My fingers trembled as I patted his chest and urged him to be careful.
He turned away from the view of the long hall ahead to look at me, his golden eyes blazing.‘Stay alive.’
I nodded. Then he was gone, sprinting up the corridor towards the increasing sounds of battle and death.
I stayed in the shadows, but shrouded as a troop of our allies turned the corner, jogging together, bloodied and sweaty, but their eyes bright. Even as my heart broke for Gall and Istral, and my fear for my mate jumbled together with my need for him, something stopped my breath.
It was the sight of a handful of Shadekin in fighting leathers, trotting shoulder to shoulder—or rib—with green-eyed Neph.
I remained in the shadows so I wouldn’t distract them. As they passed, my heart swelled with hope in a way I hadn’t felt before.
Here were men—soldiers, all of them. From different homes and lands. Different upbringings.Verydifferent cultures. They looked different. Spoke differently. And had been told their entire lives that they were enemies. And yet… and yet here they were, fighting together, both following the same rulers. Both determined to remove the Fallen’s influence over the thrones.
If we were only willing to believe, we could do this.
Taking a deep breath, I pressed my hand to my belly and begged God to keep us both safe. Then after the men passed, I slipped through the shadows on the other side of the corridor, grinning when the men doused the sconces that had been relit, and then the Shadekin melted into the deeper shadows ahead.
We could do this.
Since those men already slipped closer to the angry sounds ahead, I turned in the opposite direction, letting my mind roam and reach, searching for the sense of any Neph who might listen, so I could show them what we’d seen. How Lucifer was limited.
Then, two corridors later, I turned a corner in the shadows and slid to a halt. Ahead, a large circle of bright light emanated from a candelabra hanging on the vaulted ceiling, and under its glow, cleverly, a handful of men were fighting where we Shadekin couldn’t shroud.
However that wasn’t what had stopped me in my tracks.
As one of the Neph with green eyes whirled, narrowly missing losing an arm to the curved scimitar of his adversary, I gasped.
The adversary’s face was twisted in rage. But I would have recognized him anywhere.
The last time I saw that ugly, evil face, he’d been glaze-eyed in ecstasy,rapinga slave.
Now, he used another woman like a shield, pulling her left and right so her limbs whipped like a rag doll’s, as he positioned her to stop his opponent’s sword from reaching him.
I saw my ally’s frustration—and the way his eyes measured her. So far, he’d left her alone. But he would consider letting her be killed in order to reach his target.
The rage that erupted in my chest threatened to singe my hair.
I gently reached for the allied Neph fighting him, whose mind was open so the Shadekin could coordinate our troops in thetight spaces of the palace.‘Press him towards the shadows, and when you see me, step back. Donothurt the woman.’
The Neph’s eyes gleamed and he grinned—which only infuriated the Advisor, whose name I couldn’t remember, but whose face would haunt me almost as often as the poor slave woman who’d so deeply despaired because of these awful men.
I had to wait almost a full minute—the fucker wasn’t stupid about the risk of being in the dark. Yet, finally, my comrade managed to edge him back, out of the cone of light, to the darker spaces where it was harder to see—and he kept that poor woman in front of him.
Seeing his advantage, the green-eyed Neph rushed him, and the Advisor staggered backwards, yanking the woman in front of him.
I materialized and struck.
He staggered the moment I hit his back, and his slave yelped because he almost pushed her over. But before he could draw her around, I brought my blade to his throat and pressed it hard enough to open the flesh—but not cut the vein.
He froze.
“Drop your weapon,” I whispered.
His face hardened, staring at the panting Neph in front of him, still armed, but watching with some amusement as I clung to his back and held his life in my hands.
“Drop. Your. Weapon. And her leash.”When he didn’t comply, I pressed the blade a little deeper. He made a choking noise, but did as I said, dropping his sword to the carpet with a thud, then releasing the woman’s leash.
She looked at me, wide-eyed, then at the Neph who’d helped me. She was clearly traumatized, and not certain of her rescue.
