“Smart,” her sister, Jennila whispered.
Drez nodded. “To that end, let’s introduce ourselves to her.”
I counted the people in the room. There were only nine of them, for a total of twelve of us. I didn’t need more than that to keep abreast of what was going on.
I needed to thank Jallina for being so forward thinking about this.
Then, I had to find the person who was stealing my mail out from under me. That was scary. This meant there was someone in the temple who wasn’t loyal.
Each person who would be reporting to Drez and Jallina introduced themselves, and I made sure to remember their faces. I didn’t want to get caught not being able to identify them.
“Would you like to say anything to the group, Mistress?” Drez asked, motioning to the people sitting around me.
I started with a simple thank you to all of them—and then the tremor started. Jallina looked terrified, and her sister fled for the door.
I slapped my hand on the wall and tried pulling back the magic. It was unruly—and slippery. It kept sliding through my grip, and I couldn’t see the colors well in the dark.
I need to get out of the basement.
“Come on!” Jennila was shoving the door open and waving wildly at us.
“No!” Jallina snapped, grabbing her sister back. “We’ll be killed if we go up through the tavern!”
“We’ll die if we stay here!” Jennila answered.
I stood, giving up on trying to pull the magic back for the moment. “Go. All of you. Up the stairs. There’s a backdoor.”
“The building—” Jallina gasped.
I caught her elbow. “Trust me.”
At some point, I had to start trusting me as well.
They shoved out through the door, with Jallina, Drez, and me following behind. The stairs were deadly, and each of the meeting attendees ran up one at a time, trying not to tax them.
The tremors were getting worse. I had to get up and out to see what was going on. I couldn’t seem to see the colors in the dark of the basement.
“Go,” Drez said, pointing up.
I ran, as fast and as hard as I could up the wobbling stairs to the top.
At the top, I stopped and spun around to wait for Jallina. She had already launched herself halfway up the stairs, and I grabbed her hand, yanking her to the floor.
Drez was last.
Halfway up, the staircase and the left wall of the building decided to give up and collapse.
In almost slow motion, Drez pin-wheeled forward, about to crash into the bricks that were raining down on him.
I snapped my magic out and caught him, freezing him in place. Jallina leaned over the ledge and grabbed his hand, and between the two of us, we hauled him to safety.
Bands of gold snapped around their hands where they were joined.
They had mated. Jallina and Drez were mates.
I wished I had more time to process that, but the rest of the walls were threatening to fall as the tremors kept growing.
“Out!” I screamed, wrapping my hand around Jallina’s arm. I yanked them to the back door, and we all stumbled out and away from the crumbling building.
