Chapters (39)
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- Teaser chapter
The thought spurred her to push the top open. It wouldn’t budge. Then she saw the latches on the side. She undid the latches and cold steam poured from the edges of the top—like dry ice. Gathering her courage, after all, she’d killed an Atrika single-handedly—well, maybe—she pushed the lid the rest of the way open.
Inside lay a man. Easily seven feet tall, broad-shouldered, blond, with a chiseled, handsome face. It was a daaeman, all right. Sarafina would bet money she’d found Rue, the Ytrayi breed’s missing Cae.
With him, she’d found the elium.
The only problem was that both the daaeman and the elium were frozen solid.
THIRTY-ONE
THIRTY-ONE
SARAFINA STARTED, COMING AWAKE WHERE SHE’D fallen asleep propped up against the cave wall. Or maybe she’d passed out, she wasn’t sure.
She’d opened the casket all the way and yanked all the electrical cords out in the back, probably destroying thousands of dollars worth of equipment. Eventually, the dry ice had evaporated.
Of course, she had no idea what she was doing. She’d paced back and forth in front of the frozen Ytrayi, wondering about alien metabolisms and trying to recall every science fiction movie or book she’d ever seen or read.
But what was she supposed to do? She was stuck in a cave in the middle of Kentucky trying to thaw out a demon with a weapon inside him. Things didn’t get much stranger or less comprehensible than that. She could only do what she thought was right and hope for the best.
She especially hoped that Rue didn’t kill her if he woke up. Boy, that would really suck. She was so close to getting her life back.
After that, she’d sat down to rest only for a moment, intending to get up and go take care of her grisly task before Bai woke up. Instead, her body had decided she needed to sleep—or she’d passed out. Probably the latter.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, but it couldn’t have been long. Her flashlight wasn’t any dimmer and flashlight batteries went dim fast.
Something scraped in the coffin and moaned. Every hair on her body stood up. She scrambled to her feet and cautiously approached it. The daaeman was still lying motionless, his eyes closed. Slowly, he opened them and winced at the light. She directed the flashlight away from his face.
“I’m Sarafina. I-I’m on your side.” She wanted to establish that right off the bat. “I’m a Coven witch and I know Claire.”
He blinked at the name and tried to sit up. “Claire? Is she all right?”