The seductive rock of his hips against my backside urges me to push back, lured into him. “Don’t slip away,” he says, his breath a heated caress over my neck before his lips find the throbbing pulse point. Then he’s kissing, tasting, and I’m fading under his spell.

“I trust you,” I tell him—but I can’t be present for this, my mind already delving below.

He unleashes a dark groan as his teeth sink into the soft curve of my shoulder, brutally awakening me from the trance.

My eyes open to chaos.

A shrill scream splits the air. Jars drop from their hands, murky glass rolling over the stomped reeds. The cloaked figures around the fire fall to their knees.

And amid the disorder, Devyn stands before me, her hand gripped to the hilt of the dagger.

My chest heaves, the wick of fury lit within me as I drag air into my constricted lungs. Kallum tenses around me as she raises the knife, her threat clear—but I don’t look away.

“Is to die what you want?” I ask her as I slip my fingers into my pocket.

“We all die eventually,” she says, her voice soft, her words meant just for me.

Anticipation threads my muscles as I grip the sharp antler, and my fingers brush the pendant of my necklace. My heart stalls.

He won’t even let me die. Devyn’s words fill my mind.

In the fraction of a second that hesitation costs me, Devyn brings the knife down.

The steel blade cuts through the rope binding Kallum’s wrists.

“But not today,” she says. Her eyes flash wild as she shifts her gaze to Kallum and presses the dagger into his hand. “Don your wings, moth. The doomsday is upon us.”

OceanofPDF.com

15

OceanofPDF.com

PURSUIT RITUAL

OceanofPDF.com

HALEN

Three things happen at once.

The drumming stops. Several people around the fire collapse. They convulse, seizing with juddering spasms as a foamy substance leaks from their parted mouths. The few who didn’t drink from the jars tear off their masks as Devyn shouts, compelling them to escape.

Emmons stands stock-still, his arms stationary at his sides, betrayal carved deep into the lines of his hardened features as he watches Devyn deceive him.

Riddick is already in furious motion before the last person hits the ground, his target decided as his steely gaze zeroes in on me. Kallum pushes in front of me to block his path, and they clash in a violent impact. I’m knocked to the ground, my fingers digging into the crushed reeds.

The aggressive sounds of their fight assault the air. The dagger is held aloft in Kallum’s grip as Riddick uses his forearm to evade the strike.

A hand surrounds my bicep, and I’m yanked farther out of the fray. “Halen, we have to run,” Devyn urges me. She sheds the bones encasing her chest to reveal a nude bralette beneath.

“I’m not leaving Kallum.” I twist my arm free, spinning to find him.

Bare chest heaving, he drives his fist into Riddick’s face. The mist of blood is caught by the firelight like tiny red flares amid the darkness. With a deep groan, Kallum pitches his opponent sideways. Then his gaze captures me.

It’s only a second, one spared glance, but that’s all it takes. I see him across the grassy quad, a striking professor in an all-black suit, and my heart constricts when his beautiful eyes connect with mine and I feel the weight of my ring on my finger.

Something inside me fractures and slips into place all at once.

Hurled back into the present, I watch as Kallum faces the threats moving in. Spurred into motion, Emmons bows his head and charges forward like a bull. Riddick careens toward Kallum from the side, the collision inevitable.

And the knife rests near Kallum’s feet.

Adrenaline singeing my veins, I break away from Devyn and lunge for the weapon. My hand shaking, I repeatedly grasp at the handle, securing it too late.

With Kallum’s back to me, I rise up to witness the horror unfold as if in slow motion.

Kallum cages his forearm around Riddick’s neck and wrenches him forward, using Riddick’s body as a shield right before the sharpened spears of Emmons’ antlers impale his sternum.

A broken sound escapes my mouth.

Kallum anchors his hands to Riddick’s shoulders and, with a ruthless grunt, thrusts Riddick’s torso farther onto the horns. He then tears Riddick free and lets his body fall to the earth, ensuring he bleeds out. No mercy is offered with a quick death.

And I see it there in the manic gleam of Kallum’s eyes, his satisfaction with the kill.

Riddick chokes on the blood pooling in his mouth, desperately and uselessly pressing his hands over the wounds. Emmons stares down at the carnage, his large arms corded with tension, the spiked bones fastened to his head covered in blood, the dark red gore dripping down his face.

Devyn grasps my face, her eyes clear and imploring. Her voice is muted beneath the pounding of my pulse before she breaks through. “We have to leave,” she’s saying. “They will die. All of them. The whole town.”

Past the shock and adrenaline fighting for dominance, I take in the death all around, the poisoned bodies lying motionless—and I envision the bare canes at the hemlock grove after it was raided.

“Oh, my god,” I mutter, my fingers tearing through my tangle of hair.

On instinct, I lift my eyes to Kallum. His gaze fuses to mine, holding me within the fierce blue cinders, the slate-green of the eerie moonlit marsh. My gaze pans over the sigils carved in his flesh, all the desires longed for by a chaos magician.

And I am terrified to lose him.

You will never lose me, I hear his voice intone, a promise I have no choice but to trust.

I inhale a shuddering breath as he easily pries the knife from my clenched grasp before he says, “Run.”

Then his focus is on the unhinged detective barreling for him.

Devyn takes my hand, and like the raving ones, we run.

My bare feet hit every divot and bramble trying to slow my pace, the roots reaching up from the muddy earth to grab at my ankles. I refasten my jeans, ignoring the way they stick to my skin as sweat leaks from my pores.

I follow Devyn as we track parallel to the reservoir, using the sparse coverage of the marsh trees to shelter us amid the swampy wetland. “Where the hell are we going?”

“Up the mountain,” she calls back to me. “We have to make it to the top.”

For one petrifying second, I fear I’m succumbing to her delusion, or that I’m delirious from dehydration, because I see the hulking forty-foot structure coming into view against the dusky skyline.

Blinking red lights mark the concrete and slate-black stones of a dam rising up from the reservoir.

“Oh, hell.” The curse is sawed from my lungs. The horrid truth hits me in an instant, what Emmons has done. Ignoring the pain searing my muscles, I push my legs harder.

A white light cuts across the barren branches ahead of us, and a sharp twinge of panic slows my pace. I glance back once to see the beams slashing through the shadowed trees, hear the footfalls beating the ground.

We’re being chased.

I follow Devyn into the thick brush where we’re out of sight, yet a fence barricade of mesh wire halts our advance. Gripping my side, I bend at the waist to pull in a shot of crisp air. Devyn climbs over the top and offers me her hand.

I hesitate as I stare at her outstretched hand. Then I glance over at the ladder leading to the top of the stone dam. A manic laugh slips past my lips, and I swallow the raw burn in my dry throat. “But of course it would be heights.”