Julian looked stricken.
“You’ve got to get the hell out of there,” Alex said. “You can come here. You know that, right? Daniel, too.”
“I know,” Nicolas said. He couldn’t now, though, could he? There were kidnapped kids to find. He needed to go back behind the wall and see if he could find out where they were being held. “I’d like to send Daniel. I want him out of there.” Whether Daniel would actually go and leave him there alone, he didn’t know. But he had to try.
“And you?” Nathan asked, looking resigned, like he already knew what Nicolas would say.
“I need to stay and find the kids, don’t I?”
“No.” It came fromAshmedai.
Nicolas blinked at him. “I have to.”
“No.” Gripping Nicolas’s sleeve, he forced him to turn, backing him up against the table and looming over him. “No! Not you. Notsafe.”
“It’s okay!” He pushed at Ashmedai, who was as immovable as stone. “Ashmedai, stop, I’ll be okay!”
“No! Mine.Mine.” He shook Nicolas hard, his claws tearing the fabric of his shirt.
Nicolas’s hands shot up, slipping into the darkness of the hood and cradling Ashmedai’s face. His roars trailed off, becoming growly whimpers, and he let himself be pulled forward until all Nicolas saw was darkness and the bright of his eyes. Their foreheads touched, and the orange disappeared. His eyes had closed.
“I’ll be okay,” he swore.
“No,” Ashmedai rumbled. “Can’t know that. Hurt you once. Hurt you again.”
“I can handle it.”
Ashmedai growled again, his hands tightening on Nicolas’s waist.
“It’s temporary,” he promised. “I find out where the kids are being held, and then I’m out of there for good.” He’d known his time with the guild was limited after meeting Ashmedai, and if he sent Daniel to the Sentinels, they would both demand he leave the guild as soon as he could. He’d never been good at telling his little brother no, and he had a feeling it would be the same with Ashmedai.
Ashmedai opened his eyes and backed away slightly, letting Nicolas see the rest of the room again. “How long?”
“Nic, you don’t have to do this,” Julian said softly. “Surely we can find another way.”
“This is the best way,” Nicolas said, turningaround. They were all watching him, and he tried to ignore the way his face heated with embarrassment. “You don’t have any other allies inside, do you?”
The group exchanged glances. “Not really,” Nathan admitted. “Daniel?—”
“A great big hell no,” Nicolas interjected.
Nathan smiled faintly. “—and maybe Cyrus, but I haven’t spoken to him in months. I have no idea what side he falls on now. At one time, he disagreed with Sloan’s decisions. After the whippings, though, who knows how he might’ve changed.”
“On the surface, nothing’s changed with him,” Nicolas said. He didn’t spend much time with Cyrus—Cyrus didn’t spend time withanyone, really. He kept to himself, didn’t even hunt with a squad up until recently. Sloan had added him to one of his favored squads, probably in the hope of guiding Cyrus down the ‘right’ path. “Truthfully, we all mostly keep to ourselves these days. It’s too dangerous to be overheard saying the wrong thing. Most of us just try to keep our mouths shut altogether.”
“Charming,” Talon drawled.
Ashmedai tugged at his ripped sleeve. “Leave.Leave.”
He couldn’t stand to hear the desperation in his raspy voice. “I will,” he promised without second thought. He’d been indecisive for so long, the sudden conviction in his own voice surprised him. “I swear I will. Let me try to help those kids first, okay? And then I’ll leave. Daniel and I will disappear from the guild as soon as the kids are free.”
A mournful note left Ashmedai, and Nicolas felt like he was being torn in two. He knew Ashmedai didn’t like it, but he’d just have to have a little faith in Nicolas. Even though they barely knew each other.
“Maybe we should shift gears for a moment and help shed some light on what’s happening between you two,” Nathan suggested.
Nicolas flushed. He didn’t want to talk about what was happening between him and Ashmedai. It felt too intimate to share with anyone else. “I don’t know…”
“He called you his,” Nathan said. “I take it that wasn’t the first time, since you didn’t react to it.”
