Chapter 28
“Iswear to the Goddess herself, if you let anything happen to him, I will hunt you down and kill you myself,” Elora said, her voice stern but shaky.
Drakyth leaned down to meet her gaze. “I will guard his back with my life, El.”
El.I groaned internally. I had never been an overly possessive person, but Elora changed me into a beast. I wanted her all to myself—her gaze and words, her name, her nearness, and especially her smiles.
But I knew, without a doubt, that she was mine, and I was hers, so I let it slide. However, she hadn’t so much as shaken another’s hand in my presence since the time she met Drakyth.
My hand had worn her ass out that night while she screamed and came—repeatedly. The little nymph liked it, and it didn’t take long for me to wrench the words from her mouth.
The memory stirred in my cock, and I adjusted myself.
“You’re sure about this?” she whispered only to me, placing her hands on my shoulder as she stood on her toes. Her brows were furrowed, worry pressing into every feature of her beautiful face.
I ran a thumb between her brows, smoothing the crease before lowering to run it along her bottom lip. “It’s time, sun ray. The boy has suffered long enough.”
“Tell me again. I need to hear it again.”
She didn’t need to elaborate. I knew exactly what she wanted to hear for the tenth time. “The Sanctuary is hidden. Adon will be there, ready for him when we arrive. The boy was left alone. Adrastus is gone, but we don’t know how long exactly. Maybe hours, maybe days, but we have to go now, love.”
She inhaled a shaky breath, nodding, and plastered a smile on her face. I cupped her jaw and leaned down to bite that damned lip. She gasped but melted in my hold.
“No lies means no fake smiles,” I whispered into her mouth.
“I’m scared,” she whispered back.
My hand slid into her hair and pulled her head back an inch. “I know.”
“But,” she sighed, “he’s just a child, and he needs out. He needs the Sanctuary. He needs to be with the family who won’t hurt him.”
“Such a kind heart.” I pressed my lips to her forehead.
Elora had encouraged this rescue after hearing of my guilt, of the nightmares that occasionally frequented me in my sleep, and once we convinced Drakyth, we spent months planning. Adrastus was watched and followed tirelessly, at least one person tracking his every movement until we understood his schedule.
But the boy would turn thirteen within the next year, which meant his shift was coming, and we couldn’t let him go through that with Adrastus. He deserved to shift with someone who would be gentle, who could lead and teach with compassion. He needed his grandfather.
This rescue, however, would be much more difficult than any other before. We had to get in, get the kid out, and disappear into the night without a trace while Drakyth waited for his son, Adrastus.
We had the chains ready—iron imbued with a spell. Once locked in, Adrastus would no longer be able to shift. He would be locked away, and the realm would be safe once again. That boy would be safe.
“We should have done this years ago,” Drakyth said. “Thank you for pushing us, Elora. It seems we just needed a kick in the ass.”
“We have to be careful, silent. No evidence left behind,” I said, and Drakyth nodded once, gripping his two swords by the hilts in their sheaths at his hips. “Less than half his staff is loyal to him, but they all fear him, so we can’t be seen.”
“We won’t be.” He dipped his chin to Elora.
“I’ll see you soon, Drak,” she said, her brows furrowing again.
My heart hurt, and I wound an arm around her shoulders to pull her into a hug as Drakyth stepped off to the side with his back to us. Elora never said goodbyes when she was scared. She said it felt too final, too much like an ending. “See you soon” meant there would be another time, and she clung to hope in that way.
I slid my finger under her chin and tipped her head back to press my lips to hers, long and deep.
“I love you,” she mumbled into my mouth, then cupped my cheeks to pull me down and place another peck on my lips, the corner of my mouth, my chin, my cheek, my jaw. Everywhere.
“I love you too.” More than I can ever say.
Her blue eyes had turned to the deepest ocean under the dim moonlight, brimmed with gut-wrenching tears. I hated that they were for me in any capacity. My thumb wiped along her cheek, anticipating their fall.
“Return to me,” she whispered.
“Every day, my love. You know I’ll return to you. Every. Single. Day.”
She nodded once before turning to Drak. “Remember what I said. I will kill you.”
Drak glanced over his shoulder with a faint smile. “Understood.”
With that, I downed two of Iaso’s tonics for good measure, grabbed his arm in a death vice, and held Elora’s gaze as she backed away.
A tear slipped down her cheek.
Lightning struck, and she disappeared.
We dropped outside of Adrastus’ estate, near Blackburn but forcibly isolated from the town. Even the air around the manor was eerily quiet, unsettlingly so. No birds, no wind, nothing.
It was large but plain, with no surrounding vegetation or color, not even grass—a prison. The windows were dark, no visible candles lit inside, leaving the moon overhead as the only light.
I released Drak’s arm, both of us tense and silent. Trepidation covered us like a suffocating fog as we stepped into the surrounding forest. With the tonic we’d taken to hide our scents and night hiding us within its darkness, we’d be essentially invisible, even to a Draig, had he been here.
We weren’t taking any chances. Not this time, not tonight. I had a mate to return to, and this boy had a home waiting on him. For the first time, he would taste comfort.
We crept along the property to the back door. Drakyth stepped out first and quickly unlatched it, peeking his head inside before waving me forward. We slipped in, and he closed the door silently behind us.
There wasn’t a single candle lit, the room utterly black, and uneasiness settled in my gut. Where were the workers? The maids? The cooks?
It was late, but it wasn’t past midnight. There should still be someone awake.
I didn’t dare breathe those words aloud, though.
While Drakyth and I continued our work with the Sanctuary, it had been Adon who studied Adrastus and his son intently, watching and learning as much as he could, even down to the blueprints that laid out every passageway of the house. He’d handed those over to Drakyth who learned them like the back of his hand.
I followed him to the right and ducked into a servants’ hall, narrow and impossibly dark. I kept one hand on his back, carefully avoiding his wings because they were sensitive in ways I had no interest in, while my other hand trailed along the wall. We climbed a spiral staircase to the second floor where we passed one door, two, three, and stopped at the fourth.
“This should be his,” he whispered so low, I thought it might have been nothing more than a draft.
I patted his back once since he couldn’t see me, and the sound of the doorknob turning filled the silence. My heart thundered, thumping in my ears, as I waited on bated breath.
The room inside was lit with silver moonlight, the window open and curtains blowing in the breeze.
It was a prison.
The only thing in the room was a small bed. That was it. Not a desk, not a rug or artwork or toys. Nothing.
A bed with a single blanket and no pillow—and no child.
The room was utterly empty.
Drak let loose a breath, shaking his head. “Where…”
He stepped into the room and glanced around.
Shluck.
He flinched before going still, an arrow protruding from his side. I jerked forward and ripped him back by his shoulder.
As soon as he staggered into the passageway, I slammed the door shut at the same moment that something—or someone—rammed it full force.
With gritted teeth, I ripped the arrow from Drak’s side, and he grunted behind closed lips.
Whoever was on the other side of the door pounded on it as I tossed the arrow to the side. The banging of fists echoed down the hall as we sprinted back the way we came, taking the steps three at a time. When we hit the bottom floor, heavy footsteps sounded above us, and we ran faster.
I slammed the door to the servants’ hall open, and we spilled into the back entryway, no longer worried about silence. The footsteps of our attacker paused before a loud thump hit on the same floor as us and started again.
Fuck, they jumped levels.
Another arrow loosed and sank into the wall, an inch from Drakyth’s face, but not before it sliced through his brow. Blood poured over his eye, and he wiped it away with the back of his hand, his wings rippling with anger.
I shoved him out the back door. “Go!”
He hesitated with a torn glance back at me but shot to the sky with a grunt, wiping his eye again. The moonlight revealed his side soaked in red, his hand pressing into the bleeding wound. His wings moved slowly, each flap contorting his face in pain, but they moved, and that was all that mattered.
Another arrow zipped past me, my shoulder stinging. It sliced through my shirt and skin, and warmth seeped down my arm as I sprinted to the tree line.
I was too close to the house, and that boy had to be in there somewhere. If I left from here, I risked burning him to the ground with that damned house.
Just a little farther?—
Another arrow planted itself in my calf.
I hit the ground with a thud.
Another sank in my shoulder, shattering my shoulder blade. A guttural roar tore from me, but it was drowned out by the loud crack of lightning.
The last thing I saw was fire catching. Flames licked the ground, consuming my pooling blood like fuel. It spread toward the house, and when it met wood, it grew bigger, wider, hungrier.
Only one person stepped from the home.
One person met my gaze.
Blood red eyes, large wings, and a wolfish grin.
“A house for a house, Vaelor.”