Page 131 of Wings of Betrayal

“Is that a blue light?” Nilo asks.

I notice it just as the others do and focus on the blue hue, gently illuminating the tunnel ahead. “I think so.”

“I don’t like this,” Em says, her tone anxious. “What if we get attacked? We have nowhere to go except back the way we just came. This is dangerous, Kyle.”

He runs a hand over his face. “Yeah, it’s not ideal. But we’ve come this far. We need to check this out.”

Then it hits me. The weapon I saw in the Spirit Realm, as well as the Realm of Lost Souls, were both blue orbs, and they created a similar glow.

“It’s the weapon,” I tell them with certainty.

They all look to me.

“You’re sure?” Kyle asks, and I nod.

Kyle gestures for us to carry on, but he sticks close to the tunnel wall, and we do the same. The closer we get, the brighter the glow becomes. And the stranger my scar feels. We can’t be far from it.

Then I notice a change in the tunnel ahead. It seems to finally come to an end.

We edge a little closer and find that the ground drops about sixty feet below into a huge open space, like some kind of cave. It’s teeming with lost ones. There must be hundreds of them, and they all surround a blue glowing orb, which hovers in midair just above what looks like a tree stump. One of the weapon’s three orbs.

We rear back, hoping we weren’t seen.

“We found it…” Nilo whispers.

I nod. “Apollon and Zeta’s intel was right. That’s how they’re doing it. That’s how they’re taking lost ones from the Realmof Lost Souls. They’re using the weapon’s orbs to open portals. They have one of these weapons in both of the realms and one here.”

“This isn’t good,” Kyle says. “What do we do now? How are we to take this weapon with all those lost ones guarding it?”

Nilo leans back against the tunnel wall. “I’m sure we can figure something out. Maybe we create a distraction and then swoop down and grab it?”

Kyle rakes his hand through his hair. “We don’t even know if it’s safe to touch. It could kill us.”

While the two males discuss options, Em taps me on my shoulder. “Hey, can I talk to you a sec?”

Please don’t be about to try and make amends. Now is so not the time, I want to tell her.

“Okay, sure,” I tell her instead.

She wanders back down the tunnel a bit, obviously wanting to be away from the others. Kyle and Nilo haven’t even noticed we’ve moved away because they’re so deep in discussion.

I fold my arms and lean against the dirt wall, awaiting whatever it is she has to say to me.

“Did you really think I would sit back and watch you steal my male? I don’t care that you’ve mated with Kyle, that you think you’re his fated mate. IknowI’m Kyle’s true mate, not you.”

Is this female for real? My blood boils, and I clench my fists. I have had enough of her bullshit. Iknewshe didn’t want to make amends with me. She wants Kyle for herself, and she always will. She’s a nasty, jealous female who I know I can’t trust.

“How dare you,” I bite out. “Kyle and I are fated mates. We have sealed our mating bond. He doesn’t want you, Em. You are nothing more than a friend to him, and after this, you won’t even be that.”

She chuckles. “You think you’re better than me, don’t you? What, because your mother was a goddess? You are a subparangel from a shitty Kingdom who can’t even keep their own King alive. I bet you did kill him, didn’t you? Figured you’d take the throne before anyone could find out he isn’t even your real father.”

Oh hell no. I slap her hard across the face.

She reaches up and rubs the skin there then grits her teeth and shoves me back. I hit the wall with so much force that I smash right through it, and then I’m falling.

I try to scream, but nothing comes out. My back hits something cold and hard, jolting my head against it, and then I’m sliding down headfirst. Fast.

My head throbs as I reach out, desperately trying to grab hold of something to stop myself, but there is nothing. The walls are smooth, and it’s as if I’m falling down a marble slide or something. I then fall off and land on hard ground with a thud, knocking the air from my lungs.

---