Page 63 of Midwinter Night's Prince

With as much strength as she could muster, Blair called to her core magic, blasting past his shields, until her mind had reached the very essence of him.

Gotcha.

The boy froze, expressionless, mindless, without a will of his own. Completely under her control.

She'd never even tried to go that deep—it was unethical, and so very wrong.

And right now, she gave exactly zero fucks. There wasn’t much she wouldn’t do in self-defense. She had to live. For herself, and for Seth.

"Let me go." Her voice came out steadier than she would have thought.

The boy's hand slackened, leaving her bruised, crushed throat.

"Now get into the truck."

The boy moved to do so, but before he could take one step, he was shoved on the ground, and a man stood over him, his knee on his throat.

She'd seen him before, too, with Aveka: the man was cold and inscrutable, loose, straight black hair flying to his ink-black eyes as he indifferently grabbed the boy's head and ripped it off of his shoulders.

Then he turned to Blair.

* * *

"Calm down. Erys escaping wasn't the plan, but he'll bring Blair to Aveka, and she'll summon us," Mikar said, his tone quite reasonable.

Still pacing the hall, Seth informed them,"Anyone else tells me to calm down one more time? I'll fucking kill you. Erys is a psycho. How can you not understand this?"

"Blair is fine," Chloe insisted. Softer, she added, "She has to be."

Seth had no time for anyone else's grief.

"I'm going."

"Wait." Greer held his sleeve. "You'd feel it if she'd been killed, wouldn't you? You'd be broken too."

In more ways than one.

"I think we'd better wait for a summons, Seth. And if she can't manage to get us there before Aveka does what she wants, well..." Greer didn't finish her sentence.

Seth glanced at Cat, his sister.

"We can lock you up until we have a counter spell.”

"The momentAveka gets my soul, she'll kill Blair. Stake me if that happens."

"Seth!" Cat yelped.

He continued his pacing, ignoring her.

They were all dressed and armed, ready to jump to Blair's rescue. All they needed was a sign. There was a fairly high probability that Seth might grow mad before they received said sign, though.

"Seth," she repeated urgently. "I feel her. I feel Blair."

"Me too."

"It's time," said Chloe, handing Ruby to Greer. "Take care of my heart for me."

"I promise," Greer replied. "Go get the bitch."

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