It was as easy as breathing, and yet, terror skittered through my bones.
I turned in a circle and watched as every single one of our enemies dropped to the ground. Every man Rummy looked at died.
And died.
And died.
Xavier fell forward in relief, grasping at his still intact neck.
But Rummy stood frozen, staring at the atrocity around her yet not really looking at the same time.
She was somewhere else.
“Rummy,” I whispered, stepping forward. “Are you okay?”
“Holy shit,” Xavier muttered. “Did she just do that? Was that all her?”
Her eyes were dark—the black pupils were the only thing I could see as I took another step in her direction. She needed to come back to us, needed to leave whatever place was trapping her in her mind.
I said her name again, keeping my voice as soft as possible, like a gentle caress in this sea of darkness. “Come back to us, Rummy. You saved us.”
My words penetrated her walls, but she shook her head, rejecting them. “Get away from me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I put a hand on each side of her face and tilted her chin until her eyes finally focused on me. “You saved us,” I repeated. “That was incredible, Rummy. Do you hear me?”
She let out a shaking breath. “I almost killed you all. I felt it—the power. It wanted me to kill you.”
I ignored Xavier cursing under his breath. “But you didn’t. You saved Xavier’s life. You did that. You were in total control.”
Her chest rose and fell now—heavily, but at least she was breathing. A few seconds passed before she finally pulled herself out of that darkness. She stepped backward and pulled away from me, dropping her gaze as she went.
“I never want to talk about this again,” she spat. “Never. Understand?”
I glanced at Xavier, who only nodded.
She might’ve just saved our lives with the most powerful magic I’d ever seen, but there was something else very dark going on inside her head.
Rummy was crumbling. And if we weren’t there to catch the pieces, she would lose herself entirely.
“Understood.”
It was a long journey home, but we moved fast. We only stopped long enough for the horses to rest and to get a couple of hours of sleep. Our bodies hurt and our bellies grumbled, but we did not stop.
Not until we saw those beautiful, wretched walls of Scarlata Empire.
Home.
Chapter 29
Rummy
Inever thought I’d be so fucking happy to see the shitty little vampyre-infiltrated kingdom.
Wolf’s golden wings glistened in the setting sun as we approached the wall of Scarlata Empire. Huntyr was already running full force in our direction, no doubt wondering what the fuck was going on.
I was wondering the same thing, honestly.
When I came to a stop, she grabbed the reins of my horse and gripped my calf, looking up at me with a myriad of emotions on her face. “Goddess above,” she whispered. Her hair was pulled into a tight braid behind her shoulders, and she wore her training gear like she’d come straight from working out.
