Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

Curses erupted behind me, and footsteps hammered the wooden planks as Ruin and Logan closed the gap between us.

"Get her out of here!" Fane yelled while Mykel bound him in heavy chains.

Arms wrapped around my waist to stop me from running to Fane. "No!" I struggled in Ruin's hold, fighting and kicking as he hurried to the other side of the bridge. "We can't leave him."

My heart squeezed and cracked as the distance grew between us, and my breaths became shallow, ragged pants. The bond strained, angry at the separation again. "Put me the fuck down, or I'll unleash the Infernal Sol's power, and you'll wish for death."

Ruin hissed in my ear as the bridge swayed dangerously to the side. "If you do that while we're on this rickety thing, we'll both wish for death as we fall into whatever monster's lair awaits us below. "

"Stop fighting them, Teague!" Fane's rough voice in my head punched a hole through my chest. "Let them save you."

"I won't leave you."

"You don't have a choice."

After all the pain and torment I caused him, if anyone deserved to be yanked back to Heldrok, it was me.

Agony ripped apart my insides as the guards surrounded Fane. "Venna doesn't need you alive like she does me."

"She wouldn't dare kill me without you here to watch."

I wouldn't leave him. I didn't give a fuck if they caught me. The moment Ruin released me, I'd sprint back across the bridge to join Fane.

When we reached the other side and Ruin tossed me down, I stumbled back toward the bridge before Nik could catch me. A few guards had already stepped onto the shaking wooden planks, heading in our direction.

I'd bulldoze them over or simply let them take me. Either way, I'd be back with Fane, and he wouldn't have to face that hell alone.

As if he could see the plan forming in my mind, Logan shot me a somber look. "I'm sorry, Tate." And then he used his talons to slice the rope attaching the bridge to this side of the mountain.

The guards screamed as the bridge violently shifted sideways, tossing them into the pit. Roars erupted from the darkness below as the sub-demons rejoiced at their gift from above.

"Logan, don't!" One side still held on. I was light enough to shimmy across. I could do it. But as I sprinted forward, Ruin snatched me off my feet.

"You can't save him now. "

I kicked and screamed as he dragged me away from the edge. "Let me go." My talons grew and sank into his arms, spilling black blood across his tattooed flesh. "You have no right to keep me here."

Logan sliced the other side, and the bridge swung through the air, slamming against the mountain where Heldrok stood. There was no way back to Fane from here.

A vicious howl belted out of my mouth, and Fane's head yanked in my direction as the guards led him away. His blue and gold eyes glowed through the dim land.

"I will get out of this, Tate. I promise."

"You should have let me come with you."

His brief phantom touch across my cheek had my muscles going limp. "I'd rather you be safe."

Ruin gently lowered me to my feet as the guards swallowed Fane. Mykel gave a cruel smile in my direction.

"You should have let me go with him." Fury sliced my words, but the heartache in them was even more palpable than the rage.

"His priority was always to get you out and safe." Ruin's grip fell from around my waist, but he remained close. "He made us swear to get you free at any cost."

I turned to him, my lips quivering. "Yeah, well, you should have ignored him." I shoved by Ruin, disregarding Logan's pleas. "Next time, make him the priority. Not me." I'd done enough damage to be punished for. No one should waste their life to save mine.

"We'll come back for Fane." Logan jogged to my side. "We'll get you safe and then return. We have a backup plan."

My brow arched. "You do? "

He wrapped his arm around mine. "Of course. We'll have to adjust some things, but we'll get him out."

"When?" I asked, anxious to bust Fane out of Heldrok. They had another thing coming if they thought I'd sit back and let them go without me.

Ruin appeared on my other side. "Let's find somewhere safe to regroup. We aren't much good to Fane until we rest."

Rest? How could I rest knowing Fane was back in that place?

"It's clear." Nik emerged from the cave he inspected for us. He hadn't bothered with his glamour since we'd been in the Underworld, and his neon-green eyes gave an eerie, radioactive glow through the darkness blanketing the land.

We'd walked for hours until black, twisted trees grew into the hard ground. They looked burnt as if a fire had swept through the sparse forest, but this was their natural state. Scarlet lightning still streaked the ebony sky.

We entered the cave, and Nadia cast a spell to create a fire. Logan dropped one of the bags of supplies they hid on the mountainside, unzipping it.

"I brought these for you." He passed me a bundle of clothes I'd left at his apartment in Savannah and a pair of new combat boots.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

Before I could walk away for privacy to change, he snatched my wrist. "He's going to be okay, Tate. He's been through hell and back a hundred times. He'll make it out of this. "

Finding my voice through the lump growing in my throat took a moment. I kept picturing Fane in that muzzle or chained to the wall while I tortured him. "I just—" I quickly blinked to keep the tears at bay. "We were so close." And freedom was ripped right out of our hands.

"You'll be back together before you know it." Logan released me and gave a lopsided grin. "Glad to see you two kids gave up on pretending to hate each other."

I snorted. "We still hate each other sometimes."

After changing into jeans, a black shirt, and boots, I sat on one of the flat rocks Nik and Nadia arranged near the fire, taking a canteen of water from the dux demon. "Thanks."

Guilt ate at me because Fane would be deprived of water and food in Heldrok. My heart ached as I imagined the terrible things happening to him right now.

Ruin sat across from me on another rock, his intense blue gaze making me squirm. "I'm sorry, Tate. I know things didn't go how we hoped, but getting you out is still a win."

I'd rather be back with Fane.

"Do you think your brother will help him?" I still couldn't believe Demarcus was Ruin's twin. I didn't even know he had a brother, much less a twin. He'd never mentioned him, but with the way they reacted to each other, I wasn't surprised. Everything Wrath said while pretending to be Demarcus held new meaning.

Did he really believe Ruin had something to do with the demons going crazy, or was that part of some mastermind plan to harm his brother?

This was definitely not a relationship like Fane had with Warin.

"Honestly, I don't know." The demon lord rubbed his hands over his thighs, lines deepening across his forehead. "Wrath has always been unpredictable. He doesn't do things without a reason, and I have no idea what he could be up to this time."

"Did you try to kill him?"

Ruin's head bowed, and he stared at the ground. "It's complicated."

"You either did or didn't. Not that complicated."

He dragged his fingers through his hair, his shoulders tensing beneath the black shirt. "He got himself killed—or I thought he had—but I could have done more to help him." Ruin dug a rock out of the dirt with the tip of his boot. "If I'd found him sooner, those witches wouldn't have had a chance to kill him."

"Witches did it?" Plenty were powerful enough to kill a high demon. "Why?"

"Like I said, Wrath was into some bad things back then, and his ego and greed got the best of him." He rubbed his nape. "I didn't want to be bothered with it at first, and when I did get involved, it was too late."

I took another sip of water as the silence stretched between us. Something about Ruin's story seemed off or missing, but maybe he simply didn't want to get into his history with the brother he thought was dead.

"I don't understand why he would allow Venna to bring you and Fane to Heldrok." Ruin grabbed his bag and took out a protein bar, offering me one.

"He said he owed her a favor." I laid the bar in my lap, my appetite nonexistent.

Ruin pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered in a demon tongue under his breath. "He would do something that reckless."

"He did help me out a few times." Sorin had me in his grasp twice when Demarcus—Wrath—interrupted.

"Remind me to thank him if I ever see him again." Ruin tore open the wrapper but halted before he took a bite. "Did he ask or say anything about me?"

"Not really," I lied. "He asked why you wanted the Infernal Sol."

His eyes snapped to mine. "Did you tell him?"

"No." My fingers nervously twisted a lock of hair. "Not him ."

"Then who?"

Giant knots fisted in my gut as I chewed on my bottom lip, hesitating. "I had to tell Venna about Soulvation."

A vein throbbed in Ruin's tattooed neck, the only sign of emotion. "She was torturing you for that information?"

"I didn't break the whole time. It wasn't until she—" An invisible blade stabbed my heart and painfully twisted. "If I didn't tell her, she'd force me to torture Fane."

"Her demons would have reported to her what they saw in my lab, so I knew it was a possibility she'd try to rip that information from you." He absentmindedly rubbed his bottom lip with a long, pale finger. "Her lackeys must have been the ones who broke into my lab again, but we'd already moved everything concerning Soulvation to another location."

"Are you mad?"

"Of course not. You couldn't help what she did." He gave a reassuring smile. "I'm glad you didn't have to go through torturing Fane. "

My hands curled into tight fists on my lap. "She still made me do it. For days on end. Weeks."

Ruin's smile dropped. "I'm sorry, Tate. That must have been horrible. I know you and Fane have a connection from his bite."

There was much more between us than the bite.

Logan kneeled beside me, his gaze dropping to the dampening sigil on my arm. "Sorry to interrupt, but Nadia has finished the potion to remove this."

"You can get it off me?" I'd love to be able to have full use of my powers when we stormed into Heldrok. Of course, getting this off wouldn't help me shift.

Logan winced. "It's going to hurt like a son of a bitch."

"Let's just get this over with." I'd been tortured for the last few months. Physical pain was nothing new.

Nadia slowly walked over with a small copper bowl, her black clothes wrapping her curvy frame. "Stay still while I pour this onto the mark." Logan scooted to my other side so she could kneel in front of me. "Maybe someone should hold her mouth closed. If she screams, she'll draw all kinds of sub-demons to us."

My brows slammed down. "I'll be fine."

"Whatever you say. Just be prepared to fight if you scream." Nadia's Romanian accent coiled around each word and mixed with her doubt.

Logan patted my hand but quickly released it. "I'd hold your hand, but I'm afraid you'll shatter my bones." He turned to Ruin. "What about you? You want to give it a go?"

"Quiet," Nadia demanded as she lifted the bowl. "I have to concentrate."

I held my breath as she tipped the bright green substance onto the sigil. It bubbled and seared my flesh, but it wasn't as bad as?—

Shit.

Blinding pain erupted in my arm, and my jaw clamped shut so hard my teeth vibrated. A blood-red haze descended through the cave, everything blurring as fire engulfed my bicep. Had someone filled my veins with fucking acid?

My fingers curled into tight fists, my nails digging into my palms. Sweat leaked down my temples.

As Nadia spoke an incantation, the agony heightened until I was on the verge of passing out. My lids fluttered, and I felt myself falling back. I would have hit the ground if not for the strong arms that caught me. Warm vanilla swam up my nostrils as the person held me.

Convulsions hit my body, and the arms tightened to keep me from cracking my limbs on nearby rocks. I sucked in air for a scream, but a hand slammed over my mouth, and the shriek lodged in my throat while tears streamed down my cheeks.

A prison of agony trapped me for eons before the burning on my arm lessened and my muscles slackened. I fell against the person—Ruin—choking on ragged gulps of air.

"It's done. It's gone," he whispered in an unusually calm, soothing voice.

Nadia used a rag to gently wipe my arm and then wrapped a white bandage around it as Logan handed me a canteen of water.

"Drink this, Tate."

I guzzled it down, wincing when the sweet flavor burst over my tongue. "That's not water," I coughed out.

The high demon pressed his lips together to mask his smile. "Sorry I had to trick you, but it'll help you sleep. "

Bastard .

I pushed off of Ruin and sat up. "We need to help Fane."

"You need to rest." Logan laid his hand on my shoulder to keep me from standing. "Fane would want you to."

I scowled. "Fane's not here, and what he doesn't know can't hurt him…" My voice trailed off as my words slurred. What the hell did that prick give me?

"Come on, Tate." Ruin helped me off the rock and onto a sleeping bag Nik had unrolled. "Get some rest while we figure out a game plan."

The cave ceiling blurred as I reclined back, my eyelids growing heavy. I could barely keep them open. "If I wake up and you're gone on a rescue mission without me, I will kick all your asses."

Logan chuckled. "That's not that much of a threat. I happen to like fighting with you."

I flipped him off, or at least I tried, but my fingers barely moved. As their voices faded, my mind drifted to Fane, a sob sticking in my throat. Someone used a rag to dab the sweat on my forehead and then wiped my tears.

Pangs twisted through my chest thinking of Fane. He was strong but not invincible, and Venna was determined to make us suffer for her sister and Karn.

As I drifted to sleep, darkness didn't come. Instead, one of the torture rooms in Heldrok materialized. Chains hung from the ceiling, weapons dangled from the walls, and the steady drip of water was its own form of torment.

Sharp knives punctured my lungs when Fane appeared, muzzled, wrapped in chains, and forced to kneel on the ground. Venna stood before him while Kaspin loomed behind him, chanting under his breath from a weathered grimoire .

What were they doing to him?

"Fane!"

He didn't react to my voice, and he didn't see me when I moved right in front of him.

"Is this spell going to work or not, Kaspin?" Venna folded her arms, pushing up her cleavage already spilling out her corset top.

The ancient witch looked up from his grimoire. "It will work as long as your assistant returns with the talisman. That stone will solidify the enchantment."

Ice dragged along my veins, freezing my blood. What talisman? What spell were they putting on him?

My breaths came in ragged pants as I tried to grab Fane, but my hand passed through him. Why couldn't I reach him?

The door opened, and Mykel marched in, smirking at Fane. "He should always be muzzled."

"Did you get it?" Venna snapped. "We don't have time to make jokes. We need the talisman if this is going to work."

The dux demon lifted his hand, swinging a familiar necklace around. "I found it in that annoying high demon's apartment."

Trepidation dripped through my bloodstream, cooling my muscles. Why would they need the bloodstone Fane used to wear around his neck? A witch had enchanted it years ago to help him find his brother's killer.

Me.

Kaspin flicked his bony hand and snagged the talisman with his magic, floating it to him. As he dropped it into the bowl, a puff of smoke bloomed out. His eyes, the color of amethysts, glowed as he waved his hand over the spell mixture .

"It's ready."

Fane snarled and jerked on the chains, blood oozing from the wound in his leg. My chest caved in as I helplessly watched him thrash like a wild animal caught in a trap.

"Fane? Can you hear me?"

Nothing.

Was he unable to see or hear me because my body was asleep? Or was the witch's magic blocking me?

Putrid green smoke spiraled out as Kaspin slinked forward with the bowl. "This will do exactly what you need, Princess Venna." His robe drifted around his bare feet like a black phantom, and his thin, ghostly-pale skin shined with a sickly hue under the yellow lights. "He'll be unstoppable."

"I'll believe it when I see it." She flicked her curtain of sleek blonde locks over her shoulder. "There's something strange about those two."

When Kaspin shoved the steaming bowl beneath Fane's face, he turned away, trying to fight it. "Hold him."

Mykel captured Fane's head between his large hands, keeping it steady as the witch forced the green smoke to swirl through the holes in the muzzle, seeping into Fane's mouth and nose.

Every muscle turned to stone as I waited for the spell's effects. If they hurt him, I'd never forgive myself. I'd also let the Infernal Sol take over every square inch of me and return to Heldrok to make Venna, Mykel, and Kaspin suffer until their last dying breath.

Fane coughed and sputtered, but he couldn't stop the spell mixture from burrowing into his senses. A violet sheen spilled into his irises as they glazed over, and he stopped struggling. His ragged breaths slowed, and his head bowed .

With a wave of Kaspin's hand, Fane's muzzle fell to the stone ground with a thud. He brought the bowl to Venna, and she plucked out the chain with her long nails, dangling the bloodstone in front of the demon shifter.

"Fane? Look at me."

When his head lifted, his gaze zeroed in on the bloodstone.

"Do you know what this is?"

"It's the amulet Diama enchanted to find Warin's killer." His voice was flat and emotionless, like he was trapped in a daze.

Venna nodded. "And do you know who killed your brother?"

Lines developed across his forehead. "Yes, but she…" He swallowed hard as if having a hard time speaking. "She…"

"She what?" The demon princess scowled at the witch. "This had better work, Kaspin."

Fane's muscles strained as he pulled on the binds chaining him to the ground, battling Kaspin's spell. "She…"

A bead of sweat ran down my nape, and my nails bit into my palms so hard I wouldn't be surprised if my hands were bleeding back in the cave. Venna wanted him to despise me again for killing his brother. Had the spell washed away all we'd gone through in the last year?

"Fight it, Fane." I kneeled in front of him, urging him to see me. "You are stronger than his magic. You can fight this."

The veins in his neck popped, and his jaw clenched. "Tate…"

"Yes, that's her name." Venna stepped forward and gingerly lowered the talisman around Fane's neck, letting it rest on his chest. "She killed Warin in cold blood. Remember how brutal it was? You must avenge him. "

"Avenge him," he muttered. "I've been searching for his killer."

"And you found her, remember?"

My heart plunged to the bottom of my gut as darkness flooded his features, and rage pulsated in his eyes. The spell was winning.

"Tatum Teague." The name dripped off Fane's tongue with enough venom to kill me in seconds. "She will pay."