The haze builds within the air and quickly becomes a churning tornado of power. It sweeps inward, scooping up Anarchy, snatching Lucian off his feet, and pressing in on me so intensely that I’m plastered up against Diavolo’s body.
Accepting the pressure, I turn toward his chest and slip my legs around his waist, tipping my head back to see his face.
The mist plucks at my voice, but I’m sure he hears me. “Thank you for healing me.”
He is a storm in my vision, as violently churning as the mist around me. One of his hands rises to the nape of my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair even as it billows in black waves around my face.
For a moment, his lips part, and I think he’s going to say something. There’s a spark in his eyes, once more a hint of metal.
But then his lips press together, his chest rises and falls deeply against mine, and I don’t have a hope of interpreting his thoughts.
There so much I don’t know about him, and so much I don’t understand, and for the first time, I wonder if what I don’t know could destroy me.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Amoment later, the keeper’s power steals the breath from my chest and I’m disintegrating…
And being put back together.
We arrive in the same state of suspension as when we left the forest.
The keeper’s arms are around me, my legs hooked around his waist, his presence consuming my vision. But he must have turned during the journey here because I’m now facing Anarchy and Lucian once more.
A short distance to my right, Anarchy drops from her airborne position and lands lithely on her feet, as cats can do.
Lucian, on the other hand, doesn’t fare so well. The translocation power lifted him off the ground and gathered his wings around him. He drops heavily from two feet above the floor and stumbles backward, his wings dragging across the floor and catching on one of the kitchen chairs before he finally hits the edge of the kitchen table and stops there.
The apartment isn’t big. There’s a bedroom with an attached dressing room and a bathroom around the corner from that bedroom—both located on my right. We’re currently standing in the larger living space that contains lounge chairs at one end—all behind me—and a little kitchen at the end I’m facing. The kitchen basically sits in the corner, consisting of a countertop and cupboards on the far wall with more cupboards and a sink against the wall perpendicular to the left. The table sits in the space between them. It’s a nice, neat, square-shaped, little kitchen.
When we first arrived here, the keeper pinned blankets over the windows since my eyes were very sensitive to light then. It’s difficult to tell what time it is without seeing outside, but I assume it must be around mid-morning now.
I don’t have time to say anything more to the keeper before my ears fill with soft, chirping sounds, the likes of which I’ve never heard before.
A second later, multiple furry bodies collide with mine, knocking the keeper and me to the floor. With a flash of sapphire energy, a large rug appears beneath him, along with a plush cushion positioned perfectly behind his head—both materializing a moment before he hits the floor on his back with me on top of him.
My view fills with massive, black, chirping cats.
“Panthers!” I exclaim, a second before the three male panthers knock me off the keeper and onto the rug, piling around me, their chirps turning into purrs so loud that it feels like the room is vibrating around me.
“Happy panthers!” I make it up onto my knees and hug them, one by one, while the other two take turns nudging their heads across my back and shoulders.
“Riot. Rumble. Strife,” I greet them each in turn. It hasn’t been all that long since I last saw these three, but… “Oh, I missed you.”
They purr and purr while I scratch their chins and the soft fur beneath their ears.
Anarchy sits on her haunches a few paces away grinning happily at us. I’m vaguely aware of Lucian sliding across the table and dropping onto one of the kitchen chairs.
But it’s the keeper who demands my attention next.
“Move.” He’s on his knees, pushing the panthers aside as he makes his way toward me. “It’s my turn.”
“Oh.” I turn into his arms once more.
The panthers back off, but their purrs only become louder as they mill around Anarchy, nudge their cheeks to hers, enforcing their bond with her.
The keeper manages to tower over me even when kneeling as I am. I guess it helps that he can change his height at will. At some point while I was hugging the panthers, he changed back into his brown-eyed persona, now wearing a soft-feeling T-shirt and sweatpants, both a gray color. Despite how snuggly the material feels up against my stomach when he pulls me closer, and how gentle his hold on me is, his voice is a harsh contrast.
“You pushed yourself out of my magic and made yourself vulnerable to capture.”
