My anxiety was replaced with determination, more confident than ever that we’d save them. We had to.
Kate grabbed my hand, trying to offer her support, and the rest were dead silent, like they were afraid of saying anything that’d make me lose concentration. My body shook, but I didn’t feel as weak as I did before. I’d leaned back into the bond, hand locked inside Aram’s, and it was almost as if something finally slotted into place.
I heard a whisper of a thought, one that mirrored my observation. Our bond felt different. We’d both noticed.
Aram and Dagon exchanged glances, then Big was next to Kate. The three circled her as time shuddered and stalled. I’d gotten us to maybe ten or twelve minutes before Hera arrived, but my legs gave out before I could reverse any longer and time moved again. I was scooped up into the Nether Royal’s arms as the world shuttered back to life.
Cash cried out in horror as we appeared around them. “What the bleeding hell?!” His panicked eyes found me first and black magic moved around him. “Get your filthy hands off her, you posh Nether bastard!”
Jo was already next to him, becoming translucent. Her daggers shot through the air, one after the other, aimed for Rayis and Dagon, who both dodged without effort. But I saw the shadows behind them that they’d walked into. It was her dangerous first move, and I couldn’t let it turn into a fight.
“Wait!” I screamed and time froze again.
Aram held me in his arms as I quivered and tried desperately to keep only parts of my attacking group frozen. “Little mate, you’ve used too much—”
“I’m…okay,” I gasped.
Phillip and Sloan were frozen mid-lunge. “V! What are—”
“Just listen,” I barked, barely keeping it together, voice wobbly. “Hera is on her way. I could only reverse time by ten or so minutes, and I can’t hold this freeze forever, so you need to fucking trust me. If you care about me, please, I need you to believe me. She’s the real enemy, and she’s coming to kill you.”
My voice quivered as salty tears raced down my face again, and Aram tightened his hold on me as if to protect me from my own memory.
“And she’ll succeed.”
I sensed Cash’s disbelief, but then his resounding echo of total faith in me. It was a rush of relief to feel how strongly he believed in me. He might not like the help I’d brought, but he never doubted what I said for a second. Phillip and Sloan nodded their heads as I let go of them and glanced at Jo.
Her expression was twisted in a way it never had been before. “My mother?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
Her gaze blazed amber. “She’s alive?”
“I don’t have time to explain everything, but she’s the one who hunted and killed all the Royal Sirens, who sent Lyra to the Organization…who created me.”
Jo broke free of the group and was already in front of me after quickly ghosting across the floor. Her eyes went to Aram, but then they were back on me as her jaw clenched off and on. “Then let me do it.”
Rayis made a noise of protest, but Aram silenced him with a glare.
Jo touched my hand and stared at me with a desperation I’d never seen on her before. “Please, V. Let me be the one to kill her.”
I opened my mouth, glimpses of her lying dead in a pool of her own blood flashing through my head. “I can’t lose you. I already…I already saw all of you die.” She brushed away the tears suddenly burning down my cheeks. “I love all of you too much. It broke me when…I can’t lose any of you.”
As if sensing what I needed, Aram let me get to my feet and Jo took his place by keeping me upright. Her mouth crashed into mine before our foreheads collided.
“I know, babe, but if she’s the reason this all happened, if she’s the reason you’ve been made into a weapon, then I have to make it right. I didn’t kill her when I had the chance,” Jo murmured, holding me tight. “I need to make this right.”
Big cut in out of nowhere as I shook, “I hate to interrupt this heartfelt moment, but we don’t have much time to get everything ready.”
I pulled away and Jo slung my arm around her shoulders so I didn’t collapse. “Cash,” I directed at the silent Hand of Death who’d never been quiet a single moment since we met, “do you still have those stones you stole from Aram?”
Aram snickered behind me, and Cash glowered at the giant Nether Royal. “Why am I not surprised you’d tell her about that?”
“Maybe because you pretended to be a friend and stole them, you sneaky bastard,” Aram accused on a growling breath. “Be glad my mate is fond of you, or I would’ve let you die.”
“Cheers,” Cash sassed and walked over to me. “My love, after all of this, you and I need to have a very long chat.”
“I think so, too,” I grumbled despite being beyond elation to be bantering with someone who’d been dead barely ten minutes ago. “But let’s just get out of this alive first, okay?”
