“They found us?” she asked. “Kormac?” In the daylight I could clearly see the golden tattoo on her cheek. She turnedher head abruptly, her eyes wide as she looked back and forth between us and Meera. “He’s here? He’s here for me.”
“No.” Rhyan held out his hand, as if to stop her from fearing. “It’s my father. He sent nahashim.”
Jules stilled, her face pale. “Same difference. Gods, I knew it. I fucking knew it.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “There’s no escape.”
Meera was across the room in seconds, sitting beside Jules, and pulling the blankets around them. And to my surprise, Jules softened, actually letting Meera hold her.
“Yes there is, Jules. We did escape. And we’re not giving up.”
“Meera’s right. We’re going to fight them,” I said. “We’ve done it before.”
Jules’s eyes narrowed, perhaps taking in my armor and weapons for the first time since we’d rescued her. I could see the questions in her eyes, and the shock. In that moment, I could feel the full weight of our two years apart, of the separate lives we’d lived without any knowledge of the other.
“Lyr will kill every last one before she lets them come for you. As will I. Dario, too,” Rhyan said. “Hang on.”
He vanished.
“Dario?” Jules asked suddenly, her eyes widening at the place where Rhyan had been. He’d traveled with her already and in front of her, but I could see now how much she’d missed when she’d been in shock.
“He’s the soturion who helped you last night,” I said. “He’s a strong fighter. One of the best.”
“I know who he is,” Jules said. “Rhyan can just … vanish like that?” she asked.
I nodded. “His vorakh.”
At this a tear fell down Jules’s cheek. She shook her head, and then buried her face in her hands. “I can’t. I can’t go back. Not again.”
“You’re not,” I said fiercely. “There’s no way in hell I’m letting them take you. Over my dead body are you going back.”
Her eyes met mine then, and for a second, I swore she believed me. Like she understood. But then she wiped her tears with the palm of her hands, and scoffed, before she curled her knees to her chest, resting her head against them.
Rhyan reappeared beside me with Dario in his arms. “Keep the door locked,” Rhyan ordered. “Push anything you can against it to keep them from sliding in. Don’t open the door, or the windows, not even a crack, no matter what.”
“Got it,” Meera said.
Rhyan turned to me and Dario, his breath already heavy. “Ready?”
Dario held two swords in his hands, and a fierce grimace. “On my life.”
Rhyan wrapped his arms around Dario, his emerald eyes on me, holding my gaze, and then they both vanished.
A second later, he was back. My eyes met Meera’s and Jules.
“We’re going to stop the threat. Just hang on.” I nodded, trying to give them confidence, any kind of reassurance that we’d protect them, that they were safe.
Rhyan’s hands tightened around me, my stomach tugged, and we landed in the hall. I didn’t even stop to think, or assess what was before me. I ran, my sword slashing at anything that moved. I cut down the first nahashim I saw, then the second. A third undulated toward me, its fangs dripping with venom. With a yell, I lopped off its head, watching its body collapse. Rhyan had two medium-sized nahashim on either side of him. And one was racing toward me.
Dario ran interference, but immediately he was surrounded by the remaining snakes. Still he fought back easily, expertly spinning away from their fangs. The nahashim weretoo young and too small to be much of a threat. At least on their own. But together, they were a force to be reckoned with. He spun, stabbing and decapitating heads, narrowly avoiding a bite to his thigh, before kicking the snake against the wall. He sprinted across the hall, and a second later, the snake’s head had been flattened beneath his boot.
They were falling easily.
Too easily.
My stomach turned, that anxiety I’d felt earlier returning. The largest of the nahashim we faced, the only one who might be worthy of dragging us away, slid back down the hall, his body slithering away from the fight, but his eyes were focused, taking in everything. I’d been around them enough to know what was happening. He was recording the vision and leaving to report back.
“It’s a trap!” I yelled.
Rhyan looked at me in horror, and I could see he’d realized it, too.
