Page 166 of Shadow

“You also agreed she was safe. Are you going back on the deal?” I demanded.

He let out a wicked laugh. “You should know by now there are many ways to touch without physically touching. If I wait for you to procreate with her, I could take your child. Make her watch while I have dessert. That would drive a mother mad, wouldn’t it? She’d kill herself without me lifting a finger.”

My blood boiled at his words. It would kill her.

“What do you want?”

“Good. We’re on the same page. I need you to procure me a sugar daddy. Specifically, Ethan Masters. Remember him?”

“Yes,” I grunted. “One of the horsemen. What do you want with him?”

“To fuck him.” He let out a laugh that made my skin crawl. I knew he fucked both men and women. He’d tried to get me to bend over for him, too, but I’d held my knife to his throat that night, and he’d backed off.

“You’re fucked up,” I said. “I’m not kidnapping someone just so you can have a fuck toy.”

“It’s more than that. I have a history with the boy. He’s become quite a beacon in our world. I want a reunion. I’ve entered into a deal with someone, and I need him as collateral. I also need his sugar recipe.”

“You have a fucking recipe. You drugged Stitches with it and fucked him,” I said, my voice rising.

“Yes, well, you weren’t fucking him. Someone had to.” He laughed.

It took everything I had not to lose my fucking mind on him.

“Anyway, mine is a lot of work and doesn’t exactly do what I want. I think with the sugar daddy, I could really perfect it. So, that’s where you come in.”

“I’m not doing it,” I said. “I want peace.”

“There is no peace. Only war. War makes us money. We like money, son. Do not fear the horsemen. We will tear them to pieces.”

I closed my eyes and sighed.

“Will you fulfill your oath, or will I need to arrange punishment?”

I thought about Sirena being taken or hurt. He was sick enough to wait it out and steal our kid if we had one. It would gut her. I’d lose her and my kid. There was no way. I had to do this.

“Yes. I will fulfill my oath,” I whispered. “But then I’m free.”

“We’ll see.” He laughed again. “I’ll be in touch with the details.”

I hung up and stared at the stars dotting the night sky. It had grown warmer over the last few weeks.

Summer was here.

I’d missed the entire spring with my specter because of the bullshit Adam had pulled. Because Sin was broken and needed time. Because Cady was knocked the fuck up.

I wanted out of this nightmare, so we weren’t constantly being chased by bigger monsters.

But the only way to do that was to kill them.

So if we had to join them to beat them, so be it.

May God have mercy on Ethan Masters’s soul because Everett Church—Avgust Reznikov—wouldn’t.

And because my family was in danger, neither would I.

SIRENA

Church was quiet all week. On Sunday morning, we went to the mandatory mass since we’d skipped last week, all of us sitting together. It was our first public appearance with the six of us together. Students stared and whispered as we took seats in the back pew.

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