Page 120 of The World Undone

Now that we’d all retired back to the cabin though, she hadn’t left Darius’s room. He’d woken, briefly, but Claude had been there at the time. He snapped his brother’s neck again before he could fully rouse, with the same nonchalance one might crack an egg.

“You should rest.” I leaned against the door frame, watching her.

“I will.” Her hand was twined with Darius’s. She looked back at me over her shoulder, forcing a small smile across her face. The sight of it was like a blade to the gut—so much fear, so much pain braided into her features. “You should too. It’s been a difficult day.”

I was exhausted, but I couldn’t bring my body to leave her right now, not like this.

I stepped into the fanghole’s room and closed the door behind me. I’d wait up with her a bit, until she was ready to sleep.

Plus, if I was being honest, I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughts right now. Didn’t want to see Bishop’s death playing on repeat in my mind.

“He’ll be okay.” I drew her to my side and pressed a kiss to the side of her forehead. My throat tightened when she stifled a sob. “We’ll figure out how to get him back.”

“He’s always been terrified of this,” her face pressed into me, and I could feel my shirt soaking with the tears she was trying to hide, “of the darkness pulling him under. He tried to hide it, and I should have—” her breath hitched, “I thought it would be better to give him space, but I was wrong. And now I don’t know how to reach him.”

“I know—” I paused, latching onto that word—darkness. She was right. Darius had been off for weeks. At the time, I’d assumed it had been the state of things generally, the chaos and planning of prepping for this mission. But what if this was the darkness Serae had referenced? What if it really hadn’t been about Atlas, but Darius?

I pulled back a few inches, cupped Max’s face in my hands as I wiped a few stray tears away with my thumb. “What if we can?”

Her dark eyes glistened, narrowing in confusion.

“What if we can reach him?”

For the first time since we’d gotten back, I felt the embers of hope ignite. I’d all but forgotten that dream-walk with my aunt, especially considering I’d woken up from it to find Max nearly drowning. Not wasting a breath, I relayed my dream with Serae, the details coming back with some clarity the more I focused on remembering.

Max and I had a power that no one else in our bond group had—we could siphon and feed off emotions. Lust was only one of them, the easiest for us to access. But it was only an entry point, a catalyst for tapping into our prey’s lifeforce.

If my aunt was right about our strengths, then there was a possibility that we could feed off the darkness consuming Darius, or at least distribute its hold evenly across us all, until it was no longer debilitating with its weight.

Once the plan was set, the hardest part was falling asleep. Both of us were wired as we lay there together, smashed into Darius’s bed, just waiting for the adrenaline of having a plan to drain into exhaustion. But in the way that sleep always seemed to eventually work, I slid from awake and anxious to dreaming the exact moment I stopped fighting it.

Neither of us spared much energy on crafting a particularly glamorous dreamscape. Just a room, dark and earthy.

The moment Darius stepped foot into the space, he sprang at me like a bullet, crashing us both to the ground with a calamity of grunts and groans.

His fangs pierced my neck, and I was surprised by the fact that it didn’t hurt as he pulled a mouthful of blood. It almost felt—good. For the first time, I could feel what Max felt when he fed on her, a blissful sort of power and control.

Before my own whims grew too pliant here, I ripped my head away from him and pinned him to the ground, a feral writhing mess as he tried to fight me.

I slammed his head to the ground, earning a fresh snarl. “I’m stronger than you here, you fuck.”

The fanghole didn’t respond, just continued thrashing about, trying like hell to attack as I held him down.

Cuffs appeared around his wrists, attached to heavy, metal links. The soft clink and strain echoed through the room as his arms pulled taut above his head, until he started to rise above me.

Max had fashioned restraints and she used her magic to thread them through the ceiling, until Darius stood, his toes dangling over the edge of the wooden floor, fighting to find purchase.

She grinned a wicked grin, her eyes hard as she strode closer to him, eyebrow arched. “Familiar position, no?”

I wasn’t sure what she was referring to, but a flash of recognition broke through Darius’s vicious growl as she prowled around him.

Good. This was working.

I brought out the fanghole’s worst, and she, his best. Together we stood a chance of cracking him, siphoning out the darkness gripping him.

She traced a finger over the long smooth expanse of his chest, his muscles stretched to the edge of pain.

He gasped at her touch, the crash of chains providing a dark soundtrack to the scene.

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