Page 19 of Savage Fate

“Definitely not.” I stepped over a fallen, winter-bare branch, Fane’s steps completely silent compared to mine. “I’m not the one being tormented. I’m trapped in someone else’s body while it’s happening, experiencing everything, including their high levels of fear.”

The demon shifter rubbed the stubble on his jaw and flicked his lip piercing as he thought. “Maybe the Infernal Sol gave you the ability to tap into people’s fearful moments like what happened in your baby room at Silver Ridge. These visions could be coming from people’s darkest fears or nightmares.”

Great. As if my own nightmares weren’t bad enough.

“Anything’s possible with the Infernal Sol.” I didn’t mention the taunting voices I’d heard. I couldn’t stand for Fane to look at me with even more worry than he was now. “But I don’t have the amulet anymore. How could it?—”

Fane’s hand suddenly snapped out and grabbed my arm, halting my steps. His nostrils flared, and every one of his muscles tensed. “Do you smell that?”

My nose lifted in the air and wrinkled as the scent of blood and death registered. And this pungent odor didn’t come from any animal.

Chapter

Six

“Come on.”Fane jerked his head toward the left, and we slinked through the woods toward the foul scent. “We’re about to cross out of Mohan territory, so keep your guard up.”

As I pulled on my shifter senses, the forest brightened and the stench intensified. Once we passed another few rows of trees, we finally found its source.

A dead body.

Fane cursed as his head whipped left and right. “No one else is here. There’s a faint scent, but I can’t pin it to any creature.”

“So someone just dropped a corpse right outside Mohan territory?” I kneeled next to the woman, face down in a pile of leaves, blood staining her pale-blond curls. “She’s a wolf shifter too.”

A low growl vibrated his throat. “A bitten one.”

Just like I’d thought, the dead shifter we found outside of Silver Ridge wasn’t an isolated incident. Someone was killing shifters.

Fane called Camus, and he arrived with a sheet so we could wrap the deceased and carry her to the healers for an examination. The alpha instructed a few shifters to patrolthe perimeter of Mohan territory, but so far, they hadn’t encountered any intruders.

Whoever had tossed the body was long gone.

Hailey, one of the healers, cursed as she pulled the dead shifter’s shirt apart and revealed the gaping hole in her chest. “Her heart was cut out.”

“Just like the one at Silver Ridge.” My stomach heaved at the flesh curled around the hole.

We loomed over the metal examination table in one of the downstairs rooms, the woman’s cloudy eyes staring up at the white paneled ceiling. The scent of medicinal herbs pumped through the air but did nothing to mask the rot and death choking the atmosphere.

Who was this wolf shifter? Did she have a mate? Kids?

Someone had to be looking for her.

Hailey poked at the wound with a scalpel. “They used a sharp knife, but they weren’t an expert. The cuts are jagged and imprecise.”

Marks encircled the shifter’s wrists, and the scars on mine burned as disturbing memories bubbled up. I knew what it felt like to be tied up. And I knew what those bruises looked like.

“She was bound at the wrists.” I jerked my chin toward her legs. “Check her ankles.”

Sure enough, when Camus lifted the soiled jeans, the same marks mottled her ankles. “She was probably tied down when they cut her heart out.”

Sensing the shiver rippling through me, Fane stepped closer. “Body number two means this is a pattern. If it’s not The Collective, then it’s something equally bad.”

Camus nodded. “I’m going to double security patrols, but I won’t inform the whole pack. Everyone’s already on edge because of Barric and The Collective. There’s no need to create panic when we don’t even know who or what we’re dealing with.”

Flickeringcandlelight danced over the three witches sitting in a circle on the floor, chanting as a small purple cloud undulated over a map of the United States. Nothing happened when they tried Georgia, so they widened their search.

“Do you think they’re doing it right?” Hawk murmured to Kortney as we leaned against the dark wall in one of the conference rooms at Corvin Manor that the ravens cleared out for the witches to perform a scrying spell. “They’ve been at this for over an hour and not even a blip.”

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