I watched her scream and writhe. I watched her crumple to the floor in a motionless heap. And I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t protect her. I wanted to throw my fist into the wall and make the whole roof cave in with my wrath.
I didn’t give a shit that the mate bond was gone. Motley was mine. Just like the black widow belonged to my gargoyle, Motley belonged to me. And we wanted them both back—we desperately wanted to feel whole again.
I felt my gargoyle roaring and rippling beneath my skin, but he couldn’t come out, no matter how hard we tried. He was budding with unbridled fury, angry at the people that had hurt us, angry that the one person who’d given me a reason to live had half of her soul taken away from her.
When the Spector fuckers started chanting again, I grappled with panic and rage.
And then...she got up. I ignored the fuckers as they stumbled through the ritual, because my eyes were locked on her form as she struggled to stand. She was confused, scared. I wanted to hold her, but she looked past me as if she didn’t recognize me at all.
Looking utterly lost, she stammered to Belvini, and a razor sliced through the center of my heart. She didn’t remember me. She didn’t remember anything. My heart. My will to live. She didn’t remember.
Crow caught my eyes just as I was ready to slump against my restraints and give in. The blue-haired fucker winked at me, and I frowned. What the fu—
My eyes flew wide when Motley suddenly moved faster than I’d ever seen her move before. She was a blur. One second cowering and shaking in front of Belvini, and the next, she’d yanked off the asshole’s head like she’d just plucked an apple off a tree.
She tossed the rotten head on the ground, and I smiled like the sick bastard I was. That’s my girl.
I was free within seconds by Crow’s hands, and then we were attacking. My gargoyle burst out of my body, and I let my demon take over on a full-blown rampage. We crushed skulls with single fisted hits. We broke bodies as we flung them aside with easy swipes. Our stone body repelled bullets and hits, unfeeling of everything except the fury.
We were going to destroy everyone in this godsdamned room. We were going to make them pay for what they did to our mate. I wouldn’t stop until every last Spector guard was a motionless form at our feet. I would make the room run with blood. I would—
“Stop, or I’ll kill her!”
My head snapped over to see Belvini’s favorite lap dog—Trant—holding Motley in front of him, his arm banded around her middle and his other hand gripping her neck.
There was no choice. I immediately stopped fighting, even as she argued and begged for us to leave. My dark eyes bore into hers. Did she really think we would just leave her here? I was somewhere between wanting to lecture her or spanking her ass and fuck her hard until she realized how much she meant to us.
“Get yourselves out of here!”
Tears filled her blue eyes as she pleaded with Crow and me, but I shook my head. “We won’t leave you. Ever.”
The sob that tore from her throat nearly undid me. I watched Trant, noticing how hard he was gripping her, trying to determine if I could get to him before he hurt her.
But I didn’t get a chance to decide. Because before I could work out a way to free her, the bastard snapped her neck right in front of us.
No.
No, no, no.
My heart. My light at the end of the tunnel. The one who made me want to live again. After all the torture Spector had put me through, nothing was as painful as watching her small body drop to the floor, her neck at an odd angle, her heart no longer beating. I would’ve rather endured every test and punishment Spector had ever given me. Suffocation. Drowning. Severed limbs. Stabbing. Being shot. Burnt alive. Because none of those carried the agony I was feeling right now at seeing her lifeless body.
He killed her.
He fucking killed her.
A roar filled the room and rang through my ears. A part of me realized belatedly that the noise was coming from me.
“Kill them and burn the room,” Trant ordered, already turning to leave with a contingent of guards.
I couldn’t move. Shock had crippled me. Crow was on his knees at my side, his fists slamming into the floor and cracking open his knuckles as he yelled out incomprehensible words of violence and loss.
I didn’t care when I felt the guards surround us. My reason to live had just been killed in front of my eyes.
All of the fight left me like a plug being pulled on my will. I joined Crow on my knees, my head hanging down in despair, because it was over.
When our mate bond severed, I still had hope. Despite the intricate magic binding us together, I knew that wasn’t the only thing that connected us. Motley was for me, plain and simple. I fell in love with her strength, her will to survive, her tenacity in the face of cruelty. I fell in love with the way she encouraged me to live.
Life was a dull nothingness before her. I’d lost my sense of self, but I’d found purpose again in her. I didn’t think I was capable of love until I met her, and then it had been all too easy. I fell into her web willingly, and I’d do it all over again. Because I fucking loved her.
I’ll find you in the wandering afterlife, I promised. I may have failed her in life, but I wouldn’t fail her in death. I’d follow her there.
Chapter 32
Crow
Gone. She was just...gone.
One second, her scared blue eyes were locked on me, and the next,
