“You’ll be fine,” Titan encouraged, and strange enough, I believed him.
The guys were throwing obscenities and fighting against the air barrier separating us.
“This wasn’t part of the bloody requirements for the trials!” Blaise shouted amongst the guys.
“You three work for us, remember?” Gabriel gave them a lazy stare as if this whole fucking thing bored him.
“And you work for both the Kings of Hell and the Queens of Heaven,” Thaddeus spat. “You can’t pull this rubbish. Not when the Kings of Hell have taken an interest in the Draven clan. We’re not just onyourpayroll.”
Kai’s worried eyes never left mine throughout the argument.
What the hell does Thaddeus mean by that?
Gabriel’s jaw ticked. “Silence!”
Carmilla returned with one of those red-eyed things, and I held in a gasp.
It’s fucking terrifying.
Demonic red eyes pinned me to the spot with a calculating look that seemed to analyze me and dig deep into my fears and insecurities. Its body was all phantom but also solid with black tendrils of essence leaking out of it, like the other abandoned I’d seen. It sported razor-sharp teeth and claws but was fucking massive compared to its counterparts.
Carmilla took her seat and snapped her fingers, letting the abandoned out of whatever trance it was under. It was like when the vampire lackey of Viktor had put one under his control.
The abandoned didn’t move. It just kept those red eyes trained on me. When I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it, my consciousness lurched toward him. My soul spun within the vortex of its hollowed madness until my pulse pounded in my skull and blood roared through my eardrums.
Then, everything went black.
FIFTEEN
A red haze settled above the surface of the water. I was floating halfway toward the bottom of the swimming hole. I tried looking around, but everything was murky, and I could barely see a thing.
My lungs burned as if I’d held my breath too long, so I frantically pushed myself toward the top. I broke the surface of the water and gasped out, pulling long inhales of oxygen into my lungs.
“Come on, babe,” Corbin scolded me with that serious look in his eyes. “You can’t worry me like that. You were down there forever.”
“Corbin?” I smoothed my wet hair back out of my face, kicking to stay afloat. “What’re we doing out here?”
I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing before now, and as I tried to probe my brain for what I’d forgotten, my head throbbed.
I think I’m forgetting something important.
“What do you mean?” Concern took over his features as he walked toward the edge and crouched down, holding out a hand toward me.
My pulse jumped in my temples as my chest squeezed. Looking at Corbin made my eyes burn, and I swallowed a lump, trying to bite back tears that were threatening to spill.
It didn’t make any sense.
My stomach hardened as I did a sweep of the surroundings. The sky was gray as if it’d just finished raining, but the temperature was warm like the water. Greenery was popping up everywhere, and the trees around us were luscious and full.
“I don’t know, but I don’t remember how I got here.”
His mouth slacked open as he drew his brows together. “Why don’t we get you out of the water?”
I moved my arms through the water to propel me toward the edge and grabbed his hand. He helped me up out of the water and wrapped a scratchy towel around my bikini-clad body.
“Do you not remember us heading out this way? We just left Dean and Hunter at your place so we could have some alone time for once.”
A small pain shot through my skull as I remembered. “Oh. That’s right. What about my accident?”
