Page 121 of Tempest of Wrath and Vengeance

“Are you fucking with me right now?” the male said, clearly annoyed as he conjured a blade of his own. “Axel. You have to stop. If you drink any more, you will undoubtedly trigger the curse.”

“She ismine,” Axel snarled, his shadows converging around him

“You’re right,” the male retorted, his sword raised in a defensive position. “She is yours, and you’re hurting her instead of protecting her.”

Axel lunged, steel meeting steel at the same time that shadows met darkness. The male met him blow for blow as they maneuvered around the room. That other male still held her in his arms, blood still dripping to the floor.

“No!” Axel cried, abandoning the fight and trying to get back to her again, but darkness latched onto him and forced him back to the ground. His shadows clawed and thrashed.

“Don’t make me do this, Axel,” the male muttered again, standing over him and breathing hard.

Axel kicked out, connecting with the male’s shin and making him bark a curse. It was enough to loosen the grip of his magic, and Axel was back on his feet.

“Get a fucking band on him, St. Orcas! Now!” the other male yelled.

“I’m trying,” the male he was fighting yelled back. “Focus on Katya.”

“We need Cienna for this.”

“Fucking Arius,” the male muttered, tossing his sword to the ground, that inky magic thickening around him and spearing straight for Axel.

He tried to move. Leap out of the way.Something. But the magic jumped with him, encasing his feet and ankles and cementing them to the floor.

With another snarl of rage, Axel started pooling his shadows, letting them writhe around him until a giant feline stood beside him, snarling and snapping.

“For fuck’s sake. Not you too,” the male muttered, holding out a palm. A black band lay in the center of it, until it didn’t. Until the male’s magic engulfed it, and then it swirled around Axel’s wrist, the band suddenly appearing.

His shadows sputtered out, the feline dissipating, but his fury didn’t.

As the male approached, Axel took a swing.

“By the gods, Axel! Stop!” the male snapped, blocking the punch. “Do you want me to let you kill her?”

Axel, stop.

His head swung to her. Her eyes were open now, fixed on him. Her warm skin was pale, her face leeched of color. Blood still trickled across her throat, the shirt she wore now stained red around the collar, and all he could think about was needingmore. He’d finally had her, and now she was being taken from him again. A trick. This had been a trick to lure him here and torture him some more.

“I won’t go back there,” he said, not sure who he was even talking to, but his eyes went back to the male. His eyes were wholly emerald now, the darkness gone. “I’d rather die.”

“We’re not taking you back there,” the male said, his tone softening. “We’re going to take you home.”

“Home,” Axel repeated, the word foreign on his tongue.

“Yes, brother. Home.”

“Axel?” Her soft voice was scarcely above a whisper, ravaged and raw. “Axel, look at me.”

He slowly slid his gaze back to her.

“I need you to come back. This isn’t you. I need you to come back.”

Each of her words were pained and clearly a struggle to get out, and something in his chest cracked as he stared at her.

Then it shattered when her voice echoed in his mind.

We need you to come back. Me and our babe.

Her hand slid to her stomach, resting atop it as her eyes fell closed again.

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