“Don’t hurt him.”
Ascher stiffened, but her command was directed toward Shade. He grunted, then lifted his arms and heaved Ascher off his feet, knocking him into the others. Kincade protected her with his body when the others crashed into them.
“I suggest you get your men under control if you want them to stay.” Shade tugged at his jacket and cuffs, then bent and lifted Loki up by the scruff of his neck. The little gardog didn’t relent, still kicking his legs and snapping teeth at his prey, a patch of clothing caught on his tooth. “I believe this is yours.”
Morgan lifted her arms and twisted, breaking Kincade’s hold, but made no move to step away from him. She set her hands on his chest. “You good?”
He heaved a frustrated growl, but stepped aside and glared at Shade. “Try to take her from me again, god or no god, and I will destroy you. Understand?”
“I will do what I must to protect her while she is under my care.” Shade narrowed his eyes, then handed over Loki as if he was a peace offering. “I think we can both agree on that.”
Sneaky bastard.
Agreeing without actually agreeing.
But the vow was enough to appease Kincade, and he accepted Loki, giving the pup a pat on the head. “Good boy.”
The little mutt straightened and preened at the praise.
The elevator lurched to a stop. Before the doors could open, shots rained down through the tiny opening of the hatch. Instead of the ping of bullets, streaks of red hit the wall and exploded into crimson dust.
“Are those spells?”
They were being shot at like fish in a barrel.
To her surprise, Shade leapt in front of her, grunting when he took a shot to the arm. The door opened behind her, and she fell backwards through the opening, dragging Shade down with her. He landed on top of her, squishing her under his weight, and she grunted, hooking her leg over his hip and flipping them out of the way, leaving her straddling him.
Her men followed a second behind them, right before the doors lazily slid shut.
“Not very popular among the locals, huh?” She flashed Shade a smile, then squeaked when Kincade slipped an arm around her waist and scooped her up before carefully setting her on her feet. She patted his arm in thanks, then turned back to Shade. “Can you force the elevator up, then stop it to block them?”
Shade eyed them curiously but nodded, dragged himself up off the floor. He made a mysterious gesture over the panel next to the door, magic spiking around him, a faint, wispy golden symbol sinking into the controls.
Seconds later, the elevator whooshed upward.
Screams soon followed.
The guys were a little singed around the edges, a few had holes in their clothes where they barely got out of the way of the blasts in time, but none of them appeared to have taken a direct hit. She inspected each hole to make sure, the guys standing patiently under her examination.
Kincade ran his hands up and down her arms as if to reassure himself. Atlas and Draven kept their attention on Shade, as if expecting him to snatch her away again. Ascher lifted her chin, twisting her face side to side as he searched for injuries. When satisfied, he leaned his forehead against hers for a few seconds before passing her on. Ryder looked ready to spill out of his skin, and she slipped her arms around his waist and tucked herself close to him until the rumble in his chest subsided.
When she turned, she came face-to-face with Shade, and she jerked back a little awkwardly. Then she spotted his arm. “You’re bleeding.”
“Doesn’t everyone?” He gave her a funny look that left her feeling foolish.
Avoiding his eyes, she probed the injury, ignoring the way he tried to squirm away from her. “You’re only singed a bit. You don’t even need a bandage.”
“We need to go.” But Shade continued to stare at her oddly for a few more seconds, as if no one had ever taken care of him before, then backed away and headed down the hallway. “We need to discuss terms.”
Granted, Shade might have saved her, but she was still uncertain of his objective. She sure as hell didn’t trust him, but the choice was out of her hands. If they didn’t make a deal, she and her guys would remain trapped in Tartarus with gods stalking their every step, while the primordial realm fell to ruins and basically imploded.
“I don’t trust you. The—”
“I just saved your life,” Shade protested, but she wasn’t buying it.
“You saved me for a reason. What do you want?” They passed through a series of passageways, the white walls and white tiled floors reminding her of a laboratory of sorts, but instead of florescent lights, fey globes illuminated the corridors.
“I was born in Tartarus, which means I am unable to leave on my own. The seal that closed off Tartarus from Mount Olympus is slowly syphoning magic from the residents. As you can imagine, no one is happy about it. To counter the draining effect, they ask for volunteers from each family to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.” His lips curled into a sneer at what he thought about the system.
“Let me guess…you were volunteered?”
He gave her a sharp nod. “The gods are fertile, if nothing else. Their many offspring ensure their line will never die out, but also prevent them from ever being hunted and sacrificed themselves. I’m the youngest and strongest of the demigods.”
“So you want me to be your escape hatch.” Morgan felt for him, she really did, but giving a god free rein to do whatever he wished never worked out well for anyone. How would she be able to stop a god if he was left to muck about on his own?
As if he sensed her wavering, he offered her the only guarantee he could. “If you don’t trust me, bind me.”
Morgan stiffened at his request. Binding a person was a form of slavery. No one willingly gave another control over them without a damned good reason. They were already ankle-deep in shit, and she feared this step would send them up shit creek without a paddle. She wasn’t too worried about herself, but she hesitated to tie her team to a god.
“Morgan, you don’t know anything about him.” Ascher was the one who protested. “There are consequences of binding a person to you.”
“I’m a night mare.” Shade didn’t hesitate to divulge his secrets. He paused in front of a door and placed his palm against the metal. When locks clicked, he twisted the knob, then looked back at her. “I can enter people’s dreams.”
Morgan scowled when he disappeared into the room, shaking her head as she made the connection to his name—he’s a freak’n nightshade. They were considered deadly creatures that lived in darkness and fed off people’s fear. That he was a night mare, the most powerful type of the nightshade family. He could invade people’s minds when they were at their most vulnerable, which only made it worse. “You have a lot more power than you’re admitting.”
When she followed him into the room, the last thing she expected to find was a warehouse the size of a football field. The room was constructed of concrete and magic, the dozens of pillars the only things keeping the weight of the building from collapsing on them.
Everything looked so…innocuous, so normal compared to the primordial realm.
“You’re wondering why so much of the human realm is in Tartarus?” Shade waved his hand to indicate the room, as if reading her thoughts. “Magic can bind with the elements—dirt, air, water, fire…even humans. Tartarus was created by pure magic. It needed a binding element.”
Morgan accepted the distraction, her mind churning with the startling information. “Hence why it resembles earth so much…without the binding elements, the magic used to create Tartarus would’ve faded eons ago.”
Her eyes were drawn toward the back of the warehouse, and what he went through so much trouble to keep hidden. A thick sheet of glass protected what appeared to be a duplicate to the gate that delivered them to Tartarus.