Page 27 of Blood

Vin’s frown deepens. “The same one that wants to kill you?”

“Let bygones be bygones. They didn’t kill me, so I call that a win. Anyway...” As I speak, I fiddle with Barret’s huge hand, reveling in the connection between us, in the way heat migrates to my lower belly from where we touched. “They agreed to help us in our war against Zeus, though I’m not sure if we can trust them. The White Stag seems to believe that some of the council members are on Zeus’s payroll.” I don’t mention what Alex told me about Cal’s family. I need to talk to my cupid about that first and foremost before sharing it with the others.

“No surprise.” Vin snorts. “They would have to be either idiots or corrupted idiots to not see what was happening right under their noses.”

“I agree,” I say simply. “But if they’re willing to give me an army to save their own asses, then I’m all for that. The White Stag also told Alex a little bit about the rune Zeus placed on you guys.” Instinctively, my eyes dip to their skin, but in the dreamworld, it remains smooth and unblemished. Still, Vin’s hand comes to rub at the spot where his rune once sat, as if he can feel its malevolent presence even an entire realm away. “He seems to believe I’ll be able to break it because I’m a child of life and death and all that fun stuff.” I smile at them eagerly.

“That’s good and all, but what about us? How do you expect to get close to us to break it—”

I cut Vin off, still smiling like a lunatic. “He mentioned that this rune was initially used by our good friends, the Fomorians. Apparently, the rune is used to control minds—obviously. So, when a soul was being unruly, the Fomorians would apply the rune to it to get them to move on. Or something. Honestly, this is all secondhand knowledge from Alex, who heard it from the White Stag, who may or may not be working with Zeus.”

The first glint of life I’ve seen in Vin’s eyes since we arrived here makes an appearance. Barret’s grip on me tightens almost imperceptibly.

“You think Balor will be able to remove the rune?” Vin asks.

“Maybe.” I shrug. “He may not even know about it or remember it. It has been hundreds of years since he had to use it...if he even did at all.”

Or Balor is a butt-munching asshole who is purposely holding the information above our heads. It’s hard to tell with him.

But truth be told, we know next to nothing about the Fomorians—a race of literal giants who once roamed Earth, helping souls crossover and delivering them to their final resting place.

“We’re going to get to you, Violet. I fucking promise.” Vin moves abruptly, so he’s standing in front of me, and clamps his hands down on my shoulders. His eyes are wild, full of desperate despair, roaming across my face as if he fears he’ll never be able to see it again. “And when we do, we’ll kill Zeus for what he did to Mas—” He breaks off with a choked sob, and my own heart cracks even farther, the fissure widening until I fear it’ll never be able to reconnect.

Barret moves from behind me, his features drawn and tight, and gives a barely perceptible nod.

Vin needs you.

Be with him.

Love him.

He doesn’t need to say it out loud for me to understand.

I gather Vin to me desperately, rocking him as he sobs, and my own tears join his own. It’s a merging of souls—two monsters implicitly drawn together through their grief and shared love of one gorgon. His agony calls to me like a blazing beacon, a lighthouse amidst the fiercest of storms, and I’m helpless to resist the call. My agony pours out of me in a torrent. My lungs burn with a scream I refuse to unleash. A thousand teeth rip me apart from the inside out.

The anguish over losing Mason threatens to send me spiraling straight into oblivion, but I know I need to regain my head, if not for me, then for Vin. He needs me. All my mates do.

So, I hold Vin as we both fall apart and attempt to stitch ourselves back together. We’re broken and jagged, each a thread of a tapestry that is uniquely us. There’ll always be a gaping hole where Mason once resided, but maybe, with time, the pain will dull. Instead of a mottled red burn, it’ll merely be a scab. If you pick at it too often, it’ll flake and begin to bleed anew, but it’ll no longer be in danger of killing you.

Vin’s hands travel down my spine and caress the swell of my ass. I’m so shocked that I stagger farther into him, my forehead pressing against his shoulder. Need emanates from every pore of his body.

“Please,” Vin begs, a note of pleading in his voice I’ve never heard before. “I just... I need to forget. Take control, Violet. Let me forget.”

I hesitate, searching his face carefully, feeling my own grief create a gaping chasm that connects us together instead of ripping us apart.

And this is what we need, I realize with startling clarity. A way to lose ourselves in each other, for just a moment. A way to express our grief without the sadness and tears. Mason lived a jovial, full life—he would want the same for us.

I love my mates. All of them. And even though I want nothing more than to succumb to the pain roaring inside of me, I know I can’t.

“I have an idea,” I whisper, cupping Vin’s cheeks and feeling his five o’clock shadow slice at my skin like sandpaper. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life,” he replies immediately, already lowering his gaze to the ground.

It’s what he needs to get through this—to give up a smidgen of the ironclad control he’s been holding on to for too damn long.

And it’s what I need—to gain back some of the control I lost when Mason died.

I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and then visualize what I want. I know it works when Vin releases a sharp intake of breath. His eyes are fixed on the strap-on in my right hand.

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