Words cannot convey how sorry I am that I hurt you to exact vengeance on my brother. But I couldn’t take a chance of Mal knowing how much I valued you. When your heart stopped beating, I feared the worst. I’m glad the warriors brought you back. If you can ever forgive me, call me. Always your friend. Nora.
Darci’s mouth flattened, her hurt and betrayal still too fresh.
A plaintive meow caught her ear. Deleting the message, she searched the pathways, then glanced up the trellis and laughed when she found Bob caught in the diamond shape of the wooden structure again, his pudgy body hanging out on her side. Smiling, she set her cell on the counter and walked out onto the terrace.
“Now how did you get up there, huh?” She eased him free and stroked his thick, smoky-gray pelt. His tail flicked happily against her arm as if in thanks. “Didn’t Blaéz tell you to find a new route to the garden?”
She hugged Bob, glad to be alive and in full health, to be able to carry a heavy cat without gasping for breath. It truly was all over. Darci marveled at the lightness inside her chest as she meandered back toward the kitchen.
Movement in her peripheral view had her spinning around. Two figures took form.
One was a brunet and the other a pale blond. Tall as the Guardians, they both wore brown, rough-hide pants and some kind of doublet. Her grip tightened on Bob as they approached, looking as mean as hyenas. A sword appeared in their hand, exactly like the ones she’d seen once. Black tipped silver blades.
Darci stepped back, her gaze pinned on the brunet, so sure she’d seen him before—oh shit! It was the law-keeper whose nose Blaéz had broken!
Darci?
At the sudden intrusion of Blaéz’s voice in her mind, everything happened so fast she didn’t have a chance to respond. She stumbled, tripped. Bob sprang free as she fell on her backside, his caterwauling hiss exploding in the late morning air. His paw lashed out. The man lunging for her reared back at Bob’s unexpected attack, his thrusting blade missing her chest by inches. Three streaks of red appeared on his face and healed just as fast.
The brunet glared down at her like she was a slug beneath his boots.
“You were warned, mortal,” he said. “The fallen has forfeited his life by mating you.”
She scowled at the insult, her fingers digging into the grass. The fact he would think nothing of ending Blaéz’s life shot her anger sky-high. “Where were you lot when he suffered the horrors of Tartarus for centuries? The moment he’s found peace, you would kill him?”
“Enough. He knew the laws and he broke them.”
Blaéz materialized in front of her, barefoot, wearing only black Gi’s, his body a pale gold in the midday sunlight. The brutal scars on his back didn’t detract from his magnificence. But the air around him shimmered with ice. “You dare to trespass on the Guardians’ estate and attack my mate?”
The blond hovering in the back strolled forward. Sneered. “You have broken the Absolute Law,fallenone. Took a mortal to mate. The penalty is death. And don’t expect help from your friends, we are shielded.”
Blaéz stiffened at seeing the pale-haired man but remained silent. He held out his hand to her. She grasped his fingers and he drew her to her feet. His stance remained casual. But Darci knew what a lie that was, just how fast and deadly he could be. Blaéz’s chilly gaze remained pinned on the blond.
“Did you truly imagine I’d allow you anywhere near my mate without repercussions?” As Blaéz spoke to those two, she heard his voice inside her head,Get back into the castle the moment I engage these fuckers and don’t leave its protection.
She nodded then realized he couldn’t see her.Okay, okay. Please, be careful.
Always.
With impossible speed, Blaéz lashed out with a flying kick at the brown-haired guy. Heart in her mouth, Darci spun around and ran straight into the tip of a sword as a third law-keeper took form.Oh. Shit.
The frosty-haired man holding the six-foot-long sword stared at her. Eyes empty, devoid of emotions. The tip of his sword pricked her belly. She winced. If she moved, he would run the blade all the way through her body. Of that she had little doubt.
With the steel point pressed into her stomach, he continued to observe the fight. He probably waited to kill her so he could make Blaéz watch.
* * *
Damn shits! Not even a day of bonding with his mate and these bloody sods were here. A familiar blond entered his sight. Blaéz wasn’t surprised. He should have known Finnén would join these dicks.
“Finally.” The same brunet law-keeper whose nose he’d broken flew at Blaéz, sword swinging. Blaéz ducked and snatched the blade. He rammed his fist into the brunet’s jaw then speared him straight in his heart with his deadly slayer sword. An outraged cry echoed. The law-keeper shimmered and vanished in a stream of blue light, straight up into the sky.
Finnén trampled through Hedori’s herb-garden several feet away, eyes like gray stone, rage contorting his lean face. “At long last, I get to finish you.”
“You didn’t succeed then, and you really thinknowyou will?” Blaéz nailed a cool stare at his twin. “Leave or Iwillkill you.”
“Not so fast, fallen one,” a new voice snapped from behind him.
Blaéz spun around. At the sight of the law-keeper trapping Darci at sword point, not by a flicker of an eye did he reveal the fury tearing through him. Blaéz pushed into his mind, but hit a wall. The bastard was shielded.
