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She gets up, pulling Kang Dae up with her and practically drags him along. They rush into the hall where they can hear the screams from further down. She only sees red as the anger builds up in her. She tosses Kang Dae against the wall and rips off her mask. She smiles at him. A sexy, scary smile.

“Sauda… just remember, I’m not a Demon. I’m a little stronger than a human but still fragile.”

She hears him, but she doesn’t care. She grabs his neck as gently as she can with her talons. His head tilts back just a little and then her lips crash down on his.

She knows she shouldn’t, but it’s too late to stop. She kisses him and pulls him so tightly to her she can taste the coppery blood from his mouth, and still she doesn’t stop. Suddenly she feels herself being forced backward as Kang Dae slams her against the wall behind her and kisses her back just as roughly.

For a split second, she remembers Raum kissing her the same way in Yemen, but she pushes it down.

Kang Dae comes up for air just in time for Raum to bust in. He stares at them while Sauda stares back. Kang Dae smiles and looks at Sauda.

“I don’t mind an audience.”

Raum’s entire face turns red and then someone bursts into the hall, a red dress twirling around her.

“Raum Oppa, where are we—”

Sauda smiles at them. “Raum Oppa,” she mocks, “we have a victim to integrate, So if you don’t mind…”

“Sauda.”

She ignores him and pulls Kang Dae behind her. Ignoring the emotion swirling and filling up in her chest. Ignoring the urge to take her talons and rip a heart out of a red dress.

“Sauda!”

They follow the screams coming from the other end of the hall without looking back until they find their group standing around a shriveled thing, crying their eyes out. Sauda comes to a stop in front of him, scrunching up her nose.

“Did you shit yourself?”

He just balls up in a fetal position and cries.

“You know my rule,” Adorna says, uncrossing her arms, letting the blood drip off of her talons. “I don’t do shit or piss. I’m going back to the party.”

“Mm,” Sauda nods. She swirls her knife and pulls the other one out. As Adorna reaches the door, a cackling laugh makes her pause.

Everyone looks to the Demon in the middle as his smile widens. Though tears stil trail down his face, the pleasure in his eyes makes it seem like he was crying from laughter. The corners of his smile practically crack his face in half.

“I think I’ve taken up enough time,” he laughs.

He looks at Sauda. “La Muerte has a message for you.”

Sauda’s heart stops. Even so, she squats down and presses the knife to his neck.

“Get on with it.”

“She says: Thank you. If it wasn’t for you I’d never be able to come back. However, it’s also your fault I’ve been gone for so long. So, to thank you, I give you this party. To punish you… I give you this plaything, while I plant someone in your home to kill everyone you left behind.” The creature laughs as he looks around them. “I wonder if your soldiers are all dead yet?” He looks at Adorna. “Or... if your Castor is still alive.”

Sauda can’t move. She doesn’t get the chance to harm La Muerte’s minion either. When she looks up, Adorna is between her and the now beheaded Demon. Sauda feels the blood rain down on her as she processes what he says.

“It was a trap,” Elaheh says, eyes wide in her face, “not to kill us, but to lure us.”

“It isn’t a new master. The old one is back,” adds Jinn.

As Adorna drops the body, Sauda stands.

“So Voldemort is alive. I don’t care. I’ll kill her. Right now though, our priority is our people at home. Move out,” Sauda says. They all clear out except the Twins that will follow Sauda and protect her six. She walks out to find Raum waiting in the hallway.

“What’s going on?” He asks.

Sauda can feel her rage trying to come up as the female Demon that is Raum’s date looks at her, but she stuffs it back in. This is not high on her list to deal with. Her anxiety was making her chest heavy.

“Don’t fall behind,” is all she says as she keeps moving. Raum joins in behind her, and Sauda doesn’t look to see if the woman does too.

The party guests are quiet and frozen as they walk back out into the primary area. She is sure that she is a sight to behold. Dressed like a queen and covered in blood.

“Since you all heard, go back home and give the news to your leader. This may not involve them or the land that they hold reign over, but… better safe than sorry.”

“Anything we can do to help?” asks a strange Demon.

“Help me burn this fucking place down.”

She walks off to the gateway, and straight through it, back into the halls of the Unseelie court to find the Unseelie King smiling at her.

“I’m hating finding men waiting for me when I walk through doors,” Sauda grunts.

“Tell your father that I will tell him what I know for the alliance I talked about years ago,” He says.

“Tell him yourself.”

She has no time to waste with petty politics when people—her people could die.

Dimitra, whose suit jacket is off and her breasts stand out, steps in between her Captain and the Unseelie King, and growls at him until he steps back.

They keep walking. Sauda can smell the emotions from every swarming the small underground walkway. Fear, rage, anxiety. It invaded her nose and was making her nauseous, plus the pounding of her heart and sinking in her gut. She led her team into a trap and left her people at home open to attack, but how did The Master—The Old Master know so much about them?

“Adorna?”

“Hm?”

“When we get outside of the forest, we need to go back to hell to get back to New Orleans, as fast as we can. I don’t know who the ruling Sovereign is though, so it may get rough. They may not let us through,” Sauda says.

“I’ll fight them if I need to. We’ll worry about the consequences afterward. Ashleigh is still alive, I can feel it, but I will not waste time to get back to her,” Adorna hisses.

“Agreed.”