chapter 144

“Ha, right.” I curl my lips in anger, then smile as I latch on to the familiar connection between us. Not so shabby—I found it in mere seconds. Maybe I really will get better at this. “Fuck you, Cleo.”

With those parting words, I wrench myself away from the connection.

As my soul is sucked back out of the black cave, relief fills me. I did it—I broke the connection and got the hell out of there before she could drain my essence dry of all life. But a small part of me stays tense, expecting Cleo’s sharp, magical grasp to wrap back around me and pull me into her clutches. It doesn’t happen though. Maybe I surprised her. Maybe I really did get the upper hand, God willing.

Wind seems to rush around me as I’m whipped through the ether. But I don’t emerge back in the place I left. I don’t wake up in Archer’s bed with my mates.

Instead, I wake up strapped to the table in my uncle’s basement.

Clint looms over me, haloed by the halogen lamp that floods down from overhead. It casts harsh shadow