Chapter 18 · Selene's Midnight Price

"You can't go to her."

Kael's voice cuts through the dark before I even reach the kitchen. He's standing by the window, still shirtless, the black veins crawling slower now but still visible under his ribs. The claw marks on his forearm haven't closed.

"She's got Milo's collar rigged," I say. "You heard it same as me."

"I heard a voice on a recording." He turns. His eyes are still wrong—too bright, too fixed. "Could be a year old. Could be fake."

"It's not fake." I cross to the table where my phone's lying face-down. Three missed calls. All unknown numbers. "Selene doesn't bluff. She just showed us she knows where Milo is, and now she wants you at the auction site at midnight."

"So she can finish what the first hunter started." Kael moves fast, too fast, and suddenly he's between me and the door. "She wants the mark. She'll cut it out of me the second I show up."

"Then we don't go."

"She'll kill him."

I meet his eyes. "You don't know that."

"I know her." His jaw tightens. "Selene Crowe doesn't make threats. She makes demonstrations.