ARI BECAME AWARE of her body as if she was awakening from a long slumber. First, there was a sense of heaviness wrapping around her, anchoring her to the ground. Then her scalp tingled and her toes itched. She took a deep, shuddering breath and felt her rib cage expand and contract. Her nostrils flared and the scent of fae magic and blood swamped her.
Ari blinked, and the room swam into focus. She was sitting in Teague’s chair in his study, her torso leaning against his desk. Her skin felt cold, her muscles sluggish. Just beyond the desk, the crumpled form of Maarit lay unmoving on the floor.
She stared at Maarit as her memories flooded back.
Stealing the contract. Teague somehow stepping out of Maarit’s body and speaking the last word in Ari’s incantation. Unbearable pain and her desperate attempt to reach Sebastian before everything disappeared into a vast sea of nothing.
Teague had taken Ari’s soul.
And somehow, Sebastian must have found a way to make Teague give it back.
Something crashed into the bookshelves to her left. Slowly, Ari turned her head and saw Sebastian kick Teague off him and then lunge to his feet as the smaller man attacked.
Teague moved with incredible speed, landing punches that were a blur of motion Ari could barely track. Sebastian blocked some of the blows and took the rest, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention to the fight the way Ari would have expected him to. Instead, he was steadily working his way toward the desk where Ari sat, flexing her fingers and marveling at the steady cadence of her heartbeat.
Sebastian rocked back on his heels as Teague’s fist connected with his face, and blood began pouring from his nose.
A trickle of anger ran through Ari, igniting warmth in her chest. She pressed the palms of her hands flat against the desk and slowly sat back in the chair.
She had her soul again, but they were still in trouble.
Sebastian was in trouble.
Teague whirled and slammed his fists into Sebastian’s stomach, sending him crashing onto the desk in front of Ari. She tried to reach for him, her movements disjointed and slow, but Teague got there first.
Landing on top of Sebastian, his face a mask of fury, Teague wrapped his hands around Sebastian’s throat and squeezed.
Sebastian punched the fae, landing blow after blow, but Teague simply laughed while his fingers squeezed, and Sebastian’s face began to darken.
Maybe Teague was stronger and faster because he was fae. Maybe Sebastian had already been injured to the point that he could no longer defend himself.
The reason didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Sebastian was choking to death at the hands of a monster, and Ari, with her sluggish, uncoordinated movements, was his last defense.
Her legs shook as she tried to stand, and she gripped the edge of the desk as she swayed. Sebastian cut his eyes to hers and then stared at her chest.
Really? He was dying in front of her, and now he decided to stop being a gentleman about her neckline?
Teague laughed—a cold, cruel sound that sent anger flooding through her body, lending her strength.
She met Sebastian’s eyes, trying to send him a silent promise that she would find a weapon and do her best to get Teague off him, but his gaze slid from hers and very deliberately looked at her chest again.
“I do enjoy killing a human with my own two hands.” Teague’s voice wrapped around the syllables with elegant rage.
Sebastian made an awful noise in the back of his throat and grabbed for Teague’s hands, trying to pry them free, but his gaze on Ari’s neckline was unwavering.
“The moment I kill you and nullify our contract, I will greatly enjoy killing your precious princess,” Teague whispered as he leaned over Sebastian, his feral eyes wild, his hair in disarray for the first time in Ari’s memory.
She cast around for a weapon, something easy to lift, and found nothing. Spilled inkpots, quills broken from the struggle, and a sea of parchment contracts scattered across the floor.
Contracts.
Holding desperately to the desk with one hand, she lifted the other and reached into her chemise.
The contract she’d taken before Teague had discovered her was still there, but this time when she pulled it out, there was a bloody fingerprint on the debtee’s side. She examined her hands and found a cut on the index finger of her right hand.
She lifted her eyes to Sebastian’s, and relief filled his face. He bucked beneath Teague, momentarily knocking the shorter man off balance, and slapped his hand against the side of the desk, shoving the top drawer open.
Teague attacked, a blur of motion that sent Sebastian flying off the desk to sprawl on the floor beside Maarit. He tried to get up, but Teague was already there, hands reaching for Sebastian’s throat.
Ari unfolded the contract with shaking fingers and scanned Sebastian’s cramped writing, while a vicious light of triumph ignited in her chest.
He’d done it. Somehow, he’d found a way to win back her soul and put her in a position to finish this.
To finish Teague.
Folding up the contract so that all that could be seen was the space reserved for the debtor’s fingerprint, Ari shoved it into her chemise and looked for a way to pierce Teague’s skin.
A blade glinted in the drawer Sebastian had opened. Ari snatched it and stumbled around the desk.
Sebastian bucked and twisted. Teague smiled and whispered something in fae as he crushed his hands around Sebastian’s neck.
Ari steadied the blade in her hand and then launched herself toward them.
Teague saw her at the last moment and swung to face her, momentarily letting go of Sebastian, but he was too late. Ari crashed into him and stabbed the dagger into his outstretched hand.
Teague snarled and yanked the dagger free. Blood poured from the wound, coating his fingers and dripping onto the floor.
“You’re going to pay for that. You’re going to pay for everything.” Teague leaped from Sebastian, who coughed—wet, hacking sounds that shook his entire body—but still struggled to his knees.
“What are you going to do?” Ari asked with as much attitude as she could muster. “Make another pipe out of my bones? Another reminder of the second human girl to betray you?”
His eyes glowed with fury, and Ari took a step back, her hands fluttering to her chest as if terrified.
Which wasn’t hard to do, because fear was a chest-crushing, breath-stealing monster living just beneath her skin.
“Taunt me again,” Teague said softly, “and see what I do to you.”
Ari’s mouth went dry, and behind Teague, Sebastian tried and failed to get to his feet.
It was time. She would either save them both or die trying.