She examined me from head to toe, gaze lingering on my chains for a moment before her eyes snapped up to mine.
“So this is what my noble house has become,” she said. “You're the best they have to offer.”
“No,” I told her, thinking ofBriaand my mother and hordes of innocent cousins. “I'm not.”
She raised a brow.
“But I'm not the worst either,” I finished.
She raised her chin at that as if appraising me in a new way.
“You know why you’re here?” she asked after a moment, tearing her gaze from mine to peer down at some documents upon her table. She pulled out her chair and sat, already rifling through her work as I framed my answer.
“To be offered to my former partner for revenge in exchange for an alliance with the human cities,” I answered blandly.
Her eyes flicked up to mine.
“And you’re fine with this arrangement?” she asked, seeming genuinely curious.
“It isn’t my first choice,” I answered.
She snorted, corners of her lips quirking up into a smile.
“I can see why she liked you.”
I didn't have a response to that, but she didn't seem to need one. She was silent for a time, flipping through pages and jotting down a note here or response there. I waited quietly. There was nothing else I could do. I was at their mercy, on their time schedule, and besides, what good would it do to demand my own death sooner?
“She’s not what I expected,” she said then and it was my turn to snort.
Me either, I thought bitterly.
“Sanctuary must have changed quite a bit since I left.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I replied simply.
She glanced up at me, her eyes narrowing when they met mine. But before either of us said another word, the sound of the tent flaps opening behind me interrupted us.
“Dante?”
Every muscle in my body locked on instinct as my heart stopped and my breath shuddered. Slowly, so slowly, I turned.
And there she was.
The light of the rising sun shone so brightly behind her I had to blink and squint against it as I wondered just how long I’d been standing here in chains. Her long hazel hair was down and whipping around her face in the breeze blowing through the tent. Her amber eyes locked on mine as her lips fell to form a perfect O.
She wasn’t alone. But I hardly noticed the giant with ice blue eyes glowering down at me or the vaguely familiar ebony female with thick, dark braids. I could only stare at Adrian as she took a step forward and, for a brief moment, I thought she might be happy to see me.
Then I saw the shadows. Leaking from her fingertips and swirling in the air around her, cloaking her body in living night. The familiar girl backed away, wide-eyed and braids swinging. The brute smirked, crossing his arms and settling in for the show. Then she spoke.
“I'll kill you!”
She lunged.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Adrian
“What you’re planning is suicide. We have the numbers, but they have the Guardians. I didn’t agree to this, Dominic.”
