Page 26 of Blood

In the distance, a tranquil river of water trickles into a large pond, causing waves to ripple against the shoreline.

Perfect.

Serene.

And unlike anything my mind would conjure up—not when my thoughts are a thunderous storm cloud threatening to unleash a torrent of rainfall and zigzagging lightning at any damn second.

“Barret?” I don’t even dare to hope. How is it possible? Has he somehow freed himself from the rune Zeus placed on him? Is he nearby?

I spin in a circle so quickly I almost become dizzy. My heart gallops like a runaway racehorse in my chest. Where is he? Is he here? Am I wrong and this is truly just a dream, nothing more?

And then I see them, and the world stops spinning, becoming perpetually frozen in time, trapped in a snow globe crafted specifically for my viewing pleasure.

Barret and Vin.

They stand shoulder to shoulder opposite me in the clearing, two imposing forces that never fail to make my heart play leapfrog in my chest. For so long, my brain has been nothing but a forest of overgrown weeds and crumbling ruins, but one glance at my mates takes a machete to all that overgrowth. I can finally breathe.

My gaze snags on Barret first, just because he stands to the left of Vin. His huge, mammoth form never fails to make me feel tiny and petite. However, despite the way he dwarfs me, I know that he’ll never hurt me or raise a hand to me. There’s so much tenderness splayed across his face that it would be impossible to believe otherwise.

His dark skin emits a green glow—one of the few indicators he’s using his magic. His emerald-tipped hair sways in the breeze as he takes a single step toward me.

“Cheese curd,” he breathes reverently.

“Barret? Vin?” I glance at my monster hunter mate, and all the air I just gained back whooshes out of me in a gaping exhale.

If I needed to physically manifest the way I feel on the inside, Vin would be it.

His olive skin has taken on an ashen complexion, making the circles under his eyes even more pronounced. Vin’s dark, spiked hair is in complete disarray as well. I know Vin to habitually run his hands through the strands whenever he’s anxious or agitated. What does it say about him that it looks as if he took a lawn mower to the onyx locks?

I’m across the field before either of them can respond to me, reaching upward to sling one arm around Barret’s neck and the other around Vin’s. They both hold me between them, though not a single word is spoken between the three of us.

Honestly, I don’t know what there is to say.

Our shared grief is a tangible entity hovering over us like a guillotine. Any second now, that blade will drop and blood will splatter.

When I feel as if I’m going to go insane, I whisper, “I’ve been so worried about you guys.”

“You’ve been worried?” Vin snorts, the noise semi-hysterical. “Violet, you disappeared with a necromancer who wants to murder you. The only thing we knew was that you were alive. But even then—” He cuts himself off abruptly and begins to nuzzle my neck.

“I’m safe,” I rush to reassure them. “I promise. I’m with Alex—”

“The necromancer who wants to murder you?” Barret interjects, sounding alarmed.

“Depends on the day.” I attempt to wave dismissively, but since I’m still clinging to my guys, I only serve to swat at the back of Vin’s head. “But there’s so much I need to tell you.”

“There’s not much for us to tell you.” Vin pulls away somewhat reluctantly, so he can stare at my face. Barret keeps his arms around me, tugging me flush to his chest. “But first, you need to know that we’re all okay, even that fucker Dimitri. We haven’t seen Hera, Lucifer, or Dracula since we’ve been separated, but we heard from some guards that they’re still alive. Basically, we’re kept in some fucking man cave in Zeus’s palace. We only have access to our magic when a guard enters to deliver us food—hence, why it took so long to come here. Cal’s keeping the guard, um, occupied so we can speak with you.”

“We don’t dare leave to get to you,” Barret pipes up. I tilt my head back to meet his eyes, and he flashes me a soft smile. “We might murder you if we did.”

The fact that he says that while smiling...

He’s just so dang cute sometimes.

Vin runs a hand down his face with an audible sigh. “I’d like to believe that we won’t kill our mate and true love if we were to get free.”

“But we probably would,” Barret points out with another helpful grin.

I hurry to interrupt before this can turn into an argument over whether they’ll brutally murder me. “Well, Alex and I went to visit the monster council—”

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