Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
brIANNA
T wenty minutes earlier…
I find it odd my father hasn’t glanced back once at the house as he strides toward the town car. He’s always double checking the house. He even often glances toward my room as if he can tell I’m actually inside. This time, none of that. He and Declan make it to the car and they both get in. It’s odd, but I can’t think about that right now. If Fate brought us together, I have to believe there’s time to find a way to free him.
As soon as the town car disappears out of sight, I know this might be our only chance.
Ellie steps up beside me. “You ready?”
I give her a sharp nod and lead the way downstairs into the depths of the basement once again.
“Wow, there’s a lot of magic in here,” Ellie murmurs as she watches me move through the process of getting into the cells.
I was hoping Ewan would be here, but it seems they’ve dragged him off somewhere as well.
Kayden has never given me any indication at all that he would be willing to help, or that he’d even be willing to look me in the face, but he’s our only shot.
“Kayden, I know you don’t want anything to do with me, and I know you don’t trust me, but I’m not alone, and this might be our only chance to get you out of here.”
“What good would it do, dragon-mate? Even if you could somehow free me of these cuffs, of these symbols carved into my flesh, I’m not long for this world. Sooner or later, my wounds will kill me.” His voice is weak and listless. There’s no more fight, no more desire. He’s ready to give up. He’s just waiting for death to come knocking.
Ellie jumps in before I can say anything else. “They don’t have to, if you get your head out of your ass and realize that there’s help right here, outside this door.” She reaches for the handle, and I blink as the surface starts to glow with more of those symbols.
“Are you sure you should go in there?”
“There’s not a witch alive who could do the spells they’d need to keep fae from entering a room or leaving it. Besides, I don’t have to go into the room on this plane.” She winks at me, and before I can question her anymore, she completely vanishes from sight as if she were never there.
“Kayden, I’m going to come in, okay?”
“Don’t. I won’t have your dragon enraged that I’ve touched you.” He growls it, but the door swings open anyway, and I get my first look at the man who can shift into a bear.
And now that I’m seeing him, I don’t think I can blame him for his despondence, for his giving up. There’s a huge, bloody stain covering the t-shirt he’s wearing, too fresh to make me believe it’s healing at all.
“Hold out your wrists, Kayden.” Ellie’s voice is as clear as a bell, but she’s still nowhere to be seen.
He does as she orders, and I watch in fascination as his arms slowly rotate, one after the other. The look on Kayden’s face changes from a deep scowl into something softer, something that I’ve seen on Declan’s face enough times to be pretty sure I know what it means.
Is Ellie connected to Kayden, the same way I am to my dragon?
“I’m going to take off your shirt, to see the runes in your skin. Is that okay?”
“Be gentle. The wounds are still fresh.” He grimaces as I watch the fabric stick and cling to his torso as she pulls away the material. He cringes with every tug, but I can see relief there too. Once the shirt is gone all that’s left is a nasty cut carved deep into his abs and up over his pectoral. There’s fresh blood oozing out along with a puss like fluid along the angry red edges. It’s infected. It’s possible something vital has been sliced too, but I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.
I remind myself he’s not human and he might be able to come back from such an injury, but I struggle not to jerk my head away, to tilt my head and look at him with pity. Neither one of those actions will change what’s here before me.
“Brianna, can you draw the runes on his back? I don’t want to completely remove this.” Ellie sounds like she’s standing right next to me.
I quickly open my sketch pad to a new page and get to work.
Ellie tuts over me the entire time, telling me to round out that line, make that one thinner, add a point here, a curve there. It’s like having yet another voice in my head, and it’s far more distracting than Declan’s.
When Declan’s voice slides into my mind, I fumble my pencil in surprise.
He’s out to dinner with my father? Why? What possible reason could there be for him to spend any time with my father at all?
And then I hear the offer.
No. Tell him to fuck off. Even if Grey’s deal could get us out of this situation, even if it could mean not being chased, not being tortured and tormented, he can’t give that monster anything. Not when we’re this close to getting them all free. Declan is good and good will destroy something like Grey.
“Brianna, we must hurry. I don’t know how long we have here, and Kayden is getting out tonight.” Ellie is scared. That scares me. “Draw,” She urges.
I try to refocus on the drawings, but knowing Declan’s having dinner with my father, a man who would never even consider treating a shifter like a person, let alone a man worthy of his daughter, I know something bigger is going on. Why would my father be making deals on behalf of a vampire? Why would he even think about it, unless something had control of him?
I need to stall. I don’t trust Grey to not have a plan in place in case I do tell him to shove his deal up his ass.
Do whatever you have to but come back to me. Let me and Ellie break these spells binding you, and we can fly off into the sunset.
Declan’s chuckle fills me with warmth, and I draw out more runes as I revel in the connection I have with him, the certainty I have that he’s mine.
Even if I am pregnant, even if there is a chance I’m going to have his baby, with or without a claim, I know he’ll be there for me, for our family, and I have no doubt at all that he’s going to be mine for the rest of my days.
My fierce mate. I’ll do what I must, and we’ll be free before Grey realizes my deceit.
The connection ends almost as abruptly as it began, and I refocus all my energy on getting the runes drawn out right.
“Kayden, I’m going to leave this room now, but I will be back.” The determination in Ellie’s voice surprises me, but not quite as much as her reappearing outside the cell does. “Are you coming?”
I start to get up, but I freeze as Kayden’s hand clamps down on my wrist. It’s the first time I’ve really focused on his face, but something tells me the ferocity I see there wasn’t present even a minute or two ago.
“I’m sorry I doubted you. I’m sorry I dared to think that you would only rescue your mate, even though he told us so many times you would.” His gaze trails over to Ellie, and the look in his eyes softens again, like he’s entranced by her or something. “Come back. Bring your friend. We’ll be ready to run when you do.”
Before I can question him, he releases my arm and practically shoves me out of the magical barrier.
Ellie closes the door behind me, her palms lingering on the surface longer than I would’ve thought necessary.
When she pulls away, two new runes are glowing where her hands had been, and she lets out a small sigh. “Come on. I need to get some ingredients, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be down here when the other shifters return.”
“What did you just do?” I stare at her in awe.
“Not as much as I would like. But at least his wounds won’t get worse before we can come back.” She frowns, her brow furrowed, her gaze lingering on the door, like she can’t quite believe what happened, any more than I can.
“What ingredients do you need? How can I help?”
Ellie shakes her head. “This is something I will do alone. Without your dragon’s heartstone, or his claim on you, I can’t risk taking you to a fae market.” She purses her lips as she refocuses her gaze on me. “Besides, I think you might be too much of a curiosity for most fae to just look past. I won’t have you getting stuck in the fae realm without your dragon by your side. Maybe one day we can go walking there together, but not today.” She glances at Kayden’s door again before she rips the page out of my sketch book. “I’ll be back before dawn. You should try to sleep. I’ll leave the silencing crystal with you, so that if you need your privacy for any reason, you’ll have it.”
In a blink, she disappears again, and I get the distinct feeling that she’s leaving a lot faster than I could.
Great. I don’t have any other way to help Declan, or any of them, and now I’m just expected to go to bed like a good girl and wait for Ellie to come back with everything she needs.