He grunted and rolled to his side. A figure lay prone in the corner, curled around one of the diamond rocks. Logan tried to stand, but his legs wobbled. So he crawled, reaching the figure and pulling him over onto his back. Hope filled him, finally piercing the pain. His chest heaved. “Ivar?”
The Viking blinked, his face and body covered in burns and scars. One of his eyes was missing, as was his left hand. “Who?” He coughed, and blood bubbled from his mouth. Then he passed out again.
Logan dug deep and made himself stand, clasping Ivar’s arm and pulling him up. “I knew I could find you.” The agony of ducking a shoulder and lifting Ivar over it nearly dropped him to the ground again, but he staggered out of the cave, forcing his legs to keep moving. He’d found Ivar. Triumph sang through the agony in his head.
He bounced across the diamonds, letting them take his weight. Portal. They needed a portal.
One opened, and his heart leapt.
Then figures came through. First a Fae soldier, one he recognized from his attack on their headquarters. Then a Cyst dropped next to him. The Fae threw a sword to the Cyst.
Logan shook his head to focus. The Cyst was huge. At least seven feet tall with deep purple eyes. Fuck. He looked frantically around for another portal, but none opened. Could the Fae control that? Gingerly, he set Ivar down on the ground, hopefully flat enough that the fire couldn’t get him.
Logan had nothing left. He’d never lost a fight in his life, but this might be the first.
By the smile on the Cyst’s face, he knew it. “Logan Kyllwood. This will be a pleasure.” He twirled the enormous sword as if it were a child’s toy. “You know we make these special to decapitate the Seven?”
Yeah. Logan had heard. Though his torso was now solid and impenetrable, he was still vulnerable beneath his chin. His head could still be taken off with the right weapon. The Cyst had that weapon. “If you kill me, somebody will take my place.”
“Maybe. Or not.” The guy’s medals showed he was a general with the Kurjans.
Logan studied him. “Xeno.” Yeah, he’d seen a dossier. “The Kayrs family would like a word with you.” Rumor had it Xeno had killed members of their family. “Why don’t you go visit them?” His vision was graying and turning red at the corners.
“I plan to.” Xeno took a fighting stance as the Fae soldier circled around Logan.
Where the hell was the portal? Any portal? Logan dug into the universe, trying to find an escape. His legs were about to give out, and then he wouldn’t be able to protect Ivar.
The air swirled and a portal opened behind the Cyst general. Logan caught his breath. There was a chance.
Until Mercy and Niall dropped from the portal onto a diamond and bounced several times. She stopped moving, her eyes wide, her gaze seeking him. In his sweater and a pair of scratched brown boots, she looked small and fragile.
Everything in him, in the universe around him, went still. Even the pain disappeared.
A fury, way beyond any rage, quaked through him with a force that shot steel into his very bones. “What the hell are you doing here?” he yelled.
* * * *
The heat pouring from her mate was more intense than the oppressive air around her. She gulped and jumped away from Niall onto a weird sparkly and oddly bouncy rock. Logan stood with his legs braced and his body rigid. A male lay prone on the ground behind him. He’d found the Viking.
Logan glared at Niall. “I tased you.”
Mercy coughed out the heated air. “We have defenses against our weapons. There’s a taser that can reinstate the ability to teleport faster than waiting for nature to take its course.” Though she’d heard it hurt like hell. Like having shock therapy.
Niall jumped to her rock while a Cyst soldier leaped between them and Logan.
She balanced on the mushy surface, feeling as if she was trapped on a heated bouncy ball. This was a strange freaking world. Jocko, a Fae soldier, drew a gun out of his back pocket. Crap. Another taser to stop teleporting. She gulped. “Let’s all get out of here. Negotiate a truce,” she said, hoping against hope.
Xeno turned and swung with the sword, aiming for her neck.
She yelped and dropped to the rock, bouncing up too quickly. The blade caught her boot and tore the leather. Logan roared and charged, hitting Xeno midcenter and crashing them both to skid across the rocks like skipping stones.
Niall lunged for her, and she rolled to the side, kicking her feet down and bouncing into the air to backflip toward the passed-out Viking.
Logan and Xeno rolled end over end, both throwing punches so quickly they could barely be seen. They hit a circular rock and flew in opposite directions. Soon blood covered the diamond rocks, and the combatants were slipping and sliding, somehow bouncing as well.
Logan landed near Jocko and grabbed him by the neck, using him as a shield. “Mate? Come here.”
She tried to move his way, but Niall jumped in front of her.
