Page 84 of Knight’s Salvation

A pop and a flash of light filled the cavern, indicating their time was up—the portal was about to close. Diemos stood, taking Zenon’s limp body with him, and dragged him the short distance to the opening.

“You were no mistake, my son,” Diemos whispered darkly against his ear then shoved him through the hell’s gate.

Zenon hit the ground hard. Blinking, he got an eyeful of red brick wall, and the smell of the city burned a path into his lungs. Lungs that were struggling to draw breath. He gasped several times, but it was no good. It was too late.

Darkness descended.

Then there was no more pain.

Mia sat wrapped in a blanket,staring at the television in front of her, but had no idea what was on. All she could see was Zenon, the way he’d looked when she was carried away.

She didn’t know if he was alive or dead. All she knew for sure was he had been suffering, could still be suffering. She couldn’t help him, and no one would do anything. Chaos refused to go in and get him out of there, wouldn’t even talk about it with her—none of the knights would.

Eve told her to have faith. In what? No one was doing anything.

To make matters worse, she had a constant guard on her so she couldn’t leave the compound. James followed her around like a shadow, casting her sympathetic looks and trying to distract her.

“You want to watch something else?”

She looked away from the television. James sat beside her, holding the TV remote. She shook her head. “I think I’ll go to bed.” Where she could smell Zenon’s scent in the sheets and imagine he’d he home any minute, imagine he was there with her.

“You need to eat.”

“I’m not hungry.” She shrugged off the blanket and tried to stand, but James grabbed her arm.

“Mia, you haven’t eaten in days. You look like shit. You want to be on death’s door when your mate comes home?”

She stilled. “Is he?”

He shook his head. “I wish I knew. I hope so, for both your sakes. My guess, there’s more going on than you and I know. Those guys never do anything without good reason, and it has to be something huge to stop them going in after one of their brothers.”

“I can’t take much more of this, James. Knowing he’s with that monster. What if she’s already taken him back to Hell? What if I never see him again?”

“Tonight’s the equinox. If it’s happening, it’s happening tonight.”

Mia started toward the door, but James was in front of her, blocking her escape before she touched the handle. “I have to go to him. Please, let me go.”

James pulled her into him and wrapped her in his arms. “I know this is hard, Mia. But you’ll only get in the way. You want him to come home safe. Getting in the way and distracting them isn’t going to help him.”

He was right, she knew he was, but it did little to stop her desire to get to him. She nodded against his chest, her tears soaking into his shirt. “Goddammit.”

“Come on, come back and sit down. I’ll make you dinner.”

After she’d eaten, James pulled her into his side and ordered her to close her eyes. Not only had she not been eating, she’d barely slept.

Somehow she must have managed to drift off to sleep, because she woke to a loud bang and a string of curses from James. Mia shot to her feet and nearly fell to the floor with a mixture of relief and abject horror. Chaos and Rocco carried Zenon in. He was limp in their arms.

They lay him on the couch and stepped back.

“What’s wrong with him?”

The look in Chaos’s eyes was haunted, a mix of pure rage and soul-destroying agony. “He’s dying.”

Pain sliced through her, and she dropped to her knees beside him. She touched his forehead, his dry lips. He was cold to the touch and his skin was a sickly gray. Resting her hand on his bare chest, she felt the slow, erratic beat of his heart. He didn’t move. “No. This can’t be happening. You were supposed to save him. Why didn’t you save him?”

“I’m so sorry, Mia,” Rocco choked beside her. “There was nothing we could do.”

The other knights moved in and gathered around them. They were all grief stricken, straight from a fight, and covered in blood, clothes torn. A couple were wounded badly, but no one moved. They stood there looking as helpless as Mia felt.