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The crowd yelled their outrage and disappointment over the sudden interruption, and I heard Annalise’s shriek rising above the commotion. The lights overhead shattered and the hooded figures swarmed us.

Zaynan had a solid grip on me, but I clung to him and turned my head to search for the man who would have let me be bled out for dinner.

Lukas was wielding the sword that had been meant for me, cutting down the robed men in vicious arcs. His coat and shirt were off, and streaks of red dripped down his chest. He was moving so fast that he appeared nearly translucent, and I kept blinking my eyes, trying to make sense of what I saw.

Red mist tinged the air as the crowd fled, and Lukas clashed with the assailants. Annalise had disappeared and I couldn’t see Kalix anywhere.

My chin banged against Zaynan’s shoulder blade as he moved us and in a split second, we were in a small room. He dumped me on a cushioned bench as if I were a sack of potatoes, making me grunt.

“What were you thinking, going in there?”

Pulling myself up, my fingers curled around the edge of my seat. “I don’t know, maybe because I couldn’t just sit around and wait to find out what happened to him? It's not like Annalise would let either of us live. Didn’t you say she was pissed?”

He gave me a dirty look and twirled around. His hands went to his hips and then he raised his fist and punched the wall. “All of you are fucking crazy,” he growled, and ran his bleeding hand through his hair.

I stood and wrapped my arms around my middle. “It’s not like I asked for any of this.”

Zaynan’s jaw ticked to the side. The floor rolled beneath our feet as something crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom on the other side of the wall. “We need to get out of here.”

“What about Lukas?” I asked.

“I have the feeling he can take care of himself.”

A puff of smoke drifted from under the edge of the door, and I shoved the stiletto back inside its holster. “It doesn’t sound friendly out there.”

“Quiet. I’m thinking.” Zaynan rubbed his chin. “The Fourth. I think you should be okay there; people say it’s pretty friendly. Compared to other places I could leave you. Don’t look at me like that.”

Another boom. “But how will he know where I am? I barely understand this Realm and you’re going to just dump me somewhere else?”

“You’ll be fine, take my hands.”

I stared at his outstretched hands. “You know what he did to Kiam, right?”

He smirked. “Unlike Kiam, I’ll flay him alive if he tries anything with me.”

“You already touched my ass, how much worse can it get?” He had to, to carry me, but knowing Lukas it wouldn’t matter.

He drew closer and waited for me. “Come on, we need to go.”

Something hit the door and I grabbed his hands. “Fine, whatever. Are you going to come back and help him? How will he find us?”

He tugged me closer and every cell in my body screamed at me to get away. “You drank his blood, he’ll find you.”

“You’re going to have to hang onto me. I’ve never done this before on my own,” he warned me. “Tighter than that.”

My arms wrapped around him the same way they did with Lukas when he’d relocated us the few times. “What the hell? You don’t know how to do this?”

He took a deep breath. “No. But I’ve done some reading and watched others.”

Lukas had told me Kiam grabbed him from the Third Realm, which apparently my home was. “Wait. So, you didn’t know you’re a vampire?”

He rolled his eyes. “The insatiable urge for blood left me confounded my whole life.”

“Dumbass,” I retorted.

A cracking sound split the air, and the door caved in with a gust of wind.

CHAPTER 23