Slade just looks pissed as he turns and starts walking away. “Nothing, Kya. But we’re not like them. It’s best we remember that.” He pauses, but only turns his head to the side to speak instead of facing me. “It’s his beast that calls to you. The man will push you away. They think more of themselves than they will ever think of us.”
He disappears, leaving those daunting words hanging in the air around me.
He’s right. We’re nothing like them. Too many differences run between us.
I can’t even get close to my own sister because of that rift. I’m not sure why I forgot it existed with Chaz.
The beast is the only reason he could overlook those differences. Slade’s right. The beast called to me and I responded. Chaz never would have even looked my way without that.
Chapter 17
CHAZ
“How long until the portal opens?” I hear Roslyn asking as I walk in, not drawing attention to myself as I stand in the corner.
I can’t see anyone from here, and I’m preparing myself for the worst before making my presence known.
My jeans are torn and barely staying on, and my shirt was shredded. I don’t know what the hell ever happened to my underwear or shoes.
I’m sure they went missing when Kya was calming me down.
I’ve wanted nothing but her since that night at the rings, yet I finally get her, and she informs me she only fucked me to calm me down. Fucking awesome.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but it really sucks at how cold and detached she can be. I thought I was an exception. The way she looks at me is anything but indifferent. However, now I know my place.
It’s not her fault. She’s had to be that way. She had to survive, and feeling anything would definitely make that harder.
But knowing that meant absolutely nothing to her... Well, it fucking sucks.
“Slade said five days. That was two days ago. So that gives us three,” Thad tells her.
“Slade shouldn’t be our reliable source of information,” I hear Frankie grumble.
I get his reservations, but we need all the help we can get right now. Which means I’ll be seeing Kya again soon. I just need to make sure I have myself on a solid leash by then.
“Not necessarily,” says a voice I know too well, and my jaw grinds.
So they don’t trust Kya but they fucking have Sadie here? The woman who aided in kidnapping Kimber as a child.
Pushing off from the wall, I move into the back room where everyone is congregating around a long dining room table that has started serving as our makeshift headquarters.
Sadie stands at the head of it, next to Alyssa. This is fucking insane. Alyssa is pregnant, and Sadie does not need to find that out.
“Slade is basing his math off the stars alignment, but the math isn’t adding up,” Sadie tells everyone, pointing to something. “It’s something we learned when—”
She stops short of saying, when we opened purgatory. Her eyes flick to Kimber’s and she clears her throat. “Anyway, we learned the stars can be tricky. The stars may be supposed to align on the days he’s marked, but it could easily be a few days off in either direction. And one more thing, to open a portal like this, they’ll need a strong power source.”
Everyone tenses, and Ella looks up. “Such as?” she asks.
“The strongest being on the planet would be needed. And I mean that literally. To target an exact portal, you’d need to tap into the power of the strongest being. If you choose wrong, any portal could open. It’s just how these things work. The portals could close or shift dimensions or any number of things if the power source isn’t the strongest. It gravitates toward power.”
“Which is why they’re after Ella,” Gage says, his jaw ticking.
“They won’t get her,” Alyssa says darkly.
If they touch Ella, I’ll lose it.
My entire body tenses, and a growl tears from me before I can stop it. All eyes swing to my direction, and I push off from the wall, moving to join them.