I turn expecting Adriel to be threatening me with Lachlan, and I drop my hold on my short sword and call on another dagger. I know Lachlan would rather I kill this fucker than save him. Lachlan is screaming like a feral animal and trying to get out of the grip of the two lamia who are holding him, but I sweep my gaze right past him in search of the fucker I need to kill. I find him and his smug fucking smile, but when I take in whose throat he has his hand around, I freeze.
Becket stares at me wide-eyed and afraid, and his sudden appearance throws me completely off.
“Fuck!” I scream out, frustrated and enraged and once again completely fucking impotent. I release my hold on the small dagger and feel too much of my energy drain away with my magic.
“Whooooo!” Adriel shouts out excitedly, and his eyes fill with fire. “I knew you would be the one, pet. All that power just waiting for the right vessel to wield it. Did you see her?” he asks no one in particular. “None of the others could ever work through the pain to do what she just did,” he announces to the room, and I swear if he didn’t have to keep a threatening hold on Becket’s throat, I wouldn’t be surprised to find him jumping up and down and clapping like a kid at Disneyland.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask Becket, my voice filled with gravel and my limbs growing heavier by the second.
“I was taken,” Becket croaks out before Adriel squeezes tighter and his ability to talk is silenced.
“You really should be more careful with your Shields, Vinna. When you let them wander off alone like this one was, you’re just begging to have them taken,” Adriel teases, and I once again wish I had the energy and ability to rip his fucking head off right now. A small amount of relief fills me at knowing Becket didn’t show up here because he was working with Adriel after all, but it’s quickly squashed under the reality that Adriel just put another obstacle in my path to turning him into ash.
My legs buckle, unable to hold me up anymore, and my knees slam to the ground as fatigue fights to shut me down. “Shield?” I manage to ask, not able to help my confusion from slipping out as I replay Adriel’s words in my mind. He looks a little shocked by my question, and he tilts his head and studies me for a beat.
“You don’t know what he is to you?” he clarifies.
“This shit didn’t come with an instruction manual,” I snark, and I try to fight my vision as it starts to tunnel.
“I have one, pet,” he states casually. “Would you like to read it?”
I stare at Adriel’s red-gold eyes, and just when I think I can’t find anything more to hate about him, he shows me something new. I stay quiet, mostly because I’m pretty sure I’m going to black out at any moment, and I’m trying to conserve my energy.
“Shields can be called as guards or protectors. You bond with them in a unique way, bestowing on them the markings of your choosing, and they live to protect you. If I recall correctly, there’s about a page of information on them in the book I have. I’ll let you read it, pet, if you’re good,” Adriel chuckles at his taunt, but I’m no longer paying attention to him.
My brain is slow, and it’s like I’m wading through jello as I try to think back to the night Enoch and the others showed up to my house with runes. I work to recall which runes Becket said he had. I think it was my maces, but I’m not one hundred percent sure.
“So I can create bodyguards by marking them with aweapon?” I ask Adriel like I’m confused by the concept, but my eyes are locked on Becket’s.
I hope he’s catching what I’m trying to throw his way, but I realize even if he does, I’m not sure if he’ll be able to do anything about it. He hasn’t been training with us. He probably has no idea how to tap into whatever I did to him. I blink, the movement slow, and I tilt to the side, not able to keep my exhaustion at bay a minute longer. My body shuts down against my will, but I swear the last thing I see is Becket shoving the tip of an arrow through Adriel’s neck before my head slams against the black, shiny stone floor.
* * *
“Vinna…”a distant voice calls me, and I groan against the intrusion into my peaceful sleep.
“Vinna, can you hear me?”Valen asks again, and I turn toward the sound of it. I grunt in disappointment when I roll over and he’s not right there to cuddle with.
“I miss you,”I tell him sleepily, and I hear him release a relieved sigh.
“We miss you! Tell me you’re ready for us to come get you,”he pleads, and I groan against the ache I’m starting to feel in my body as I drift further away from dreams and sleep and move closer to consciousness.
“Adriel killed Keegan,”I confess to Valen, and I can sense the shock and subsequent sorrow that flashes through Valen, even though he doesn’t immediately say anything.
“How’s Lachlan?”he asks, a hitch in his voice and worry bleeding out of every syllable.
“Shattered,”I tell him resolutely. My chest aches with sadness, and I try to bat away images of Keegan bleeding to death in Lachlan’s arms as they rise to the surface of my mind.
“Fuck,”Valen laments, and I realize I just accidentally shared the image with him.“Shit! Valen I think Siah is still with us—,”I start, but he interrupts me.
“We’re coming, Vinna. Enough is enough.”
“I don’t even know where I am, Valen. We’re underground somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you where.”
“When you wake all the way up, activate your runes on your ring finger, the ones that signal us. We’ll compare it to the tracker we had on the car, and then we’ll get into position around that area. The next time you’re with Adriel, activate those runes again, and we’ll pinpoint where you and he are more specifically and attack. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah, if I don’t keep those runes activated for too long, I should be able to manage the pain.”
“Okay, we’re going to start heading your way now, so just hang in there. This will all be over soon.”
