“And you aren’t willing to sacrifice your miserable life for your goddess,” I said.
“The Goddess Anat needs us.” His eyes gleamed with passion.
“She doesn’t need you. You’re a plague.” I shook my head, disgusted. “Have any of these murders been committed yet?” I could nearly feel Carrow’s desire to have that question answered. Had we lost any of the victims?
“No. They must all be done at the same time. The board is not yet set, but once we have the final piece in place, everything will happen at once.”
“It’s not a game,” I snapped. Carefully, I drew in a breath. My normal icy shell was harder to maintain while staring into the eyes of this lunatic, and it was made harder by my mind’s desperate attempt to remember the parts of Carrow that I’d forgotten. “How many more people will you kidnap?”
“One more.” He grinned widely, clearly pleased with himself.
“When?” I demanded.
He tried to fight, pressing his lips together, but I gripped his chin tightly, disliking the touch even though I wore my gloves. “When?”
“Tomorrow, we will make the request of Anton. He should find a suitable target that night and, once we have them, we will begin.”
So we had a little bit of time. I looked at Carrow, my eyebrows raised. Anything else?
“We need you to get us beyond the barrier, into the temple,” she said.
I repeated her command, and the little bastard laughed. “I can’t. There are only two ways to get in. One of the transport charms given to the kidnappers, or via a lever that temporarily lowers the boundary. But that lever is located inside the temple.”
“So you’re useless to us,” I said.
“I would never let you use me against my brethren.”
If I were the sort of man to roll my eyes the way the youth did, I would have. Instead, I released his chin and brushed off my hands, rising and turning to face Carrow. Looking directly at her was like looking at the sun during the most beautiful sunrise. Painful, but I wanted to keep doing it.
“Do you have what you need?” I asked.
“For now. We just need to make a plan.”
“You’ll never beat us,” the chained man said.
Carrow turned to him, spitting words. “We will, you little cretin.”
She was a glorious, vengeful goddess, and something in my chest swelled. I pressed a hand to it, confused. In pain. I couldn’t remember why I liked her so much, but I could feel it. I tightened my jaw and removed my hand, looking at the guards behind me. “Take him to a cell.”
The two nodded and approached the cult member, dragging him off. He hissed curses as he was hauled from the room, his robe trailing the ground behind him.
Carrow rubbed her hand over her face. “God, this is a lot.”
Instinct surged inside me to get her a chair, food, a drink. Discomfort followed in its wake. Why the hell did I care about that?
Yes, she was supposed to be my mate, but we’d broken that bond. I’d forgotten her—or at least, the things that might make me care for her. We should be nothing but acquaintances.
And yet . . .
The instinct remained.
I resisted.
“In a way, this parallels the ancient documents I saw on a desk inside the palace at Ugarit,” Carrow said. “The ghostly remains of the palace appeared as soon as we entered and, thousands of years ago, the leaders were dealing with a similar cult who was attempting to pollute the will of Anat.”
“Do you think they are the same people?” Eve asked.
Carrow shrugged. “He looked modern to me.”