Page 11 of Savage Blood
“How did she get out in the first place?” Jax asked, pushing back golden curls as he studied me.
Amelia withdrew Roxie’s keys from her pocket as her features slowly became human again. “She had these.”
The beta’s amber eyes narrowed, and he cursed under his breath. “Fucking Roxie.”
“That raven is unpredictable and untrustworthy.” Amelia smoothed her gray sweater and licked my blood off her fingertips. “She probably gave Tate the keys.”
A laugh burst out of my mouth as I sat up, the fight draining out of me. I couldn’t fight them both with injuries and these damn cuffs.
“She was focused on torturing your other prisoner,” I said. “His screams drowned out my escape, and she left her keys on the ground, so I grabbed them.”
Roxie was just as bad as The Collective, but at least Ruin had an effect on her. And he seemed to be on my side. For now, anyway.
Jax snatched the keys from Amelia. “Go upstairs and cool off. Not a word of this to Barric or he’ll kill you.”
Her lips thinned, but she heeded his command and stormed past us, nearly stomping on my legs.
Jax turned to me and reached out to help me up. “Shall we?”
I slapped his hand away and climbed to my feet, choking back the hisses and groans from the sharp stabs of pain. “Just take me back to my cell.”
Roxie and Ruin couldn’t still be going at it.
Maybe Jax wouldn’t care.
A crooked smile tugged at his lips despite my sour tone. “Not yet. Lucky for you, I was on my way to the dungeon to retrieve you.”
“For what?”
“Your father has requested your presence.”
My stomach dropped as his words sank in and the casual way he’d referred to Barric as my father, like it was all out in the open now.
That bastard was as much my father as those creepy foster men were.
Jax’s fingers curled around my upper arm, and he directed me through the corridors. “Things wouldn’t be so bad if you cooperated—just a little.”
“Right, because Barric has such a soft spot for me that he’d overlook the fact that I’m technically a bitten wolf.” I scoffed. “And he blames me for his mate’s death.”
“You might have been born human, but you still have his blood and genes.” The beta scrutinized me out of the corner of his eye. “And you have alpha power. The sheer strength you possess makes a difference to him. You’re not some weakling.”
“And yet I’m dying because of the very amulet he hasaround his neck.” I peered at Jax, who looked a little thinner and paler than he used to be. “Unless he plans to offer me this so-called cure.”
Jax stared straight ahead as we turned another corner. “Maybe if you cooperate.”
As we stepped through a set of double doors and the familiar gothic décor unfurled around me, my head swam with memories I’d rather forget. Karn’s grand room had been rebuilt, probably with Roman’s magic.
Images of my time here, where my journey with the Infernal Sol started, washed over me, and ice trickled down my back. Everything from the curling staircase to the iron balcony to the shades of red and stark black was the same. My boots squeaked on the glossy black-and-white flooring, and I could practically hear the crowd of demons cheering when I fought those two humans.
But Karn wasn’t sitting on the throne of bone and metal now. Barric was, a leer twisting his mouth and sending prickles across my scalp. The same jewel-encrusted chalice dangled from his hand.
“What took you so long?” Barric’s voice boomed through the cavernous room, rattling my teeth.
Jax gave a careless shrug. “We took the scenic route.”
Barric clocked the injuries peppering my body and the blood staining my clothes, and he lifted his nose in the air, sniffing. “I expected to smell Roxie on you—she does love torturing—but why is Amelia’s scent mixed in?”
“We had a little chat on the way here.” Sarcasm oozed out of my every word. “She’s still touchy over her son’s death.”
