With the now broken door swinging, we couldn’t wait for reinforcements. Hopefully, Rage’s mom and the other Harvest girls would show soon.

Rage burst inside, and I raced in after him, blade drawn and ready for anythi—

Oh Mother Mage.

It was a trap.

At least twenty guards, including the alpha king, stood armed to the teeth waiting against the far wall. Feral grins stretched across many of their faces, but none bigger than Declan’s.

The room, if it could be called that, was huge, at least a hundred feet in diameter, bigger than the mess hall back home, bigger than the cafeteria of the school. Why did Declan need a torture chamber this big?

The deep cavern of power crackling just below my skin roared forward, and I prepared to unleash the mother of all elemental power bombs.

Until my gaze landed on Justice. His dark hair was clumped and matted with blood, his green eyes blackened and nearly swollen shut. Bruises marred his skin: arms, chest, neck…

Of all the Midnight brothers, Rage and Justice were nearly identical. So seeing him with a twelve-inch blade to his throat tore my heart in two.

Surlama sneered. “Use your magic, and I’ll drive my blade in so deep you’ll never get it out.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, and she pressed the blade tighter until blood beaded on his neck and Justice whimpered.

The magic inside of me fizzled completely as tears welled in my eyes.

‘What do we do?’ I asked Rage.

He stood stone still beside me, glaring daggers at his uncle.

Noble lay curled in a ball on the stone floor, bruised, battered, and bound at Declan’s feet. The brutality and viciousness I’d only glimpsed before now lay before me in total shocking depravity.

Kaja gasped as she entered, coming to stand on my left, and I felt, rather than saw, the two selkies join us.

“Mother Mage,” one of them gasped.

“So you’ve aligned with these traitors as well?” the king snarled at Rage, waving at the selkies with venom in his gaze. “Is there no limit to your desperation?”

Was he joking?

“What do you want?” Rage asked, his eyes darting from Noble to Justice and then back to his uncle.

The veins in Declan’s neck bulged. “Turns out I’m sterile.” He made the declaration as if it were an accusation against Rage. “All this time, I thought it was your mother, but even magic cannot bring me an heir.”

Whoa. TMI? That bomb drop wasn’t something I’d expected him to say in front of twenty of his guards.

Rage frowned, his gaze darting about the room as if there were an escape from his uncle’s statement. “Okay…”

The king kicked Noble and then stepped over his body as he stalked toward my mate. “Because you’re the strongest of my kin, I choose you to impregnate my concubines. You’ll give me a new set of heirs.”

At the word impregnate, I nearly fainted.

“I will have their loyalty—their fidelity. I’ll no longer have heirs who betray me as you have,” the alpha king growled.

Whoa. Whoa. Wait … could he—?

“Are you insane!?” Rage shouted. “There’s no way—”

The king moved so fast that I only saw a blur as he backhanded Rage. The crack of his hand against my mate’s face slammed into me, making my ears ring.

How dare he?

I lurched forward, intending to rip his head off, but Kaja held me back.

“Careful, honey.” Surlama drew the blade against Justice’s neck, and a fresh trail of crimson rivulets ran down past his collar bone.

What do we do? Think, think, think.

That’s when I felt it, across our bond which seemed to be growing stronger every day, frustrated acceptance.

My gaze flew to Rage; fiery indignation filled me as he lowered his head. In shame. Defeat.

‘Trust me,’ he whispered into my mind.

“I’ll do it,” Rage muttered to the king and then swallowed hard. “But only if you let my brothers, Nai, my mom, and everyone else here go.”

‘No!’

The king glanced at me, curling his upper lip. Then, he looked at Surlama. “Can you break the shield bonds and then bind Courage to me with an oath?”

Surlama nodded, and my stomach dropped.

No, no, no. No way would I let Rage go like that.

We needed to do something. My mind calculated our threats—lots—and options—few—in seconds. Surlama had the knife to Justice’s throat, so I’d need to take her out first, but before the king could kill Rage, who would no doubt try to save me and definitely before the guards could kill Kaja and the rest of us. Maybe if I tried to boil her blood … but she’d probably notice and—

A battle cry came from the doorway, drawing our attention, and then Fiona, Nell, and Elaine burst into the room, guns blazing.

Legit guns.

Fiona held a sleek handgun like the one Rage had used when he and his brothers had picked me up from Montana. She raised it into the air and pulled the trigger. The loud bang cut through the small space, making my ears whine. I shook my head and seized my opportunity, launching for Surlama.

The dark mage’s hesitation at the gunfire allowed me to wrench her arm away from Justice’s neck a mere second before I crashed into her and we fell to the ground. She hit first, and the satisfying crack of her skull on the stone filled me with untold gratification. I tugged at the knife, desperate to wrest it from her grip as we rolled, gasping.

As soon as I had the hilt, I popped up to my feet, ready to kick her face into the ground, but she flung her hand out, and her magic lashed into me. Agony raced along my nerve endings as a green mist settled over my skin. I screamed as pain tore through me, absolute anguish poured from my mouth. I fell and writhed on the ground.

I had a brief respite from the pain, and I gasped as the tortured cries of my shields harrowed my soul. Noble, then Justice, and finally Rage bellowed. Their pain filled the air.

Damn that shield spell!

‘Nai!’ Rage screamed at me in panic as he collapsed into a ball before the king.

I glanced across the room and knew no extra help was coming.

Nell, Kaja, Fiona, the two selkies, and the queen were taking on everyone else. Six against twenty. No bueno.

Fire lashed across the room, water flooded the ground, and the earth shook as my friends tried with all their might to use their elemental powers to hold off the men trying to kill them.

Tears leaked from my eyes as the pain reached a crescendo. It felt like I was being skinned alive, and I grew too weak to even pull for my magic. She’d incapacitated me—probably should’ve killed me, but my three shields had dispersed her magic. If only I could…

“You stupid girl. Don’t you know how powerful I am?” Surlama stood over me, staring down at me in disgust.

I blinked, and Honor appeared in my mind’s eye, his sad expression as he stared out over the lake.

‘You’re not real,’ he’d said.

I couldn’t leave him like that. I wouldn’t. Any more than I’d let Rage, Noble, or Justice die because of me. I needed help. High mage help.

‘Grandpa!’ I shouted, picturing his face in my mind’s eye as I had with Kaja.

An eerie calm washed over me. Then, I heard his reply.

‘Nai? What is this? I sense your end.’ His troubled voice echoed inside my brain.