“This was so much easier than I ever imagined.Dying alone in an easily foreseeable ambush. All I had to do was steal your new toy,” Sela gloats, her orange eyes glowing in the storm. “You’ve failed your bloodline in every possible way.You’re weak.Your line ends here.”
Alestes snickers and rounds on me, his crystals no doubt at the ready.
Lightning fires all around us and spiderwebs through the clouds.
Sela rears back, summoning a cloud of death that could melt the hide from my bones.
“You’re right.” I flap my wings slowly, the ache in my side growing as the crystals do their deadly work. “I did fail my parents, my brother. But you’re wrong about one thing.”
She floats closer, her smugness a noxious cloud all on its own.
“Oh, and what’s that?” she simpers, green fumes already rising from the sides of her jaws.
“I’m not alone.”
A blast of icy breath encases Alestes, his entire body frozen as every drop of moisture solidifies around him. He can’t even scream as he falls, plummeting quickly through the howling storm.
Chapter
Twenty-One
LARELLIN
“This is her?” A female’s voice rouses me from my pile of misery.
“Yes.” A male’s voice, one I recognize.
“Brin?” I sit up.
“Larellin!” The wolven rushes into the bathroom, someone on his heels. “Are you all right?”
A cold shiver rushes down my spine. “You can’t be here. They’ll kill you. They’ll?—”
“That guy?” The female, her eyes obscured by a wide-brimmed black hat, hitches a thumb over her shoulder. “Tasted like garlic and went to sleep like a little lamb.” She grins, sharp fangs protruding past her lower lip. A vampire.
I scoot back. “What?—”
“This is Nilufer. She’s a friend.” He strokes my hair back from my cheek, a low growl rolling from his chest when he sees the injury there.
“Vander, is he all right? I saw—” I choke on the words, on the thought of him being gone.
“We don’t have time. More guards will come. Let’s go.” Brin helps me to my feet, his gaze going to my throat.
“That’s going to leave a mark.” Nilufer hisses between her dark brown lips. “A rough one if we don’t get her to a healer.”
Brin leads me back through the bedroom.
“I see Sela’s tastes haven’t changed over the years. Gods, the way she railed me back in … Hmm, when was it? Maybe?—”
“Nil, I need you to focus,” Brin growls.
“Fine, fine.” She shrugs.
“Larellin, we need to move fast.” Brin clasps my hand in his. “I can move the fastest when I’m in my wolf form. But I need you to trust me. I’ll carry you. It’s the safest way. Can you let me do that?”
I squeeze his hand. “I-I think so.”
His eyes soften. “Thank you.” He turns to Nilufer. “You go first. Drop anyone who gets in your way. I’ll follow.”
