Page 81 of Jagged Souls
Broken.
A shell of who he is.
A mirror of me.
“She could have saved herself if she had her magic,” he cries.
Pain lances through me. “I know.”
“Oh, fuck off. No, she couldn’t have,” Maddox cuts in as he walks over to us, completely naked and covered in blood but without a scratch on him. He must have shapeshifted recently to heal himself. “Antonio would’ve just cut off her hands.”
Dayne looks like he wants to argue, to attack the man he believes tortured her, but I can see the knowledge in his eyes. As much as he wants to blame the two of us, as much as I am still blaming myself and always will, we know my brother speaks the truth.
Antonio isn’t stupid. Everyone knows a witch without their hands and tongue is helpless.
He would’ve just maimed her as soon as he took her.
“She only has her hands still because she doesn’t have magic,” Maddox continues. “That’s given her a better chance to survive, so stop with this blame and pity party shit and help me find Rudy. He took her into his shadows before they could take her.” His brow furrows. “But I had to shift right then so I didn’t die, and I didn’t catch where he was…”
Dayne and I are already on our feet, streaking around the room, trying to find Rudy. I throw wolves aside left and right in case he’s under one of them, not giving a damn that I’m supposed to be hiding the fact that I’m a hybrid from Dayne and Stefaan
“He’s gone!” Mother calls out, her voice strong enough to cut through my desperation. I stop, facing away from her, my chest heaving, my brow sweating. The werewolf I just tossed into the air crashes down on another pile of bodies, and like it’s the starting gun, I spin on my feet and race back to my mother.
“Who?” I rasp, my heart beating fast, yet feeling like it’s not moving at all. I know who she’s talking about, in my heart of hearts I know.
But I’m not ready to accept it.
I’m looking for any reason, any smallest sign that she doesn’t meanhim.
The boy I raised like my own son.
“Antonio… took… Rudy,” Mother says, knocking the final strength from my knees.
I drop down in front of her with a broken cry.
Her voice is weak once more. It seems she used all her energy to yell, so I reach for a potion, for one of the ones I couldn’t use to save Leno. As soon as I uncork it, thatpopsounding between us, though, she shakes her head. “It… won’t… heal me,” she says. “The damage… is from… my… own… magic.”
“Father’s curse,” I growl just as Dayne and Stefaan reach me, all of us desperate to hear what she has to say about the woman we love.
“I’m… sorr...” She trails off, and Dayne’s hands are on her immediately, glowing white. He isn’t an innate healer like she is, isn’t as strong, but he’s the best one we have left now that Mother’s out, and Leno’s…
“Where’s Leno?” Maddox asks as the rest of my brothers enter the gym, followed by Stormie, who makes a beeline for me.
“In my shadows,” the reaper says quietly. He looks at me. Maddox stops dead still.
“So bring him out,” he says. “He doesn’t like that place. Bring him out now.”
“Maddox –”
“Bring him out!” He shoves Khalid with both hands, his eyes wild, his chest heaving. “Bring him out! You’re killing all of our brothers! Just bring him out!”
“Maddox!” Ezriel shouts, but Khalid just grabs our baby brother by the wrist and spins him around so his back is to his chest. Khalid’s arms wrap around him. Magic crackles in Maddox’s fingers, but then it just snuffs out, dies as he sags forward and cries.
Khalid holds him up, his face stoic, unreadable. “He’s in a bubble of Stormie’s,” he murmurs. “We’re bringing him back so Krypto… So he can understand he’s gone.”
“He can’t be gone….” Maddox cries. “I talked to him just last night. He was telling me all the plans he had for the yard… He can’t be gone. Hecan’t...”
I turn away from them, the grief hitting me hard.
