Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Rocco
I woke to a scream that turned my blood to ice.
Not a shout. Not a cry. An agonizing, guttural scream—the sound of someone who'd just had their world ripped apart. It tore through the walls of our room and jolted me upright, my heart slamming against my ribs before my eyes were fully open.
Selena. My hand shot out, searching for her in the dark. She was there—warm, alive, already stirring beside me, her eyes wide with alarm. Safe. She was safe.
We were a knot of sheets and bare skin, and it took a frantic few seconds to pull ourselves apart.
The scream came again. Down the hall.
I grabbed my jeans and hauled them up. "Stay here."
"No." Already on her feet, already pulling on her shirt.
I didn't have time to argue. I threw open the door and charged into the hallway.
Lucien was thrashing between Valentin and Darius, his face contorted with a rage so raw it barely looked human.
They each had one of his arms, their feet planted, muscles straining to hold him.
Lucien was strong—terrifyingly strong—and whatever had broken inside him was fueling a fury that was giving even two vampires a fight.
"Let me go!" He thrashed against them, his eyes wild. "I'll kill him. I'll fucking kill him!"
Doors opened along the hallway. Guests peered out in their bathrobes, wide-eyed, staring at the three men struggling in the corridor like they were witnessing a breakdown. Which, from the look of it, they were.
Shit. So much for staying under the radar. All it took was one phone call to the local police, one nosy tourist with a camera, and our location would be broadcast to anyone looking for us. And everyone was looking for us.
Valentin and Darius wrestled him into a room at the end of the hall where Rose and Alice waited. Rose shut the door behind them. Alice stood by the window, her face ashen.
I stood in the doorway, my chest tight. I’d seen rage before—lived inside it, been consumed by it. But this was something else. Lucien looked like a man being torn apart from the inside out. Whatever Vex had done, whatever message he’d sent, it had found its target.
And if Vex could break Lucien—one of the strongest among us—the rest of us didn’t stand a chance.
"You need to calm down," Valentin said, still pinning Lucien's arm. "You can't charge after him. Not like this."
I followed them in, my pulse still hammering. "What happened?"
Selena appeared at my shoulder. She had on her T-shirt and a pair of jeans, her hair wild from sleep. I reached for her hand without thinking—an instinct now, keeping her close whenever the world tilted sideways.
Lucien stopped struggling. Not because the fight had left him—I could see it still raging behind his eyes, a wildfire barely contained. His chest heaved. His hands trembled. A vein pulsed at his temple like it was about to burst through the skin.
When he spoke, his voice was shattered.
"Vex." His fist slammed into the wall, cracking the plaster. "Vex took Raven."
The room went dead silent. Even the air seemed to stop moving.
Fuck.
My gaze cut to the window. The sky was black. No sign of silver scales catching moonlight, no massive shadow circling overhead. She was gone.
I glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Half past nine. Less than three hours before the Solstice.
And Vex had just gotten himself a new bargaining chip.
I looked at Selena. Her face had gone white, her hand gripping mine so hard I could feel the bones shift.
She was thinking the same thing I was—that could have been her.
That could have been any of us. And now one of the most powerful women in our world was in the hands of a demon who fed on suffering.
"He's going to be expecting us," Rose said. "We have to be ready for anything."
"I'm not going to let him kill her," Lucien said, renewing his efforts to break free. “I still have the fucking shard. That motherfucker is dead.’
I understood. If Vex had taken Selena, I'd have torn through every wall in this building to get to her.
But rage wouldn’t save Raven. We needed to think. Vex wanted the shard—that’s why he’d taken her. She was leverage. Which meant she was alive. And as long as she was alive, we had a chance. But the clock was ticking, and a demon with a hostage didn’t negotiate for long.
"If you rush in there, she's already dead," Darius said, his voice low and steady. "Is that what you want?"
The fight bled out of Lucien. His shoulders dropped and he hung his head. "No."
Watching him crumble was worse than watching him rage.
Lucien Acosta didn’t break. He was a warrior, a leader, the kind of man other men followed into battle without question.
And now he stood in a hotel room in his underwear, looking like a man who’d just had his heart ripped out through his chest.
I knew that look. I’d worn it for two years.
Rose was already pulling a spell book from her bag, flipping through the pages. "Lucien is right about one thing. We need to move. Now."
Vex was getting desperate. Desperate demons were unpredictable, and unpredictable meant dangerous. I didn't want Selena anywhere near that castle. The last time she’d faced Vex, his blade had sliced her ribs and his hand had nearly crushed her throat through Balthazar.
If we went back, he wouldn’t just try to hurt her—he’d use her against me. Possess her. Threaten her. Put a blade to her throat and watch me choose between the shard and the woman I loved.
And that was a choice I couldn’t make.
One look at her face told me she'd fight me on it. And win.
I glanced at the group. Selena first—always Selena first. She stood beside me, her face set, her eyes fierce despite the fear I could feel humming through the bond. She wasn’t going to stay behind. I already knew that. And I already knew I wouldn’t be able to talk her out of it.
Lucien sat on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands.
Valentin stood by the door, arms crossed, his face grim.
Rose had the ancient book open on the desk, her lips moving as she scanned the pages.
Alice was still by the window, pale and drained, leaning against Darius like he was the only thing keeping her upright.
Battered. Exhausted. Running on blood and stubbornness. This was our army against a demon who’d just kidnapped a dragon.
"Get dressed. Grab what you need. We meet back here in five."
Selena and I hurried back to our room. I threw on my shirt while she laced up her shoes.
"Selena—"
"Don't even ask." She pulled her hair into a ponytail with quick, practiced hands. "We're doing this together."
I clasped her shoulders. The thought of her walking back into that castle—back into the same room where Vex’s blade had cut her, where Balthazar had lifted her off the ground by her throat—made something inside me seize up so tight I couldn’t breathe.
I’d just found her. After two years of being too stupid and too broken to see what was right in front of me, I’d finally found her.
And now I was supposed to let her walk into a demon’s lair.
"I can't lose you."
She placed her palm against my chest, right over my heartbeat. "You won't."
I didn't have time to argue. I shoved the fear down into the same dark place where I kept every other thing I couldn’t afford to feel right now. She was coming. I couldn’t stop her. All I could do was make sure I was between her and whatever was waiting for us up that mountain.
We met the others in the hallway and rushed out of the hotel into the night. Streetlights cast weak pools of amber along the cobblestones, but beyond them, the mountains were nothing but black shapes against a blacker sky.
Somewhere up there, Vex was waiting. And he had Raven.
Best case—we trade the shard for Raven. Rose splits it before Vex can take the whole thing, and we all walk out alive. Worst case—Vex kills Raven before we get there, takes the shard, and picks us off one by one in a castle that was built for slaughter.
I didn’t let myself think about the space between those two outcomes. The space where Selena got hurt. Where I lost her in the dark of that castle and couldn’t get to her in time.
Darius took Rose's spell book. Rose, Valentin, Selena, and I shifted into bats.
Darius picked up Alice and launched into the starlit sky.
Lucien flew ahead of all of us, his wings cutting through the dark like something unhinged.
As I flew toward Sanguis Keep, the air shifted.
The bitter mountain cold fell away, replaced by something unnaturally warm—heavy and sulfuric, like the mountain itself was exhaling. Coincidence? I didn't think so.
And beneath it, the ancient blood scent, still pulling at my veins, still making my fangs ache. But this time I was ready for it. I shoved the hunger aside and kept flying.
Within minutes we were at the Keep. Lucien didn't slow down. He flew straight at the castle, barely visible against the pitch-black sky, his wings driving him forward like a battering ram.
He hit something invisible ten feet from the gate.
The impact was like a thunderclap. Lucien flew backward and slammed onto his back, the ground cracking beneath him.
What the hell?
We landed beside him.
Whatever had just swatted Lucien like a fly was going to tear through the rest of us like paper.
Lucien shook his head and dragged himself to his feet. Before anyone could stop him, he rushed the gate again — and bounced off the same barrier like it was made of stone. He growled, slamming his fists against empty air, the impacts rippling outward in faint, sickly pulses of light.
What new magic had Vex conjured?
Once again, Valentin and Darius pulled Lucien back.
Our entire plan hinged on getting inside that castle. If we couldn’t breach this barrier, Raven was as good as dead—and so were we.