Lazza? Lazza is doing this?
“Where is it?” The man with the cropped white hair and Cristal-colored eyes grumbles. “I took care of the Vow. Lazza shouldn’t be able to get to all of you still,” he defends.
He took care of the Vow. Who is this guy? When did he take care of the Vow?
“Where is the rune Lazza is using right now?” the tall beautiful man demands of Treno, but Treno can’t answer as his arms fall limp and his head starts to loll back.
“By the stars, of course your bloodline has been sneakier than they should have been. Why didn’t I see that though?” he asks himself, oddly. “Where’s your other mark, Altern?” he frustratedly snarls again before he flips Treno onto his other side and searches his body.
“If I have to touch your cock to look for this thing, I’m not going to be pleased,” the unfamiliar man grumps. “Where are you hiding your sneaky little rune?” he sing-songs, and then his eyebrows shoot up with knowing.
He abandons his efforts to untie Treno’s pants and brushes the white strands of Treno’s hair back from the side of his head. He looks behind his ear and then shouts. “Got ya!”
The man presses his hand over Treno’s left ear, and a glow comes to life under his palm.
All at once, the crushing feeling in my lungs, throat, and limbs abates, and I gasp to pull oxygen into my body. I hear the others doing the same, coughing and heaving as we all try to recover from whatever the hell Lazza just tried to do to us.
I keep my eyes trained on the stranger as he pushes away from Treno and looks around at the rest of us while shaking his head. His champagne-colored eyes seem to be debating something as he takes us in, and then his gaze lands on mine. His concerned eyes soften, and he comes nearer.
I wheeze and stiffen.
“Pidge, I may need you,”I tell her, checking in quickly to make sure she’s okay. I feel her observing everything intently, guarding and assessing the situation, but she doesn’t seem to feel threatened by whoever this is, so I take that into consideration as I refocus on him.
“Don’t be afraid, Falon. I’m not here to hurt you. I’ve been watching your threads closely and saw you were in need of me again. That’s the only reason I’m here,” he explains, but I have no fucking clue what he’s talking about.
Watching my threads?
“I hoped, when I took care of the Altern’s Vow, that you would be able to make it to me on your own—and that maybe all of you would be in a better place when you did—but I think given what just happenedagain, it might be best to let go of those hopes and just get the group of you to safety.”
“Who are you?” I croak, rubbing my neck as if that will make it all better. Damn, between my throat being slit and whatever Lazza just did to phantom strangle us, I’m worried my vocal cords may never fully recover.
Zeph would be so pleased.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been watching you for so long it makes me feel like we’re old friends,” he tells me on a laugh. “I’m Wekun,” the strange champagne-eyed man declares, offering his hand.
I give it the side-eye. There he goes with that whole watching thing again. I scan his chiseled frame and take a moment to study his handsome face and stunning eyes. Nope. Still not okay with the whole watching me thing.
Before I can say anything about hownot coolstalking is, Wekun looks to the side. “Now, now, Syta, is that any way to thank the person who just saved your life?” Wekun asks, and I follow his stare to find Zeph crawling to his feet with murder in his golden gaze.
“For all I know, you’re the one who tried to kill us in the first place, Ouphe scum, and you’re just blaming Lazza so we fall into your trap. You seem to have a habit of showing up when tainted magic is in the air and claiming that you’re there to help,” Zeph growls and then spits on the ground, punctuating exactly how he feels about our visitor. Surprisingly though, Zeph doesn’t make another move against Wekun, even though I can see in his eyes that he wants to.
“Habit of showing up?” I ask, confused, my eyes bouncing from Zeph’s indignant glare back to Wekun.
“Zeph,” Wekun chides like he’s scolding a naughty toddler. For some reason, it makes me like him already.
“You know each other?” I ask, trying and failing at figuring out what the hell is going on.
“I don’t know aboutknow each other, but we’ve met him before,” Ryn explains, getting to his feet. He looks just as pissed as Zeph, and I’m trying to understand why.
Maybe the lack of oxygen fried the last of my working brain cells. “Can someone just fucking tell me what the hell is going on?” I croak, reaching my limit for near-death experiences and cryptic half-stories.
“He showed up back at the cave. Lazza tried to go after Treno and us through his Vow mark. This Ouphe walked in out of nowhere and stopped it,” Ryn explains.
Me, standing outside of my body as pain washed through me, surfaces in my mind. I remember Ryn and Zeph scrambling, and then I saw a flare of light—not unlike the one that occurred right before Wekun showed up just now. I recall the faint image of a figure appearing in the cave, awash in that bright light, and I make the connection to what Ryn is talking about.
“You helped us before? Why?” I ask, turning back to Wekun.
His eyes light up with affection, making the pale gold color sparkle in an incredibly enticing way. “Like I said, I’m here to help. I should have seen that, at some point, their family would have put another connecting rune somewhere, although I’m sure they never thought one brother would use it to try and kill the other,” he tells me, like that should make complete sense to me.
