Page 129 of An Oath at Midnight

We rushed out of the building, and a car sped up beside us.

I braced for attack, until I saw who was in the driver’s seat.

“Get in,” Ren barked.

My brothers shifted and exploded into the sky, and Mags and I jumped in the back seat.

Fucking Relic sat in the passenger side, and he glanced back, looking over Mags as Ren planted his foot on the gas, speeding from the parking lot. “You solid?” the hound asked Magnolia.

“Yeah…yeah, I’m okay.”

The farther we got from Umbra and Cora, the more the tension in her body and pain on her face eased.

“Thanks,” I said to Ren.

“You know I’ve got you,” he said.

I did. Ren was my friend. He was family, though I hadn’t been there for him either for a long fucking time, so wrapped up in my own stuff.

Relic tilted his head back, scenting the air, and his jaw tightened before his gaze slid to me in the rearview mirror. “I get you’ve claimed Magnolia, brother,” he said roughly to me, “but if you wanna actually protect her, you need to stop fucking around and figure out a way to mate her.”

“Relic,” Magnolia bit out. “Mind your own damn business.”

Every muscle in my body tightened. I didn’t like him talking to her, or fucking looking at her. “Magnolia can look after herself, but I guarantee, no one will be getting anywhere fucking near her from this day on. As for when we mate? Like she said, it’s none of your fucking business.”

The hound scowled. “Immortality is the only real way to protect her.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Like your sisters?” he said to Mags. “The deal with Lucifer.”

Magnolia made a choking sound. “What deal? You’re telling me all my sisters are immortal?”

I stared at him in fucking shock.

Relic’s chin jerked back. “You didn’t know?”

Magnolia sat forward. “No, I sure as fuck didn’t.”

“My bad,” Relic muttered.

She turned to Ren. “Is that true?”

Ren shot Relic a look. “Warrick made the deal for Willow, and included her sisters. Lucifer countered, only if they mated. They each found out when they did.”

Well, shit. “You okay?” I asked her.

“Scratch that,” Relic said. “Forgot reapers are already immortal. So you’re good. No harm no foul.”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “Are Ronan and Draven immortal as well?”

“That’s how the deal works.”

Mags spun to me.

I was a shifter, I was long lived, but I would die. “Mags, it’s okay.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to be immortal. Not without you.”