Page 67 of Eternal Sacrifice
I laughed.
She shot a ball of crackling energy at me, and I shifted into shadow. It passed through me, almost as a tickling sensation, and then I reformed in front of Wren.
“If you try to stop me, I’ll burn your realm down myself.”
Jace shuffled toward the flame, attracting my attention. He was oblivious to everything, focused only on the shifting blue flame.
Wren laughed in a defeated tone as she looked down at her feet.
“For all your power, you lack knowledge,” she said before lunging toward me. Her hands grasped my wrists, wrapping around them in an iron-tight hold.
I felt a pulling, sucking sensation, and the world around me went black as I fell back into my physical body. The smell of wet decay hit my nose, and my brain attempted to catch up.
Wren stood over Jace’s body, dripping blood from her hand onto his face while muttering.
“What happened with Jace?” Justice asked, taking a step toward us.
I rushed forward, colliding with Wren and slamming her against the floor.
“She betrayed us. Left Jace’s soul in the veil,” I growled, holding her by her neck as I pinned her to the hard stone.
“This is bad,” Justice said, squatting down, fisting his hair between his fingers.
Wren struggled against my hold, her face maroon as her eyes bulged. Her fingers came up to rake at my face and then my hands. Her legs kicked out beneath me, beginning to panic.
Finally, she was starting to understand my pain.
A bright light exploded inside the small chamber.
“Fox?”
“What?” I snapped, turning my head to look into Justice’s concerned eyes.
“She put a blood curse on Jace,” he said.
I released my hold on her throat, and her head slumped. “I might have killed her.”
“She’s as dead as a door mouse, Fox.”
“Would that happen to break the curse?” I asked, my eyes shifting toward Jace’s unmoving body on the floor. “Can we get another witch to take us into the veil to get him?”
“From what I’ve learned about this realm, blood curses are generational. Only the blood of her blood can be used to break the curse.”
“Her daughter?” I said with a blip of hope.
“Eventually,” Justice said, standing and offering his hand to help pull me off Wren’s body.
“How long?”
“She won’t come into her full power until she is an adult. We are going to have to wait for a few years. And then convince her to break her mother’s curse.”
It felt like I was back inside the veil, my world shifting and twisting in different directions. First Jax, now Jace.
“Let’s get Jace’s body secure. Hide it beneath the temple. Then I’ll place protection around the child.” Justice bent down and scooped Jace into his arms. “On the bright side, Fox. Jace isn’t dead, and maybe he’ll be able to find Jax in there.”
It didn’t feel like a silver lining. I had walked into the realm with the expectation that we would find Jax’s soul. Instead, I was leaving without another one of my mates.
“I want to leave Cole with Jace,” I said, looking at Jace’s defenseless body. “Can I do that?”
