“Something my dad said. Something to do with a dice game where you have to get the dice to total six in a specific way. It means you have to do things the hard way. So how do we get her out?” I asked. He looked at me, startled, then grabbed me to pull me into a bruising kiss.
“Thank you,” he whispered, our foreheads pressed together. “Thank you for understanding.”
I nodded.
“I’ve known this might be a possibility all along. I’m actually surprised we got this far before the plan changed,” I said, a grim smile on my face. “I was surprised we didn’t start a body county on the way into the city.”
I’d suspected we wouldn’t get out of Alexandria without creating chaos all along. I could only imagine what Elex was going through. If it were my people in this building, I ‘d be moving heaven and hell to free them as well.
Elex stepped back, his eyes now an electric blue.
“No retreat.”
“No surrender,” I responded.
His eyes darted around a moment before landing on the slim outline of a door nearby.
He started to reach for it but seemed to think better.
“Let me try something first.”
He closed his eyes, a look of intense concentration on his face. After a moment he opened his eyes.
“There are at least two guards outside the door leading to t-the Indigo Room,” his voice had a strange hitch to it as he named the room we’d seen. His scent spoke of fury barely contained, but also fear and remembered pain.
“Is that—is that where they—” My voice trailed off. Elex just gave me a sharp nod, dropping his eyes from mine.
I was not having that. I tipped his head back and kissed him again, this time slowly and carefully, taking the time to slip my tongue between his lips, cherishing the taste of him. I slowly pulled back, both of us slightly breathless.
“Let’s do this,” I said, using my Soma shapeshifting to turn my nails into claws. He smiled at me, his eyes changing quickly to a dark, stormy blue.
Elex swung the door open and I stepped through. The Elusian guards looked at me in confusion. It appeared that no one had told them the wall led to a secret stairway.
My claws struck and the first guard fell to the floor before he could even cry out. He fell clutching his throat as crimson gushed from between his fingers. The second tried to call a warning out but Elex had wrapped his head in a sound deadening bubble of Air. I saw his lips move frantically, then he dropped his weapons to claw at his neck as the air in the bubble began to run out. His eyes widened as my Bonded moved up behind me. As he clawed at his face I noticed his hands were bloody. Whatever had happened to Maia he had definitely participated. I felt Elex respond as the guard endeavored to bring his Suppression ability to bear. Rings of elemental power spread across his forearms as my Bonded nullified his Suppression. I saw the astonished look on the guard’s face but didn’t stick around to watch the guard die.
I opened the door that led to the Indigo Room. A fireplace to the one side was dark and the room was chilly. Across from us a large, mirrored wall reflected my image back to me and I realized I looked more beast than man. My eyes were like silver pennies in the low light. as I rushed to Maia’s side.
“Can you hear me, Maia?” I called softly.
The woman’s head shot up at the use of her name, her eyes narrowing.
“Who the fuck are you?” She demanded with a snarl, struggling to her feet, barely acknowledging the pain the movement had to have caused, because I could smell fresh blood from the opened lash marks on her back.
Her tone of voice was so like my Bonded’s, I almost laughed.
“He’s a friend,” I heard Elex say as he stepped into the room, floating the bodies of the dead guards in behind him using his Air powers. “And so am, I still hope.”
“K-kat? Kataramenos?” She asked, her voice quavering in disbelief as if she doubted what her eyes were telling her.
“You know it,mikri adirfi,” he responded, using a term of endearment for a younger sister.
“But you—you’re dead. They said you didn’t survive the Machi,” she stammered, her eyes foggy with pain.
“You really surprised that they’d lie?” he asked, kneeling down next to the woman. He reached out and gripped her hand, the blood on it smearing across his skin, the smell like copper pennies on my tongue. “I’m real. I’m here, and we’re getting you the fuck out of here.”
Relief washed over her face, then she paused and shook her head, pulling away.
“I c-can’t. You know what will happen. They’ll just take someone else.”
