Page 93 of The World Undone

He reached for Declan and I shifted to the bed, wrapping my arms around Amalia, my blade pressed to her throat.

“Don’t touch her,” I bit out, trying to fight the thrashing woman in my grip. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had.

He may have been disgusted by her, but he cared for her. He wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting her up in this room if he’d wanted her dead.

Xavier flinched, indecision flashing across his face before he shook his head, expression a blank mask. “Kill her. She’s no use to me anymore. I have no tolerance for weakness.”

“This isn’t strength or weakness at play,” Levi’s eyes were hard, his voice dull as he watched Xavier, “only greed. You’ve stolen power that didn’t belong to you, and it will corrupt you all. She’s just experiencing the consequences on a faster timeline.”

Xavier’s expression hardened, and I met Declan’s eyes briefly. She nodded once.

This was it, we weren’t getting anything more out of either of them.

The stone wasn’t here. This dude wasn’t going to give us anything worth dying over. We were wasting time.

Sharp pain clawed at the back of my neck, then my scalp. “What the fuck?”

When I looked down at my arms, they were covered in deep, painful scratches.

I glanced around the room, searching for the culprit, but no one had moved. Amalia thrashed in my arms, but these cuts weren’t from her.

It took me a moment longer than it should have for me to get over the shock and realize what this was.

Darius.

“Fuck.” If Darius was in trouble?—

When my eyes found Dec, I knew she’d come to the same conclusion.

He was with Max. Was she okay? Should we go to them?

No.

This wasn’t the plan. They’d stick to the plan.

I didn’t have time for my own fear.

They hadn’t used the bond. They were fine. Just a few scrapes. I needed to focus.

In one fluid motion, I let Amalia go, just long enough to bury my blade into her chest. She fought against me, lost in a frenzy of hunger until the light finally dimmed in her eyes. For a moment, her expression softened, her eyes almost grateful as the last vestiges of life bled out of her.

Xavier yelled, and tried to attack Dec, but as fast as he was, she’d been prepared. A flare of fire spilled through the room, catching him off guard.

“But you have traces of her power. How?—”

I ripped my blade from Amalia’s chest and threw it into his.

I’d nicked his heart, I was certain, but it wasn’t a clean enough shot. He was still alive, still moving. With one dark look at us, hand clutching the hilt of my blade, he teleported from the room.

“Fuck! No. We have to go after him.” Levi ran his hands through his hair, darkening the strands with the blood that coated his fingers. “This—this can’t have all been for nothing. We’ll find him.”

I knew that by “this” he really meant her death.

“It isn’t here,” I said, unable to meet the pain reflected so clearly in his eyes. “The stone.”

“We know two of them are dead at least,” Declan said. “And we know that they can’t control the shadow magic as well as we thought. They aren’t like Max. They weren’t built for it. This wasn’t for nothing.”

“Three, now.” I shoved Amalia off of me and wiped some of her gore on the already soiled bedding.

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