Page 96 of Mortis

“Kael,” Teddy whispered.

His hand blindly searched behind him until it found mine. My heart quickened. Every muscle in my body tightened at once. Beneath my skin, my true form strained against its disguise, and it took every shred of control I possessed not to surrender to it.

The Beast was already snarling.

Them.

“I think the message is for you,” Teddy whispered.

I swallowed. “I know.”

The note bore no name. No signature. But it didn’t need one. Beneath the words was a small symbol, drawn by hand. A thin circle enclosed a pair of scales. A single coin rested upon one side, while three drops of blood hung from the other. Despite their unequal weight, the scales remained perfectly balanced.

I knew that mark. I had seen it carved into stone. Stamped into wax. Embroidered into crimson robes while their wearers knelt before Mammon’s sigil and begged for riches they had done nothing to deserve. Teddy turned to look up at me, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from it.

“What do you mean?” he asked, panic beginning to sharpen his voice. “How do you know?”

“The mark beneath the message.”

Teddy followed my stare. “The scales?”

I nodded. “Blood for prosperity, that was their promise. Everything they surrendered to Mammon would be returned to them tenfold.”

Teddy’s brows drew together. “They?”

Silence stretched between us before understanding dawned. His eyes widened behind his spectacles, the blue turning glassy with fear. “You mean . . .”

The Beast prowled through my mind, no longer whispering.

I told you.

I had insisted they were dead. I had believed they were dead. Yet their mark was sitting before me on the body of an innocent man, accompanied by a promise that they knew precisely where to find me.

I slowly exhaled.

“Mammon’s cult.” Saying the words aloud made them real, and Teddy’s grip tightened painfully around my hand while I stared at the emblem I had hoped never to see again. “They’re coming for me.”

Teddy’s jaw tightened. He straightened to his full height and puffed out his chest, as though attempting to make himself larger. Grander. More intimidating.

It didn’t work.

He was still my small, precious Teddy.

But the fierce expression on his face made something warm unfurl inside my chest. “No.”

Arlo’s head whipped towards him. “What’s going on, Teds?”

Teddy paid him no mind. His attention remained fixed entirely on me.

“I won’t let them take you.”

The conviction in his voice startled me. This mortal, who barely reached my shoulder, had apparently decided he was going to stand between me and an entire cult.

A foolish notion.

A dangerous one.

I adored him for it.