Page 74 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

I felt Ash’s chest rise against my shoulder blades as he filled his lungs. Apparently, this was the last breath they would all be taking for some time to avoid the effects of the gas. Since vampires didn’t need to breathe more than a few times an hour, I figured it wouldn’t be too hard for them.

Gavin stepped forward to stand in line with the trio holding those small, glowing orbs of death. “Enter the ward code,” he said, looking at the elemental.

Eyeing Gavin and then the orbs, the elemental slowly approached the portal vortex. When she reached the storming surface, she reached out one hand and traced her fingers through the roiling darkness swiftly and deliberately. Tiny bolts of lightning flashed around her hand, and a glowing crimson design took shape, hovering in front of her in the vortex. Each sweep of her fingers added more to the sigil until it became something akin to an elaborate Celtic knot.

The sigil flared brighter suddenly, and the red faded to burning white. The witch lowered her hand and stepped back, then turned to face Gavin. “The gate ward is unlocked,” she told him, fidgeting with her fingers and shooting nervous glances at the three vampires holding the small orbs.

“Thank you, Marie,” he said. “You may go.”

The elemental didn’t hesitate for even a second. She hurried away, her furtive glances continuing until she was past us and making her way down the grave-lined hillside.

“Kenji,” Gavin said, and one of the vampires waiting at the portal’s threshold raised his hands, holding the glowing orbs out in front of him. Small streaks of lightning reached for his hands.

Stepping forward, Kenji drew the red and purple orbs apart, then swiftly brought them together, like he was clapping his hands. The vortex swallowed him whole before the orbs made contact, shooting out larger bolts of lightning that struck and singed the ground.

“Carmen,” Gavin said, and the next vampire followed Kenji, again vanishing through the vortex the moment before she smashed her orbs together. “Jin,” Gavin said, and the last vampire waiting to deploy the deadly gas stepped through as well.

Gavin turned to the side and scanned first Bastian, Ash, and me, then the four remaining vampires who made up our team. They stood at attention, as still as the graveyard statues around them.

I held my breath, waiting for something to happen.

“Next wave,” Gavin ordered, jerking his chin toward the vortex.

The vampires came to life, lunging forward in a staggered line. One by one, they vanished through the vortex, until my consorts and I were left standing alone in the ancient graveyard.

Gavin gazed at me, his stare intense and lingering, leaving behind the residue of things unsaid. For a heartbeat, I thought he might declare his feelings for me. As impossible as it seemed, and though I barely knew the man, I could feel myself falling for him. Notinsteadof Bastian—or Wes, for that matter—but in addition to. It seemed there was plenty of room in my heart for each of them.

But then Gavin turned without saying a word and marched through the portal until all that remained of him was the lightning disturbance he created in the vortex.

“We’re up, Soph,” Bastian said, his voice slightly muffled by his gas mask. He pulled me forward with his grip on my hand as he, too, approached the portal. “When we reach the other side, try to ignore what you see and focus only on what you feel. We won’t be able to leave level one until you get a lock on Thane’s location.”

“No pressure,” I said.

Bastian gave my hand a squeeze, and Ash fell in step on my other side. “Take as long as you need,” the hulking vampire rumbled, the unspoken threat in his voice to destroy any shifters besides Bastian who came close to me loud and clear.

Tiny lightning bolts shot out of the vortex as we neared, latching onto various parts of our bodies. They tingled but didn’tburn as I had expected. The last time I passed through a portal, I hadn’t had much of a chance to dissect the experience. I had basically been thrown through the portal as we fled for our lives.

“Exhale,” Bastian said, pausing at the threshold and looking at me. “Push out as much air from your lungs as you can.”

Fear made my breaths shallow, and I blew out a quick puff of air that fogged up the lower half of my mask. At the same moment, Bastian tugged me forward, and darkness swallowed me whole.

45

Time stopped as wehovered in that liminal space, at once everywhere and nowhere.

And then we were through, stepping back into reality, and I sucked in a breath. A sizzling gray fog clouded the immediate vicinity, limiting visibility to a couple of feet in any direction. I could see Bastian and Ash on either side of me, and that was about it. Men and women cried out all around us, shrieking and screaming and everything in between, and my mind filled in the blind spaces with all manner of horrors. I wasn’t sure whether it would have been more or less disturbing to actually be able to see.

A shadow lurched into view, a panicked shifter whimpering and frantic as he patted down his body like he was covered in invisible flames, and I huddled closer to Bastian. I spotted the sheer terror in the enemy shifter’s widened eyes before Ash intercepted him, capturing his head and snapping his neck. The injury wouldn’t kill the other immortal, but he would be out for some time. Considering how frightened the shifter had lookeda moment earlier, I thought Ash’s actions might actually have been a mercy.

“What was wrong with him?” I asked, watching the shifter’s body fall limp to the floor.

Bastian curled an arm around my waist, holding me close. “The gas traps immortals in a waking nightmare,” he explained.

I looked around, trying futilely to see through the thick, incandescent fog. Grunts and gasps accompanied the frightened sounds, likely Gavin and the other vampires taking out the shifters more permanently. Were they killing them? Were they taking the time to carve out their hearts, or were they simply cutting throats and breaking necks, injuries the shifters would eventually recover from?

I hoped the latter was the case. Yes, they were holding our people prisoner—Javier, Thane, and the other queens—but not by choice. They were operating under King Veris’s orders, and I wasn’t comfortable condemning these people to death simply because they were following orders. After all, Bastian had been following orders when he had spied on me for months, and now I loved him, absolutely and completely.

“Focus, Sophie,” Bastian said, his voice firm yet gentle. He shifted his arm higher, curling it around my shoulders. “Don’t worry about them. Ignore what’s going on out there. Where’s Javier? Where’s Thane?”

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