Page 96 of The World Undone

“To be on this mission with Max,” he clarified, lip curled in disgust. “Now, I’m almost hoping someone comes running out of there and decapitates me.”

“Your misery isn’t allowed to end today, Rowan. My girl would miss you too much. For some reason.” I pressed a kiss to her soft lips, momentarily tuning the others out. “Ready to go drench another campus in fire and blood, Little Protector?”

She fought it, but I tasted her excitement in the kiss. The bloodlust.

I’d been more or less teasing about the tree fucking—I’d planned on saving that for after the mission. A little post-battle reward. Fucking her while she was coated in the blood of her enemies was incentive enough for me to stick to the rules that Bishop and the others had outlined. But now, I truly was wondering if we had time for a first round before the battle started.

Something about the feral greed in her eyes was damn near irresistible. Especially now that I was feeling more myself than I had in weeks.

I stole one more kiss, brushing my tongue against hers, until all I could focus on was the minty sweetness of her.

With a groan, I pulled back. “Right, what’s the plan?”

Haley snorted. “You know the plan. We all do.”

Get in, get out. As quickly as possible.

“You feel anything yet?” Rowan took a few steps closer to Max, his dramatic disgust dissipating now that I’d chained my libido to an afterparty with Max and that tree.

Max took a deep breath, closing her eyes.

I did the same, knowing she’d feel the connection to the stone far more readily than I would. Nothing. When I dug deeper, all I could feel was the impending darkness, growing restless now that it had been caged after so much free time. I opened one eye, making sure no one else—specifically, Max—could somehow see that darkness leaking out of me.

Max sighed, shaking her head. “Not yet.” She opened her eyes and scanned the thick trees.

We were in southern Brazil, inside a lush, almost absurdly beautiful forest. It was a shame protectors had hidden one of The Guild Headquarters here. Always difficult to parse evil up against such a beautiful backdrop. Maybe when all of this was done, I’d take Max here sometime. A honeymoon. Or a Congratulations-For-Saving-The-World surprise-sex vacation.

I could tell she liked it here. Her shoulders were tense in anticipation of what was coming, but when she looked at the tangles of trees surrounding us, it was like she was trying to commit each one to memory. Like she was afraid she’d never see them again.

“The Guild has a way of finding beautiful places to hide their insidiousness,” Rowan said, following her gaze, as if he’d plucked the thought from my head. “Suppose it was naive of us to think there was a chance you’d be able to tell if the stone was here this far out. Guess we’re going in.”

“And no holding back,” Haley glanced between the siblings, knowing full well I didn’t need telling twice. I was more than happy to spill as much blood as Max was comfortable with on this little mission. “Don’t let your conscience get in the way of the bigger picture, understood?”

Ro tensed, but Max simply nodded, less openly phased by the threat of violence than I thought she might be in present company.

“You’ll get no argument from me. The Guild council is quite literally threatening to destroy the world. They tortured Darius, Atlas, Sarah, and countless others. All in the name of their own greed. Their lives are forfeit as far as I’m concerned. I’ll happily paint the room with their blood before they take another thing from us. Don’t worry.”

She glanced sheepishly at her brother, like she expected him to fight her on this.

He studied her for a long moment, jaw hard, but not with disgust. Pride, maybe?

He nodded once to her, something passing between the two of them, then glanced south, where the campus opened through the trees less than a quarter mile away. “Lead the way,” his fingers flexed over his blade, “I won’t flinch away from gutting anyone who attacks us.”

Blood Bath Bentleys.

Maybe they weren’t so unlike my brother and I.

Haley met my eyes, confusion and surprise written across her features.

I clapped my hands together before twining my hand with Max’s. “Let’s go kill some council members.”

The halls of the main building were bustling, drenched with the stench of sweaty protectors, mobilized by their lust for blood. They clustered together in packs, their reek stifling as we split up slightly, winding between and through them, trying to blend in.

Easier said than done, perhaps, but there was no escaping it. We had to use Max’s powers with discretion now, all three attacks were rolling at once and we didn’t have time to waste.

Still, hiding in plain sight wasn’t the worst idea. I doubted any of these protectors expected several of the bodies on their most-wanted list to voluntarily pop into their halls, ready for capture or death.

I had Max’s hand grasped tightly in mine, her fingers trembling slightly with adrenaline or fear—maybe both. It was her only tell that she didn’t quite belong here, that something big was brewing in these blood-stained halls, and I kept her hand protected in mine, steadying it as we moved.

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