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Property of Carnage

Page 120

by K.E. Osborn

My stomach knots.

Sentinel nods. “Looks that way.”

Raze exhales, running a hand over his beard. “And Malgrave’s how he’s getting it.”

Echo shifts closer beside me. “Every time Malgrave extracts from Carnage, whatever’s behind him pulls at the hellfire and Grace together.”

Raze’s eyes narrow. “So… we stop Malgrave.”

Scar shakes his head. “You think the Devil’s gonna let us?”

“No.” Raze pushes away from the table and straightens. “I think he’s going to make it fucking difficult.”

“Understatement of the century,” Ruckus mutters. “Luck doesn’t bend when evil incarnate is involved, Pres.”

Raze ignores him. “We’re sure as fuck not marching into Hell and picking a fight with the Devil.”

“Glad we cleared that up,” Wreck says. “Was worried that might be Tuesday’s plan.”

A couple of brothers snort this time, but I can’t quite get there.

Not yet.

Because the word Hell still has my hellhound pacing beneath my skin, and there’s a part of me that can already feel those fucking chains wrapping around my wrists again.

Echo’s thumb moves once across my knuckles, and I look down at our joined hands.

No chains.

Just her.

I tighten my grip around Echo’s hand.

Raze looks around the table. “We know Malgrave’s extracting the power. We know who he’s doing it for. So that gives us somewhere to start.”

Scar leans back in his chair. “Stopping the extraction.”

“Exactly. We figure out what Malgrave put inside Carnage and how to break the connection before he comes back for the rest.”

The rest.

My jaw locks, and Raze catches it. “Then… we get your roar back.” There’s no hesitation on his face, nothing that says he’s throwing me a promise because he thinks I need one. “Whatever Malgrave’s already taken, we find it,” he says. “Whatever’s still inside you, we keep it the fuck away from him.”

Sentinel turns his burned palm over against his thigh. “Assuming we can break the extraction without fucking with the Grace still attached to his hellfire.”

Raze points at him. “Which is why nobody touches anything until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”

Ruckus shifts in his chair. “I feel like don’t-accidentally-separate-Heaven-and-Hell-and-blow-up-New-Hampshire is a pretty solid rule.”

“For once… we agree,” Scar mutters.

Raze’s eyes come back to me. “Nobody’s going after the Devil. We deal with Malgrave, cut off his access to you, get back what he took, and make damn sure every brother who walks into whatever comes next walks back out again.”

It sounds simple when he says it.

But nothing about this is going to be fucking simple.

One question has been chewing at me since Echo figured out what was actually being pulled from inside my chest.