Chapter 28
Jessiah
Everyone froze. Xavier included. Our enemies quickly dismounted their horses, and three of the men held Xavier in place while one placed the metal of his sword at Xavier’s neck.
I was ready to kill them all if I had to. Every fucking last one of them.
But with one motion, Xavier could be dead.
“Get down from your horses,” the leader of our attackers ordered.
Rummy glanced at me with a question in her eyes, but I nodded, and we both slowly lowered ourselves from the animals.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Rummy spat, raising her hands. She took two steps backward toward me, but we kept our eyes glued on Xavier.
Still, we were surrounded.
And a few moments later, there were swords drawn on us, too.
“A single drop of blood gets spilled, and you’re all dead,” I said.
The man holding the sword to Xavier just laughed. “You’re outnumbered, angel. I have to say, I expected more from you. Your kind is supposed to be invincible, no?” He cocked his head sideways. “Yet here you are, at our mercy.”
“I’m at nobody’s mercy.” I gripped my sword even tighter and pushed my angel wings out until the left grazed Rummy’s shoulder.
“Let him go,” Rummy said. “He’s not the one you want.”
The man holding the sword didn’t budge. “You’re right. You’re the one I want. If you prefer your friend alive, you’ll come with us.”
A second passed. I knew what Rummy’s next words would be before they even left her mouth.
“Fine,” she said. “Release him.”
“No,” Xavier argued. I was already shaking my head in protest, too. “Don’t do this, Rummy.”
“We have no choice,” Rummy argued.
“Nobody’s going anywhere,” I ordered. “We don’t obey commands from Pericius scum.”
The men holding Xavier kicked the back of his legs, forcing him to his knees before us.
Rummy sucked in a breath as the sword swung high in the air. “Perhaps you’ll reconsider.”
This was it. Xavier was going to die, and there was nothing I could fucking do but stand and watch.
That’s when I felt it. It was a buzz in the air—unnatural yet primal at the same time. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up and my wings instinctively stiffened. I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to—a force similar to fear pinned me in place.
Rummy stepped forward, her face emotionless. Her eyes determined. Her gaze locked on those holding Xavier, her focus shifted to the man swinging the sword.
And there was only one thing that came next.
Death.
Rummy didn’t necessarily wield the power, but it moved through her all the same. One by one, the men holding Xavier dropped to the ground without another breath.
It was as easy as breathing, and yet, terror skittered through my bones.
I turned in a circle and watched as every single one of our enemies dropped to the ground. Every man Rummy looked at died.
And died.
And died.
Xavier fell forward in relief, grasping at his still intact neck.
But Rummy stood frozen, staring at the atrocity around her yet not really looking at the same time.
She was somewhere else.
“Rummy,” I whispered, stepping forward. “Are you okay?”
“Holy shit,” Xavier muttered. “Did she just do that? Was that all her?”
Her eyes were dark—the black pupils were the only thing I could see as I took another step in her direction. She needed to come back to us, needed to leave whatever place was trapping her in her mind.
I said her name again, keeping my voice as soft as possible, like a gentle caress in this sea of darkness. “Come back to us, Rummy. You saved us.”
My words penetrated her walls, but she shook her head, rejecting them. “Get away from me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” I put a hand on each side of her face and tilted her chin until her eyes finally focused on me. “You saved us,” I repeated. “That was incredible, Rummy. Do you hear me?”
She let out a shaking breath. “I almost killed you all. I felt it—the power. It wanted me to kill you.”
I ignored Xavier cursing under his breath. “But you didn’t. You saved Xavier’s life. You did that. You were in total control.”
Her chest rose and fell now—heavily, but at least she was breathing. A few seconds passed before she finally pulled herself out of that darkness. She stepped backward and pulled away from me, dropping her gaze as she went.
“I never want to talk about this again,” she spat. “Never. Understand?”
I glanced at Xavier, who only nodded.
She might’ve just saved our lives with the most powerful magic I’d ever seen, but there was something else very dark going on inside her head.
Rummy was crumbling. And if we weren’t there to catch the pieces, she would lose herself entirely.
“Understood.”
It was a long journey home, but we moved fast. We only stopped long enough for the horses to rest and to get a couple of hours of sleep. Our bodies hurt and our bellies grumbled, but we did not stop.
Not until we saw those beautiful, wretched walls of Scarlata Empire.
Home.