Dice coughs on a laugh as I glare at Reese. Pasts are off limits, so I guess I brought this shit on myself.
“Thaddeus Maximus?” Dice asks on a laugh. “Hashtag—gladiator.”
“It’s better than Dicera,” I remind him, which immediately puts a halt to his laughter, but it ignites Kane’s laughter. “For the record,” I add, “gladiators were all the rage in my day.”
Gage appears suddenly, startling the lot of us.
“You could whistle before just appearing, you know?” Dice grumbles, peeling himself off the wall he was just plastered to.
“What’d I miss?” Gage asks.
Chapter 22
ROSLYN
The pain comes when they do.
They can hit, but I can too.
The monster grows stronger now.
When it breaks free, it’ll get me out.
Pretty bones will break for the beast.
On their blood I shall feast.
The sun waits, and the moon breaks.
The time is coming to escape.
I keep finding myself in different places, disoriented and crying out for help, only to be met by my own singing voice in my head. The pain is almost unbearable, and I can’t stay on my feet. Every time I try to stand, it feels like the wind is knocked back out of me, and I end up a crumpled pile on the ground.
Break me now, but I’ll be back for blood.
I’ll shred their skin just to have some fun.
They’ll feel my pain without mercy.
They’re going to scream so prettily.
Chapter 23
THAD
“That’s a lot to take in,” Gage says on a sigh. “If I can’t reverse it, then I’ll figure out something else.”
“If I hadn’t had the spell done,
she would have immediately gone after them. And I couldn’t even show how furious I was. I had to hide it all while my daughter suffered so much pain she couldn’t even be trusted around me. More than once she tried to tear me apart,” Reese says quietly. “I barely survived one of her attacks.”
“I can totally see that,” Dice says casually. “Daddy issues are still trending.”
Reese glares at the incubus like it’s new that he’s an insensitive ass.
“The spell wasn’t supposed to go that way. It was supposed to cloak her memories, but her anger triggers her change. She freaked out when she woke too soon, and when I came after her, trying to calm her down, she dematerialized from the room. I lost her after that. She somehow found out about her bank accounts, probably from a memory that was distorted and surfaced as something else. She took all her money out before I even thought to check them. And she ran.”
“I’m going to go check on her,” I say while turning around.