“Yeah. I—”
“I assume by your familiarity and obnoxious display of affection that these are, in fact, the Guardians who were with you in the Vestibule battle?” Tazreel says, interrupting me.
Obnoxious?
I send him a peeved look but give him a clipped, “Yes.”
Tazreel and the others have formed a line like a wall of Abdicated, staring down my demons. “Where did you find my daughter?” Tazreel asks.
Every single one of my demons tenses up. I can feel Iceman’s cold skin seeping through his button-down shirt on my left, while Jerif’s heat soaks into me on my right.
“Daughter?” Crux breathes, and I can feel the shock permeate through them like mist rising from the ground.
“Yeah. I fell through the Nihil Ring, and I guess it brought me here because...he’s my sperm donor.”
“Sire,” Tazreel corrects.
Crux turns, grinning like a loon and raises his hands in victory. “Ha! I told you guys! I totally called it that she was a Nihil.It’s impossible,” he mock-argues, sounding like a mix of Iceman and Jerif. “But it wasn’t, I fucking called it!”
“Quiet,” Tazreel demands, instantly making Crux’s tanned, surfer boy face go pale. When Taz is satisfied that he has their full attention, he goes on. “Is it true you found my daughter in the Mortal Realm and she had no idea what she was?”
“Yes,” they all answer, and I know instantly that he’s using that same truth mumbo jumbo magic on them that he used on me.
“You took her to the Vestibule and were attacked. How did you get away?”
Jerif’s eyes meet mine, and I can’t look away. For just a second, we share a private look, but I’m suddenly seeing him from before—when he had Outer Ringers piled all over him, stabbing into his broken body again and again while he told me to run—to save myself. I blink my eyes hard at the memory, trying to shove it away because it hurts too bad. The pain is too fresh.
A blanket of comforting heat slips against my palm, and I look down, tears springing in my eyes when I see Jerif’s fingers threading through mine. He holds my hand firmly, his hot thumb melting those shattered pieces of my heart so they can be molded back together again.
Iceman answers Taz’s question. “One second, we were completely surrounded. Overtaken. Dying. I knew it was over,” he says, and it’s so hard to hear, but I take in Iceman’s words because I need to know how this is possible. “But then, they all suddenly retreated. Just like that, all at once. They poured back into the Outer Rings.”
“They didn’t even attempt to break through your Gate while you were down?” Taz asks, head cocked.
“No, they just left,” Echo says, with a shrug that communicates he’s just as much at a loss as the rest. “It took us...a long time to heal enough to move,” he adds, darting his pitch-black eyes my way as his shadows coalesce around his skin. “Jerif was in bad shape.”
“I healed,” he says gruffly, giving my trembling hand a squeeze.
I know he’s playing it off for my sake, trying to downplay how bad it was. But I know. I know he was an inch from death. It’s right there, in his flaming eyes and the way his dark skin spreads with a chill.
“We thought they took her,” Crux adds, looking at me as he runs his hands through his shaggy blond hair. “We went to our Rings to heal faster, and we had a plan set in motion to go search for her in the Outer Rings. We were just meeting in the Vestibule, shoring up our Hellgate when you brought us here.”
The Abdicated share a look.
“Hmm.” That’s all Tazreel says, not giving away anything he’s thinking. “Alright, that will be all.”
He raises his hand to snap them away. “NO!” My scream ricochets throughout the room, stopping him. “I need them here with me,” I pant, terrified he’s going to make them disappear. My hand is squeezing Jerif’s so tightly that I’m surprised I’m not breaking any bones.
“Ooh,” Elle purrs, looking at us as she flashes teeth and juts out her lace-covered breasts. “Your daughter is fraternizing with those below her. How scandalous.”
Taz scowls at me, but he drops his hand. “Are they your menagerie?”
“What? No,” I stutter as my cheeks fill with a blush.
“No? Wonderful,” Elle says with a sultry smile, her red wings fluffing out behind her. “One can come with me to the party then.”
“Wha—”
My question gets cut off as Elle saunters forward, grabbing Crux by the arm. “Come along.”
