The unwelcome sting of tears met the back of my eyes, and I glanced at Wyatt to see that my friend had already lost the battle. Tears streamed down his face, wetting Josefa’s delicate hand that he held against his mouth.
Show me the man who keeps you here,I said.Show me the man who’s used you, and I will avenge you all. I swear it.
Kind even in the face of such horror,Josefa commented, then closed her eyes.I will show you every man who has visited me here.
Nothing could have prepared me for the faces I’d see.
Rogelio II, a given.
One of his Link-mates, a nameless nobody.
Dozens of nameless guards.
One of Rogelio III’s Link-mates.
A tall man, a little older but still handsome. Broad shoulders, soldier’s stance. Black hair and piercingly pale blue eyes.
And at his side, a man with slightly deeper skin, and carefully styled black hair. High cheekbones, dark eyes, strong brows; resembling what I saw in the mirror every day.
Because that man was my father. And at his side, the Crusader.
Chapter 53
Skye
“I can’t believeRaaz pulled a fucking sword on my mom.” Aiden said with a snicker.
I grinned, ready to laugh alongside him because that sword thing had been insane, and then suddenly, my knees buckled.
I gasped.
A terror like I’d never felt coursed through me.
“Skye?”
“Ms. Aria?”
I stumbled, and my affinity caught me, though it let me hit the ground a moment later as another wave of terror washed through me.
This fear was like nothing I could imagine. I couldn’t breathe, it was so all-consuming.
I could feel someone grab me, and then they were pulling me along. I gasped for air, briefly registering someone was speaking, but my lack of oxygen took my focus. My affinity felt like it was blipping on and off in my arms, with rolls of static jolting through me.
We were in the hallway before I realized it wasAiden. The static crackling around me, sending the hair on my arms into the air was from Aiden.
And he waspissed.
“What’s wrong? Is she sick?”
“Baby. You’re scaring me.”
“Rafe,” I gasped. “Wyatt and Rafe. Where are they?”
Aiden held me against his chest, my back to the wall with his back to whatever threat. Through a gap in my hair I was able to make out the shape of the guard, Raaz watching us.
“He’s in the dungeons,” Raaz said.
“Something’s wrong,” I gasped. “I can feel it. Rafe is…”
