The cold fingers wrapped around my throat, pressing into my skin, silencing my scream. Air leaked from my lungs, and my oxygen-starved brain swirled, trying to connect the things I’d seen to the very real and very familiar guy who was practically choking me.
“Quiet,” Quinn’s voice whispered in my ear. “You’re attracting them. I’m gonna get you out of here, but you have to stay quiet.”
The fingers slipped from my throat, and I could breathe again, not that it was a relief. Thick arms wrapped around my shoulders and behind my knees, hoisting me off the ground.
Scritchscritchscritchscritchscritch.
My body jerked and jostled as Quinn ran across the court. His breath came out in ragged gasps. Shadows danced around us, caressing us with fingers of ice. In the center, the white star glowed bright. The air sucked out of the room, flowing into the star. My lungs burned and I struggled for every breath. Quinn stumbled, but kept fighting, kept walking away.
When we reached the door, Quinn leaned me against the wall. He wrapped his hands around the handle and pulled. “The door’s stuck,” Quinn groaned, his face straining. “I can’t—”
The white star glowed behind my eyes, and the whole room exploded with black fire as the shadows consumed it.
I can’t breathe. I can’t…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
A triumphant cry pulled me from the brink of passing out. Quinn dragged me through the door and slammed it shut behind him, just as something pounded against the wood.
“What are you doing here?” Quinn’s voice came out in a ragged gasp. “Come on, we’ve got to go.”
He wrapped an arm around me and helped me to my feet. My legs gave way beneath me, and I slid back to the ground. Pain shot through my arm as my elbow bent at a bad angle.
“Fuck. Hazy, come on.” Quinn slipped his hands beneath me again, hoisting me back into his arms. My body lurched as he staggered down a darkened hallway. With the last ounce of strength I possessed, I clung to his cloak.
His black cloak.
Why is Quinn wearing a black cloak? Why is he dressed as a shadow?
Quinn pounded up a staircase to a security door, flicking something at the lock. The door clicked open. He ducked through and kicked it closed behind him, sinking to the ground with me still cradled in his arms. “Shit,” he panted, laying me against the wall and rocking back. His face was white as a sheet, his eyes swollen and black and weeping. “I told you to be careful, to lay low. So you immediately go and snoop around in theoneplace where you shouldn’t be looking.”
I tried to speak, to ask the questions I needed to ask, but Quinn mashed his lips to mine. My body didn’t question why a King was voluntarily kissing me again. I melted against him, sucking power and fortitude from the fire he stoked inside me. The moistness of his mouth drove out the foulness of that room, replacing it with something far sweeter, far more intoxicating. Quinn’s coconut and sugarcane taste brought up memories of fun and frivolity to push out the darkness. I drew strength from his presence so that I could face the horror I’d just encountered.
This kiss – it wasn’t like the others we’d shared, where Quinn had been in control. This was wild, desperate, as if he needed something from me that he could only ask for with his mouth tight against mine.
Well, whatever it was he needed, he wasn’t getting it from me until I had answers.
“What… did I see… in there?” I gasped, pulling away. I had so many questions, but my throat wouldn’t cooperate.
“I don’t know, Hazy, you tell me. I heard you screaming, so I came running after you.” Quinn rubbed his jaw. “You’ve left me smarting from that uppercut of yours. Ever thought about joining a boxing team?”
“You didn’t… I screamed after…”
Quinn’s face darkened. “Yeah, you got me. I was following you. Okay, up you get.”
He rocked forward, swaying as he stood up, and staggered toward the end of the hall, which opened into the library’s reading room. Toward light and civilization and books.
“Where are we going?” I gasped.
“I’m taking you to Ayaz. If anyone is going to explain this, it’s gonna be him.”
The last thing I wanted right now was to look into Ayaz’s dark, cruel eyes. “Why him?”
“Because,” Quinn’s mouth set in a firm line. “He was once one of them.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“You’re late—” Ayaz looked up from his cubicle where Quinn entered the reading room. He jumped back as Quinn sat me down on one of the tables. “Fuck! What happened?”
