My stomach drops as the memory clicks into place. The Dreven guard I’d flirted with to get inside the city, and the second guard who’d watched the whole thing with a scowl sharp enough to cut glass.
The same scowl he’s wearing now.
I force a placating smile onto my face and shake my head. “I didn’t realize he was taken. It was just harmless flirting.”
“You used your sick little mind tricks on him,” he accuses, leaning in closer. “Made him want you.”
“No,” I snap, the word sharp as my mask slips. “I didn’t. Absolutely not.”
“I looked you up after you left… one perk of working in records,” he says with a smirk. “I couldn’t find a Cavese named Mikhail in any active database. Plenty of dead ones, or ones posted halfway across the world, but your accent told me you weren’t transporting in from Sydney or Kyiv… so I reported it. Just in case.”
The papers crumple in my fist, and I shove him hard enough that he stumbles back and hits the floor with a heavy thud.
I’m already moving.
I bolt through the lobby door and out into blinding sunlight. The two gate guards twist toward the noise, and move to block my escape. I summon my power as the first reaches for me, commanding them to get out of my way.
Both of them stumble and leave me an opening that I dart through, but the effort drains my energy so fast it feels like ice pours from my stomach into my toes.
Movement in my peripherals catches my eye, and I find a platoon marching up the street toward the building. The lead soldier spots me and bellows something I don’t wait to hear.
I push aside my exhaustion and run.
Feet pounding against the pavement, I weave through the crowd, but out here on the edges it’s thinner, and there are fewer bodies to hide behind. If I can hit the city center markets and the crush of people there, I can lose myself among them.
They don’t know who I am, after all, just that I’m not who I claim to be.
I shoulder past anyone in my way, leaving a trail of confused mutters and angry curses behind me. Lungs burning, I cut around a corner and duck into a narrow alley, searching for any path to lead me away or any shadow that might swallow me.
Around another turn, the light at the end of the alley offers an escape, and I desperately need it as I waver. I push all myremaining energy into my legs right as a massive figure steps out from an open garage door.
I slam into him at full speed. The impact jars me, but he’s solid as a wall like he was bracing for it and barely budges. Before I can register more than a flash of red hair, an arm hooks around my waist, and I’m hauled up and over his shoulder.
“What the fuck—” I hiss, caught between fury and the need to stay quiet.
He grunts as my boot connects with his gut. “Shut it unless you want them to hear you,” he growls, already moving deeper into the shadowed garage.
He shoulders through another door into a darker room, and another presence shifts in the shadows. My panic spikes, and I’m disoriented from being tossed around, but I’ll be damned if I don’t put up a fight.
I twist, ramming my hip into his jaw hard enough to make his teeth clack, and his grip loosens. I slip free and hit the concrete with a thud that rattles my brain, scrambling to get my feet under me while the world tilts.
He recovers faster.
A heavy knee on my sternum pins me to the floor and drives the air from my lungs in a silent gasp. His weight settles, and while he’s careful not to crush, it’s more than enough to hold me still.
I freeze, chest heaving, and every instinct screaming as I stare at my captor.
He’s tall, and broader than any human has the right to be, with coppery hair falling across a face set in hard lines. Scars cover the right side of his neck and lick up his chin and cheek in a pink, pitted pattern that’s mostly covered by a thick, neatly trimmed beard. Brown eyes narrow with pure contempt as his knee presses harder.
“Let me go,” I order, as I reach for the remnants of power churning in my stomach.
His weight shifts, and he starts to lift while I get ready to run.
Rough fabric drops over my head and turns everything black. It startles me enough to make me lose my grip on my magic, and the pressure on my chest doubles down.
“No, no. None of that,” a second voice chimes in, lighter and amused, like he’s enjoying the show. “We know all about your little mind worm tricks.”
“Mind worm?!” I gasp, and as I draw in a desperate inhale, cloth sucks into my mouth and turns the hood into an effective gag. It chokes me and muffles my words, and sends a jolt of panic through my veins as I try to catch my breath.
