She opened her mouth to shout at Tori to run while there was at least a partial distraction, but before the word came out of her mouth she felt the first tug on her mind. Then the next and the next, until her thoughts began to crack and her mind began to splinter.
Nika pulled on Madoc’s power, trying to shield herself from the mental attack, but she was too late. These things were too strong, too fast. They devoured her mind, ripping away little parts of it to hold for their own.
She saw through dozens of eyes, felt through dozens of bodies. Hatred pounded at her, making her snarl with the force of her need to kill. She wanted blood. Gallons of it. She was starved for raw flesh and the warmth of a fresh kill.
Some of the eyes turned to Madoc and all Nika saw was food. They were going to kill him and she was going to enjoy letting them.
Chapter 30
Madoc knew the moment Nika was lost. Her mind was gone—splintered into too many pieces to count.
Fight, he ordered her as he tried to feed her the power she needed to do so. Don’t you dare give up on me.
But there was no Nika left, only the hollow echoing where her essence had once been.
Grief swelled up in him so thick, he couldn’t breathe. She was gone. His sweet Nika was alive, but torn to pieces.
Zillah had fled down a dark corridor, two of his guards on his heels. Madoc was going to find him and kill him slowly, stripping his flesh from his body one inch at a time before he staked him out in the sun to fry.
But first he had to get out of this fucking cage.
He pounded at the bars again, feeling them vibrate, but not give an inch. They were solid. It was going to take him weeks to bust out of here, assuming he lived that long.
Nika wouldn’t. He could still feel that she was alive, but how long would that last? How long would it be before she bled out or one of the demons decided blood wasn’t enough and went for her flesh, too?
Then, like a dirty, timid angel, Tori appeared in front of him, a ring of keys jingling in her trembling fingers. She was naked and shaking with cold, shock, or both, but she hadn’t given up.
Madoc stripped out of his shirt, ripping open wounds that had begun to close, passing it to her. “Here, put this on. Give me the keys.”
She did as he said, then stood there, watching the demons feeding from Nika.
“Can you find me a sword?” he asked, more to distract her than anything else. He’d kill with his bare hands if he had to, but he didn’t want this memory adding to the other horrible ones he knew Tori had gathered.
One of the Synestryn grabbed Nika’s limp body and scurried out with her. All the others followed, growling in hunger, racing after it.
He couldn’t let them get away with her. He couldn’t lose track of her.
He cursed the fucking keys, shoving another one into the lock. Tynan had reached through the bars and pressed a hand against Madoc’s back.
Pain flared under his skin, sinking into his wounds as Tynan used his magic to knit them shut. “It’s not much, but it’s all I can do.”
Madoc almost thanked him, but a key finally turned and he blasted out of his cell. He tossed the keys through the bars to Tynan, took a battered sword from Tori’s hands, and rushed after the pile of Synestryn that had Nika.
He found them in the chamber they’d first entered, and came to a dead stop. There were more of them. He had no idea where they’d all come from, but he knew for a fact that he’d never seen this many Synestryn together in one place at the same time ever before.
They were so dead.
Still, there was no way he was giving up on her. He’d free her or die trying.
Tynan appeared at his side, sword in hand. He was breathing hard and the tip of the sword vibrated in his hand. He was either really weak or really scared. Either way, he wasn’t going to be of much use.
“Get Tori out if you can,” bellowed Madoc as he hacked off the head of another demon. “I’m going after Nika.”
“There’s too many of them. You’ll kill yourself.”
“I’m dead without her, anyway. Now go.”
Madoc didn’t wait to see whether Tynan did as he’d asked. He waded into the group that had descended into a feeding frenzy. They were turning on themselves, ripping one another apart for a drop of Nika’s blood.
He cut his way through, slashing at them like wheat, not bothering to see whether they got back up or not. Bodies littered the ground, and hunched over each of them were several more, ripping flesh away with their bare hands.
One of the demons lifted a sword as if preparing to cut off Nika’s hand. Madoc wasn’t going to let that happen.
He lunged for the thing, slipping on blood. He missed lopping off its head and instead sliced a deep cut along its chest. More blood splattered to the floor.
Madoc made a grab for Nika, caught her ankle, and pulled hard, ripping her from the demons’ hold. He was sure he’d hurt her being so rough, but it was a hell of a lot better than what they were going to do to her.
He stood over her body, fending off as many of the things as he could, but there were too many. He couldn’t defend his own back.
Something sliced across his ribs, making him grit his teeth in pain. He lifted his sword awkwardly, realizing something vital to movement had been severed. His right arm was useless.
He switched the sword to his left, going completely defensive. This whole clusterfuck wasn’t going to last much longer. He knew a lost cause when he saw one.
They were both going to die in here, and the only solace he could find was that he’d been able to love Nika. She had made sure that he’d die with his soul intact, and without his soul, he couldn’t have loved her. Loving her was one of the greatest gifts he’d ever been given.
Madoc did his best to fend off the blows of the few beasts that weren’t too busy feeding to fight him. None of the demons managed to hit Nika, but he’d taken more than a few cuts. He felt his strength draining as his bleeding increased.
More blows landed on his arms, slicing his skin open. The hilt of his sword became slick and hard to hold. His heart started beating faster, fluttering in his chest as it tried in vain to pump blood to his extremities.
Love you, Nika. I’m sorry I failed you.
Madoc’s love flowed into the tiny sliver of Nika that was left huddled in her mind, hiding from the things that wanted her blood.
Until now, all she’d felt coming from him was determination, pain, despair. The love spilling out of him glowed bright, searing her with its intensity. It filled her up, made her strong. Even with all the other parts of her missing, he somehow managed to make her feel whole.
Nika slid inside his mind, needing to bask in that love. Everything was so wrong and confusing right now, and the only good thing she could find was him. She needed that goodness to reassure her.
The link between them had grown, or maybe she’d shrunk. Either way, the little bit of her that was left felt tiny as she moved into him, needing to be as close to him as she could get.
Once she was there, Nika realized what was happening. He was under attack. Synestryn were hurting him, killing him. She could feel his pain and the seep of blood from his body. He struggled to find enough breath to keep moving, but he managed somehow.
Through his eyes, she saw the horde of demons. They already had her blood and now they wanted his.
Rage rose up inside her, so strong she felt her very soul shake with the force of it. Her connection with these things shimmered in the air, humming, taunting her. They pulled at her, urging her to come into them and kill. Feed on Madoc’s blood.
She was going to kill every last one of them.
Nika searched out the source of Madoc’s power and sped toward it. Like a huge, shimmering lake of glowing liquid, she saw it looming ahead of her. Without thinking about what might happen, she dove in, immersing herself in that power, soaking as much of it in as she could.
It writhed inside her, needing to be set free. Nika wasn’t going to disappoint it.
She reached out for one of the demons tugging at her and slammed a chunk of energy straight into its head. The thing didn’t even have time to scream before she felt it die. The slice of her that it had stolen came back to her, but she barely noticed such a small piece. She was too busy searching for her next target.
Madoc could no longer lift his sword. He curled his body around Nika’s and let the blows hit him. This was the end, but he thrust all the pain and fear from his mind and concentrated on the feel of Nika in his arms, letting it comfort him.
He didn’t think they’d kill her—at least, not once the feeding frenzy was over and they remembered their orders. All he had to do was stay alive long enough to keep her safe until then. One of his brothers would come for her and save her. Andra would come and blow them all to hell. Nika would be okay. He had to believe that.
The frenzy behind him went quiet. No more blades sliced through his skin, which surprised him. Maybe he’d gone into shock and couldn’t feel anything.
But if that was the case, then how could he feel the smoothness of Nika’s skin? Feel the sweep of her breath against his face?
Confused, Madoc glanced over his shoulder.
The demons were no longer fighting or feeding. One by one they clutched their heads, then simply fell over, dead. At first, it was just a few, then more and more until not a single demon was left moving.
Nika. She was doing this. She was killing them from the inside, taking control of their minds, using their hunger for her blood against them.
Brilliant, beautiful woman.
Madoc slid his hand so the halves of the luceria locked together. He tried to make power flow into her more easily—doing what little he could to help her.
He eased into her thoughts, looking for something more he could do. What he saw made him reel back in horror.
Her mind was twisting with hunger for blood and a frenzied desire to kill. Holes were gouged out of her, ripped away. He could almost see the slimy ties that connected her to the Synestryn, thick, oily, and dripping with black blood.
She was screaming. Fighting to regain those lost chunks of her mind.
Madoc had to help. He had to slay these things before they ripped her sanity away again.
He intended to set her behind him and take up his sword against the Synestryn, but his arms weren’t working right. His legs buzzed with weakness and he couldn’t even shift her weight, much less stand. All he could do was shield her with his body and hope she was strong enough to save herself.
Madoc stared down at her, praying it wasn’t for the last time. There was so much he wanted for her. So many things she hadn’t experienced, so many things he wanted to show her. She’d lost years of her life to the Synestryn. It didn’t seem fair that she’d die now.
He wished like hell she’d open her eyes and let him know she was okay.
The wet thud of bodies falling to the ground went on for a long time before it finally stopped. Madoc didn’t have the strength to lift his head. He tried to squeeze her tight to let her know he was there, but his arms were too weak to manage even that. He’d lost a lot of blood. He didn’t see how he was going to get either of them out of here.
“I’m sorry, Nika. I failed you.” That failure bore down on him, driving the breath from his lungs.