I ripped my cloak from my neck and tossed it over the couch. “Where’s Zeph?” He should be awake by now. Hell, he shouldn’t have passed out to begin with.
I should have known Shade was up to something.
He’d disappeared with Aflora, and Zeph had collapsed a second later, distracting me from trying to follow Shade. Not that I could. His penchant for shadows was a magic very few of our kind could replicate, including those like me who were tied directly to the source.
“We put him in your bed,” Tray said, following me as I headed toward my bedroom. “Talk to me, Kols.”
I glanced over my shoulder to find Ella lingering silently behind him and shook my head. I’d already accidentally brought my brother into this. I wasn’t going to jeopardize her life, too.
“She already knows everything, Kols.” Tray folded his arms. “And I’ve spelled the suite to cancel out any potential listening devices. Start talking.”
“We should wake up Zeph first,” a dry voice said seconds before Shade appeared in the hallway.
“You.” I lunged at him, only to hit the wall as he shadowed behind me.
“Calm down,” he drawled, sounding bored.
“Calm down?” I repeated, spinning toward him. “Are you fucking kidding me? You drop a bomb on me about a Quandary Blood mate and disappear, and you expect me to be calm?” I wanted to kill him. Power singed my fingertips as I considered my options.
First, I needed him to stop fucking vanishing.
Then I could force answers out of him.
Because this whole game of piecemeal details? Yeah, we weren’t going to play that anymore.
Shade’s eyebrows lifted half a second before I unleashed a bolt of power directly into his sternum, disabling his ability to move, think, or breathe.
But that little tell of his eyebrow shift told me he’d seen it coming. Which further added to my theory about his fortune-telling abilities. Yet another item I wanted—
A jolt radiated through my blood, sending me to my knees as Shade retaliated far faster than he should have been able to react. Fuck!
I yanked on the source, preparing another attack as he phased behind me again.
He shouldn’t have been able to do that.
He should have been knocked out, on his ass, for at least another—
“Fine. We’ll do it your way,” he said against my ear. Then his teeth sank into my neck, causing me to sputter out a surprised curse.
I couldn’t move, ensnared by whatever spell he’d woven around me.
Sir Kristoff charged into the suite, energy flaring around him as he engaged the ancient magic only his kind could tap into. Shade fell to the floor beside me, groaning at whatever torment my gargoyle had just unleashed on him. Then Tray trapped the Death Blood beneath a net of power that Ella enhanced with another spell.
I curled into myself, the lasting effects of Shade’s attack slowly withering and dying beneath a shock of reality.
He’d bitten me.
The bastard had fucking bonded me!
My lips parted as a slew of furious statements lined up on my tongue, only for a Paradox Fae to appear with a glowing purple sword. “Again?” he asked, his tone bored.
“N-no,” Shade choked out, his body convulsing beside mine.
My eyes narrowed. “Who the fuck—”
“You!” Sir Kristoff unleashed another wave of dark gargoyle energy that the Paradox Fae blocked with his sword.
“Stop,” the Paradox Fae said with a yawn as he leaned against the wall. “Seriously, this is getting so fucking old.”