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She opened her mouth to shout at Tori to run while there was at least a partial distraction, but before the word ca on her an to crack and her an to splinter

Nika pulled on Madoc’s power, trying to shield herself fros were too strong, too fast They devoured heraway little parts of it to hold for their own

She saw through dozens of eyes, felt through dozens of bodies Hatred pounded at her,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 saas food They were going to kill hi them

Chapter 30

Madoc knew the one--splintered into too ht, 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 hione 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 hi his flesh from his body one inch at a time before he staked hiet out of this fucking cage

He pounded at the bars again, feeling the to take hi

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 deh and went for her flesh, too?

Then, like a dirty, tiling in her tre 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 de from Nika

"Can you findelse He’d kill with his bare hands if he had to, but he didn’t want this athered

One of the Synestryn grabbed Nika’s lirowling in hunger, racing after it

He couldn’t let theet aith 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 ic 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 ether 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 de after Nika"

"There’s too many of them You’ll kill yourself"

"I’o"

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 the one another apart for a drop of Nika’s blood

He cut his way through, slashing at theot back up or not Bodies littered the ground, and hunched over each of the flesh aith their bare hands

One of the de to cut off Nika’s hand Madoc wasn’t going to let that happen

He lunged for the thing, slipping on blood Heoff its head and instead sliced a deep cut along its chest More blood splattered to the floor

Madoc ht her ankle, and pulled hard, ripping her froh, but it was a hell of a lot better than what they were going to do to her