on edge, the lust for blood and revenge making my limbs shake.
“I said, look at me.”
My gaze found Caleb’s, and I fell into the drowning pools of his sapphire-blue irises. Calm bled through me as the fury burning in my veins evaporated. We didn’t speak. I couldn’t. All I knew was the pure peace of being held by Caleb’s power.
“What the bloody hell is going on? I’ve heard of raining cats and dogs, but I draw the line at body parts.” Noah’s voice broke the suspended moment, calling my attention back to the chaos around me and the spot where he burst through the brush. His gaze locked on mine and immediately turned serious. “What’s happened? I smell your blood, but it looks as though they’ve been dealt with.”
“They have,” Kingston answered, coming to my side. “Are you all right, Sunshine?”
“No. Of course I’m not fucking all right. They took him away from me.”
Kingston scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck, bruises already forming around his throat. “Maybe they were right to. You saw how out of control he was. He didn’t even recognize me, Sunshine. The look in his eyes... fuck, I thought it was lights out for me.”
I swallowed, knowing he had a point, but I was too pissed to care.
“We have to go get him. He can’t be gone. Help me find a way to Novasgard.” I turned back to Caleb. “You know a way, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Aye, I know of a gateway, but even if you could open it, you can’t go after him.”
“Yes, I fucking can.”
“No,a stor, he left willingly. You can’t bring him back if he doesn’t want to be here.”
And that was when it really hit me. He hadn’t been taken by his father against his will. Alek had walked through that portal and left me by his own choice. Heleftme.
All the desperation to go after him disappeared, replaced by a soul-weary ache.
“What did I miss?” Noah asked, looking between us, a deep crease forming between his brows.
“Alek turned into a berserker,” Caleb said. “We haven’t figured out what set him off yet.”
“Fucking Chad,” I spat. “He planned to sacrifice me.”