Page 29 of What Sleeps Within the Cove

We just needed someone stronger than her to run her fucking through with it.

I didn’t answer as I got to my feet, bending forward because of the shortness of the cage that surrounded me. I was too tall for such a prison, but I couldn’t warn Mab of what was coming while I sat on my ass.

“You have no understanding of what you’ve fucking done,” I accused, feeling in my soul that the loss of Estrella wouldn’t just be something I felt. It wouldn’t just be something the rebellion suffered. I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the loss of her would mean something even more catastrophic for us all.

“Is she dead?” she asked, her voice rising with her laughter. I’d thought she sent Estrella into Tartarus believing her to be the only one who could succeed in the task she required. But that laughter…

That was the laughter of a woman who’d won.

“No,” I said, my jaw clenching with the words. Anger like I’d never known rose in my veins, funneling down the bond between Estrella and I. She gave me her rage, gave me whatever she needed me to take for her to find her focus, and I drank it down greedily.

I let it energize me.

“Too bad,” Mab said with a pout, the malicious part of her insanity playing at the front of her disposition. She sank her teeth into her lip hard enough to draw blood, leaning toward my cell with wide eyes. The figure of the Gorgon woman danced in the gem atop of her head, the snakes writhing as Mab’s dark eyes flashed. “I was looking forward to watching you fall into insanity with me because of that stupid little bitch.”

I grabbed the iron bars of my cell, feeling them burn the skin from my flesh. Mab took a step back, staring down at the bars in horror as Iheld steady, forcing all my magic and all my strength into the metal. The shadows in the room gathered around the iron, surrounding me as I shoved at the gate.

My skin remained attached to it when I pulled my hands back finally, shoving the ice of winter that so often didn’t come to me naturally at those iron bars. They froze over, the magic making my hands burn with the cold. The temperature was so at odds with the burns from the iron, making me gasp as I pulled back and shoved my shoulder into the frozen bars.

Mab flinched back, staring in shock as I did it again, and again.

Until the bars gave beneath me, the top of the cage crashing down as I fell through the opening I’d created. I pushed to my feet slowly, the carnage behind me forming twisted metal as I wrapped a single blood-soaked and bony hand around Mab’s throat. My power was tangible in my veins, stronger than I could ever remember it being. The taste on my tongue was sweet and metallic all at once, Estrella’s familiar scent accompanying it and leaving me to wonderwhy.

She gasped, raising her own hand to touch my chest. The snake around my heart clenched, forcing me to my knees. I took Mab down with me, drawing her to the floor as I refused to let her go. The rage inside me knew nothing but red, saw nothing but the nearness of her death. If I’d had a weapon, I’d have driven it through her heart and been done with it.

Even knowing I probably wouldn’t survive. That the very last thing she did would be taking me down with her.

I gasped through the pressure in my chest, my hand loosening as I fought for breath. “If anything happens to her…” I trailed off, shoving my anger down long enough to pull my hand away from her throat. Her grip on my heart lessened, allowing deep breaths to fill my lungs once again.

That rage that had come from Estrella was so unlike my mate and her more peaceful nature.

“What?” Mab asked, the threat hanging between us as she pushed to her feet. She ran a hand over the red marks on her throat from my grip, trying to gather her composure. But her voice was rough, distorted, and pained.

“I’ll have nothing left to live for,” I warned, glaring up at her. I didn’t bother to get to my feet, having made my point already as I cradled my injured hand to my chest. “So you better fucking believe I will take you down with me. She is the only bargaining chip you have to control me now, so you had better hope she doesn’t die.”

NINETEEN

ESTRELLA

The bull paused to stare at me, his snout twisted into glee. I stood on shaking feet, my lungs heaving with the effort to breathe through the pain. My hand was drenched in blood, the hilt of my blade slipping along the wet skin as I shoved it into the sheath at my back.

“How can you just sit there and watch?” I asked, the quiet of my voice traveling up to where Khaos sat on his platform.

The pain cut through the haze of rage as Khaos blinked down at me, my mate’s calm assurance reaching me in the moments where I wondered if my death had finally found me.

No.

I shoved my second blade back into the sheath, focusing on that glimmering, bright bond that existed where I couldn’t see it. I sent my rage to my mate, allowing him to take what I couldn’t keep. I couldn’t be so blinded by the rage coursing through me if I wanted to win.

I needed to overcome it.

I realized with stark clarity that it hadn’t beenhisrage I needed to overcome. My enemies would always be wrathful and violent, drawing me into battles I wanted no part in. I couldn’t control the actions of those around me.

But I could control mine.

I shoved it down, ignoring the bitter tang of that anger on my tongue. It was tangible in the air now that I acknowledged it, filling the stadium with the raucous cheers of those who wanted blood.

They too were affected by the magic of the Styx, their hatred for me induced by the spell coating the air.

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