He stepped back and took Alex with him. I didn’t hesitate, traced the symbols, closed my eyes, held my breath. There was a puff of air, moisture tickled my face and then nothing.

Using the bottom edge of my t-shirt, I wiped my face. “It doesn’t even smell.”

Opening my eyes, I looked at Erik and Alex who watched me. Erik waved toward the door. “You are covered in that shit now. Don’t touch your friends, or us.”

Shit. I pushed the door open.

Pamela sat up, blinking. “Rylee?”

“Don’t touch me, I’m covered in venom. But yes, who the hell did you think would come for you? Charlie?”

She jumped up, clapped her hands over her mouth and stifled a sob. “I told Milly you’d come. She said we were on our own. I think, I think she is trying to make friends with …Orion.” She breathed out his name and I knew she’d met him, saw it in the way her voice hitched and her eyes dilated. Alex ran into the room and she dropped to her knees.

“Pamie, Pamie, Pamie.”

“Alex, you came too!”

Erik clapped his hands. “There is no time. Alex, stick close to the girl. Things are about to get ugly.”

I shot a look at him. “This wasn’t ugly?”

“No one knew we were here, not until you touched that door.”

Damn it all to hell and back. “Let’s move, we still have Milly to get.” I didn’t want to think about the other problem we faced.

Thomas allowed us to bring two people out with us.

And I had three.

I would have to negotiate with him when we got back to the doorway; we were leaving no one behind.

Two doors down, and another doorway that was locked. Erik leaned in and traced the design. “No alarm on this one, no booby traps.”

Why wouldn’t they do anything for Milly’s door? The answer didn’t come to me until it swung open.

The room was sumptuous and filled with beautiful things, gold, silver, thick carpet and food of all kinds laid out on a table. Orion wanted her well fed, well cared for. His breeding stock.

The mother of the body he wanted to possess so badly.

Milly sat in a stunning, low-backed green gown that matched her eyes perfectly. Her belly had swelled, even in the few days since I’d seen her last.

“Please tell me you didn’t sign back up on Orion’s team,” I whispered.

She shot to her feet. “Rylee! You can’t be here; Orion will kill you! Why did you come?”

My eyes met her and the years between us rose. “You’re my sister, as much as Berget, as much as Pamela. And I don’t leave my family behind.”

Her eyes welled, tears slipping down her cheeks, but she dashed them away. “Then we’d better haul ass, because if Orion doesn’t know you’re here now, he will.”

I didn’t want to tell her what we knew, that Orion wanted her for the child in her belly. That he wanted to possess her baby, not kill it.

No, this was not the place. We’d get her out and then tell her.

Erik led the way, but Milly was at his side, also helping to direct us. Pamela and Alex walked in between and I brought up the rear.

That Milly knew the lower hallways so well was … disturbing and my gut told me something was off. Shit.

“Wait.”

They all stopped and looked back at me. “Erik. You lead. Milly, let him do his job.”

“But I know where there are dead ends to avoid.” She frowned at me, but it was confusion that covered her face, not anger.

“Let him lead.”

She sucked her lower lip in between her teeth and slowly nodded. “I understand.”

Erik lifted an eyebrow at me and I waved him forward. Slowly, my gut stopped clenching, and feeling like I was going to lose my lunch. Milly’s back swayed ahead of me, supple and unbothered by the extra weight in her belly. Not at all how she’d been walking back at the farmhouse, last time I’d seen her.

“Milly, give us some light, would you?”

“I can do it.” Pamela said, lifting her hand.

“No. I want Milly to do it.”

The doppelganger in the green dress stopped and planted her feet. “How did you know?”

“Does it matter?” I pulled a sword free as Erik spun. “Milly” was cornered; Erik lunged toward her, his hand out and she shrieked, her spine stiffening as she arced backwards, right in half, her head touching the back of her ankles.

Pamela let out a cry and flung her hand toward the demon. A burst of fire erupted, eating up the dress in a split second.

The demon scuttled toward us upside down and backward and still managed to dodge Alex and Pamela; I snagged my whip and snapped it forward. The leather coiled around the neck of the demon scuttling toward us.

Heart, it was about heart. I tightened my grip and felt the flow of energy—I could almost tell what it was—and then the whip tightened and the demon exploded without a sound, ash and dust floating down.

I turned and ran toward the room the doppelganger had been in. Tracking Milly, I felt her there, sleeping.

Quiet.

The room was no longer furnished, but a bare cell, like Pamela’s, and in the middle instead of a table full of food, was a large trunk.

“How did you know it wasn’t her?” Pamela and Alex skidded into the room.

“Remember how much she was complaining about the extra weight, how her back hurt? She was walking fine. Like she wasn’t even pregnant.” My hands skimmed over the trunk, but there were no latches, no key hole, no way in or out I could find.

“Erik! How do we break this open?”

He was at my side, doing the same thing as me, his hands searching for an entry point. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

I Tracked Milly, could almost see how she’d be curled up in the box. Fuck, we didn’t have time. I had to take the chance. I pulled a sword out. Erik stepped back and nodded.

“Do it.”

I lifted the blade high, holding the handle tight with both hands and prayed I didn’t hit her. With everything I had, I drove the blade down the inside edge of the box. I didn’t feel anything like flesh and I let out a slow breath. Going slow wasn’t an option, the box bit in hard to my blade, seeming to hold it tight and keep it from cutting. Teeth gritted, I jerked the blade to the left, hit the corner and then tipped the blade and went to the floor.