Page 157 of Savage Blood
“I don’t need to breach your mind.” My eyelids fluttered shut, and I lifted my chin, inhaling. “Your fears float in the air, one already playing out on thattable.”
Logan’s blue eyes watered, anguish rippling over his face. “He’s my dearest friend. I can’t lose him either.”
Kesa, Fane’s mother, moved to my side and rested her hand on my shoulder.
Oh, she was a brave one. Of course, her son got his courage from somewhere.
“Please, Tate, let Logan concentrate,” she said, gently drawing me away from the high demon.
I shuffled back to the table that held my mate—my whole fucking reason for existing now—trying to shake the madness off and force my thoughts into a linear path.
“We don’t have enough time to get a witch here,” Ruin said, dragging his hand through his tousled locks. “I’m not sure that would work.”
My jaw ticked, and the urge to destroy the entire lab, the entire fucking house, burned through my veins. I wanted to tap into everyone’s fear and drown my sorrow to forget the agony tearing me apart.
It wouldn’t work, though. Deep down, I knew that.
No amount of fear, souls, alcohol, or drugs would rid me of this pain. I’d drown in it.
Fane might not have been my fated mate, but he was my soul mate. We were destined. I felt it in my bones.
Saint, who’d come to the Underworld with Logan and Ruin to help despite my rejection of our bond, pushed off the wall and crossed the lab. He’d been keeping his distance from me, but something had him risking my wrath.
“Heal him.”
My brow furrowed as I stared at the alpha of Blackwater Falls. “I can’t. We aren’t fated.”
Saint scoffed. “You two are more fated than we ever were.”
I shook my head, dragging in a ragged breath. “It won’t work. You couldn’t even heal me from the amulet’s sickness.”
“Maybe I couldn’t fully heal you because of your bond with Fane.” Saint walked to the other side of the table and stood across from me. “You told me time and again that you two weren’t just mates. You have an unbreakable bond that nothing can come between. I tried and failed.”
“So much for being unbreakable.” I spun and slammed my fist into another table, denting it. “He’s fucking dying!”
“Maybe he’s right, Tate.” Wrath gingerly stepped toward me, pain etched across his features. “You and Fane are unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been alive a long time. Maybe youcanheal him.”
Saint marched to my side of the table and gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Our bond is gone. There is only you and Fane now.”
“Uh, and the Infernal Sol,” Hawk said, his legs swinging back and forth as he sat on another table. “You are that ancient power now. That has to count for something.”
Ruin shrugged. “No one knows exactly what the Infernal Sol is capable of. If you can snap your little finger and make an entire room full of nightworlders go nuts, you can try to heal one little demon shifter hybrid.”
I brushed away my falling tears and turned toward Fane, my chest heaving with each weary breath. “Might as well try. Things can’t get any worse for him.”
Saint exhaled and then rested his hand on my shoulder. “Picture the wound healing and the poison vanishing, those black veins dissipating. Think about your bond and everything that tried and failed to pull you apart. Death will fail too.”
A million images of Fane and me during our tumultuousrelationship rushed through my mind at warp speed. In the beginning, we fought each other and cursed the bond until we were blue in the face. Once we stopped hating each other long enough to let our true feelings shine, we fell hard and fast.
Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come. Instead of battling the bond, we battled to stay together. Fate tried a dozen ways to rip us apart, but nothing worked, not even fated mate bonds.
Not a damn thing.
Death wouldnotsucceed now.
Fane twitched, and his lips parted. I felt him all around me—his soul, his presence—and I welcomed him into my arms, where he belonged.
Our journey wasn’t over yet. It hadn’t even started.
