“My brother.” She heaved a great, shuddering sob. “How could this have happened? How could I have let this happen?”
Lore’s heart cracked wide open. “It’s not your fault, angel. He’s not the guy you once knew. He’s enraged and insane—” He broke off as the image of Sin bleeding on the floor of their grandparents’ home came back to him. His voice became a husky rasp. “Everyone’s okay. We got here in time.”
She shook her head so hard her ponytail slapped his arm. “But, Rade. Oh, Lore… if he hurts Rade—”
“He won’t,” Lore swore. “We’ll nail his ass to the wall. My dagger tasted his blood. You can flash us to him.”
“Good,” she whispered. “That’s good.”
The crack of boots on the floor announced two arrivals. Keeping Idess tucked protectively against him, Lore turned.
Eidolon snatched a satellite phone from the end table near the couch. Shade stood a few feet from Lore, still covered in blood and his gaze dark. “So this Rariel guy took Rade.” It wasn’t a question, and when Lore nodded, Shade swallowed. “I thought you had him.”
“You were wrong.”
More swallowing. And, no apology. “But you were hired to kill Ky.”
“Hired ” wasn’t the right word. “Forced ” was closer, but right now wasn’t the time to split hellrat hairs. “Yes.”
Shade’s hands formed fists, and Lore set Idess aside and braced himself for a blow. “E said if you don’t do it, Sin will die.” He spoke in a hushed tone, for which Lore was grateful.
“Yeah.”
“We can’t let either happen.” Shade’s tone was dead. Flat. But at least he had seen the truth of the situation and wanted to help save their sister.
“That’s why Idess and I are going to kill Rariel.” Next to him, Idess went taut as a garrote wire, and shit, she had better be on board with killing the bastard. “You said his name is Rami. Why is he calling himself Rariel?”
“We’re given new names upon Ascension.” She hung her head, and her shoulders slumped. “I still can’t believe this.”
Shade grabbed a black biker jacket off a hook buried in the cave wall. “I’m going with you.”
“You can’t,” Idess said. “I can only flash one person to his location.”
“Hell’s fucking bells.” Shade’s nasty curse echoed through the chamber. “I want to know how he found the cave.” He threw down his jacket, knocking a gold rattle off the couch. Almost reverently, he picked up the toy, which was engraved with the name “Rade.”
Eidolon replaced the sat phone in its cradle. “Roag.” He hesitated before adding quietly, “It’s what I was trying to tell you just before Runa was attacked, and then a little while ago when I called.”
Tension winged through the air, and Lore held his breath, unsure if Shade was going to strike out at Eidolon for Shade’s own stubborn refusal to listen to Eidolon’s warning.
The storm passed when Shade snarled. “That burned-up, slimy skullfucker.” He clutched the rattle so hard Lore expected it to snap. But at least he hadn’t turned on E. “He’s as good as dead, and he’s still fucking with us.”
“Who is fucking with us?” Runa stood at the entrance to the living room. Her caramel hair hung in limp ropes around her pale face, but Lore suspected she was nowhere near as fragile as she appeared.
Shade went to her. “It’s not important. You need to take care of the boys, and I’ll handle this.”
“The hell you will!” She jabbed him in the shoulder. “My son is in danger, and I want to know everything.”
“Runa—”
“Everything.”
Shade sighed. “E says it’s Roag. He has something to do with all of this.”
Runa lost what little color she’d had, but her voice was steady and deadly as she ground out, “I want him dead. Painfully dead.”
Idess crossed the room, and when she stood before Runa, she took the female’s hand. “I will make this right for you,” she swore softly. “I swear to you all, I will somehow make this right.”
“Idess,” Lore said, “I told you. This isn’t your fault.”
“But it is. My brother wants revenge on me, and somehow he’s managed to draw all of you into it.”
“If this is all true,” Eidolon began, “I’d like to know how Roag and Rariel hooked up.”
“I don’t know how they managed to hook up after Roag was cursed,” Lore said, “but they knew each other before that. Rariel was there when Roag hired me to kill you.”
That earned him a glower from everyone but Idess. “Hey. I said I was sorry.” Actually, he didn’t think he had, but maybe they wouldn’t remember. It was probably time to go before they did. He checked his watch. They had an hour before they’d have to hunt down Rami.
“Idess, we gotta go. The devil’s hour is coming, and we need to prepare.”
She turned to Eidolon. “Can you send Kynan or Tayla to Lore’s place with some weapons treated in qeres?”
“You got it.”
“Qeres?” Lore asked. “Some sort of antiangel poison?”