Some of the hybrids started tossing powers at the door, but it was no use.
“Shit,” I hissed. “Don’t breathe it!” I shouted at everyone. “It’s gonna knock us out!”
Looks of panic rippled over the hybrids.
“I can get them out of here,” Stiles said, coming up to my side.
“How?” Everyone was holding their hands or arms over their faces, trying to block out the poison filtering in.
Stiles wriggled his hands. “My demon feeds off electricity. If I don’t control it, I can electrocute people with a single touch,” he said, and my mind flashed back to the Thibault ritual, when he’d sent Crow’s birds to the floor in lifeless heaps. “Maybe it’s not too impressive to my father, but I’ve also learned how to manipulate the signals,” he said with grim satisfaction.
“That’s how you’re sending everything to a live feed,” I breathed, the pieces falling together.
He nodded. “I can get the doors opened to get us out too. I’ve been mapping the place, learning how to unlock their electronic doors. I can do it,” he said decisively.
Someone gasped behind me, and the first hybrids dropped. We were out of time.
“Go!” I urged.
“Come with us,” he urged.
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving Risk behind. Go,” I said.
Stiles hesitated, but Cheryl staggered on her feet beside him, and he swooped her up in his arms.
“Now, Stiles!” I urged, shoving him away.
He turned to the others. “Hybrids, follow me, and let’s get the fuck out of here!”
“I’m staying to fight,” Tara said, her face determined.
“Help Stiles fight off the guards you meet along the way,” I told her, my voice muffled from the sleeve I held against my mouth. She looked like she wanted to argue, but I shook my head. “I have to get my mate. I need you and Stiles to get the hybrids out. Please.”
After another moment, she nodded tersely. “Fine.”
“Hybrids, hurry your asses!” she shouted before she and another male picked up one of the passed out hybrids on the floor and took off.
The air was slowly turning orange from the fumes, and my head was growing dizzy. Tomb and Crow were at my side in a moment, as the rest of the hybrids rushed after Stiles, sprinting toward the exit.
“What’s the plan, Wid?” Tomb asked anxiously.
More and more orange fumes engulfed us. The massive size of the room was our only saving grace, but soon, the toxic air would be all over us. More hybrids were dropping like flies, while others struggled to drag them out.
Black dots littered my vision. “We gotta get to Risk.”
Birds started dropping all around us, and my eyes flew to my other mate. “Crow!”
His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he fell, Tomb catching him and hoisting him over his stone shoulder before he could hit the ground.
“Come on!”
We ran as fast as we could for the door, just as the last of the hybrids made it out.
My steps faltered when were five feet away, the black dots of my vision blocking out everything else. “Tomb,” I croaked, but I stumbled to the ground and couldn’t get back up again.
Chapter 29
I woke up in a dark auditorium of some sort, strapped to a wooden board at my back and dangling above the ground. I had to blink away the exhaustion and force myself to stay alert. My eyes were still coated with burning, toxic sleep.
“Hello, Black Widow,” Collector said in a deep voice that was laced with cynicism. He was shadowed in a red glow, standing off to the side with a manic grin.
I struggled against my restraints, bucking my body in short bursts of weakness, but it wouldn’t budge. “Stay calm, Wid,” a gravelly voice said to my left. My eyes widened when I slowly twisted my neck as far as the restraints would allow. Beside me was Tomb shackled with steel chains, his hands forced into a prayer pose at his broad, chiseled chest.
“Tomb?” I whimpered. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, Wid. I’m okay,” he replied, but I knew he was lying.
I swiveled my head again, this time turning my attention to my right. Crow was still passed out from the sleep toxins Spector had baptized us in at the training room. My mate’s head hung loosely, like his neck had been snapped in half. Drips of sleepy drool coated his lips as he lightly snored.
“Crow?” I called out. “Crow, wake up!”
He still didn’t move. My heart began to race. Why were we here? What was happening?
“Black Widow,” Collector began, drawing my attention back to him. “You’ve been nothing but trouble since the moment you arrived here. I can appreciate your defiance. Rebellion is in a demon’s nature, after all.” Collector talked down to me with cocky superiority, all while walking toward a switch on the wall. “But rebellion has consequences, Black Widow.” With a simple flick of his wrist and a turn of the switch, a spotlight kicked on, drowning the center of the room in harsh, unforgiving light. I gasped.
Risk was directly under the bright beam. He looked almost angelic, chained to the center of the floor with a halo of glowing light covering his sweaty skin. He was in his dress pants and white dress shirt, but they were disheveled and appeared singed in some places with defined wrinkles in the fabric, which was off for his normally polished appearance. He was gagged with something that was tied around his head and shoved between his teeth, but muffled groans still rumbled from his chest.
“Risk?” I choked out, barely believing the scene before me.
My eyes took everything in with caution, not really sure I was ready to see more. I quickly realized that he was in the center of a demon ritual circle drawn
