20. Maya
Maya
“That is fucking impossible.”
The first sound I heard outside of the buzzing in my head was the furiously snapped remark as the chest underneath my ear rumbled in response. I knew without a doubt that I was in Croy’s arms, but he wasn’t the one that had spoken. No, that voice belonged to Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger.
What the heck was he doing here? No, seriously, the last time I’d seen him…
My chest tightened as I remembered the way he had appeared in the room and absolutely…
slaughtered was the only word that came to mind, the others there.
It was like his shadows had jumped off the walls and attacked the three people who were torturing me.
I had been so happy and relieved to see him, to have the pain stop for a moment, that I’d forgotten I was even mad at him.
Now, though? I was mad at him again.
“Mon lapin, please wake up before your mates hurt themselves by trying to bust out of these damn cages,” the voice snapped again, causing me to frown as my heavy eyes opened, squinting into the dark light of the room.
Pain radiated through every inch of my frame as I found myself pressed against a bare golden chest that had me letting out a small, happy noise.
I shouldn’t have been happy considering the amount of pain I was in…
yet I was. I was happy because my mates were happy and healthy…
or at least one of them was. Croy didn’t have cuts on his skin because I did, and I was perfectly okay with that.
“What the fuck did you just call her?” Atlas demanded sharply, his voice more threatening than I’d ever heard it before, causing me to worry about him. I didn’t want him to act rashly and injure himself more than he already had been.
“Mon lapin,” Henry bit out. “It means?—”
“My bunny,” Marco finished, his tone towards the notion odd. I really didn’t like how it sounded. It sounded furious, but more than furious…more like he’d already decided to kill Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger. What he didn’t realize was that we needed him to get out of here.
“We can do it without him,” Henry assured me, reading my mind as I forced myself to try to sit up, but quickly my arms gave out. My eyes closed again as I melted against Croy’s frame, feeling so extremely out of it that I wondered if maybe I was still sleeping.
“Sugar.” Croy’s voice was soft. “I need you to open your eyes.”
Had I closed them again? When did that happen?
Besides being in pain, there was something else running through me. An elixir-like magic that seemed to flow through my veins and had my skin turning hot and almost luminescent as I looked down on it.
I didn’t feel nearly as weak as before I’d fallen asleep.
I didn’t feel great by any means, but far better…
almost a bit high. I wanted to focus on the bubble of tranquility and healing I was in, but I knew there was more to do, more that I needed to focus on…
Something bigger. Why couldn’t I remember what that was?
“I’m so tired,” I drew out.
“She’s high off my healing magic,” Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger admitted.
“You shouldn’t have used your fucking magic on her,” Ledger bit out, causing me to almost snap my head over to find him because he seemed so worked up.
“What would you have preferred?” the man growled. “To let her suffer? She wouldn’t have healed from those, even though she bled. She would have had to either be reborn, or one of you would have had to make her bleed.”
Oh.
“Thank you.” I turned my head and found him standing in the shadows outside of the cell. Those large wings behind him, which had lit up with electricity, were highlighting his face in the shadows, and I could see pain written across it.
He grunted and sighed. “Just fucking tell them to not try to break out of these cells.”
“According to you, we have less than an hour now!” Anani slammed his fist against the bars of the cell, the entire structure rattling.
The man’s face turned sad. “You do. But trying to break out will be impossible with the magic drain. Same for the wards. That is why it’s a perfect setup.”
“What about the stone?” Ledger immediately questioned.
What stone?
Ember spoke up, my eyes tracking to where she held Bella against her, looking scared of the men in this cell with her…my men. How were they in here? How was that possible?
“The stone is what drains your magic,” Ember explained. “If you can destroy the stone, your magic would regain its power. All of our magic would.”
The older girl from before spoke then. “And if you can do that, you guys may be powerful enough to break out of these cells and maybe the ward of the room.”
“Is that true?” Marco demanded, looking at Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger.
“Yes.”
Oh.
“Let’s get rid of this stone then,” I voiced. “How do we do that?”
“You need someone to break it with their magic from outside the cell,” he stated softly. There was a look in his eye that had me knowing he was being purposefully evasive, and I just didn’t understand why.
“Is that something you can do?” Atlas demanded.
“Yes.”
“Fucking do it then,” Croy snapped, causing me to jolt. He brushed his lips against my ear gently in apology.
I managed to sit all the way up as I whimpered at the pressure on my body, my bones feeling almost out of place, as if something was seriously wrong with me.
Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger looked at me, examining my face, and something passed over his expression that he quickly hid.
“If I do this, you only have one chance to get out of here. If you don’t do it right away, it will be too late. The Master is already close. If he feels the stone break…that would be bad.”
The way he said ‘bad’ had me knowing it was far worse than that.
“Do it,” Marco demanded.
I moved forward, going up to the bars, leaning against them. He winced at whatever was on my face…or maybe it was the injuries on me… I am positive I didn’t look great.
My voice was sad. “What will happen to you? How will breaking it affect you? You said if there was a way to get me out of here, you would have already done it…so why this? Why now?”
His eyes turned into silver coins for a moment, keeping my gaze before as he leveled quietly, “Just hadn’t thought about it, mon lapin.”
My phoenix told me that was a lie. He was lying, but not in a malicious attempt to keep me here… No, there was something larger I wasn’t understanding. Something extremely dangerous that caused my skin to break out into shivers as I heard something massive rumble the structure we were in.
“We have to do it now,” he insisted. Henry made a sound in his throat as I snapped my head over to where he was staring at Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger in confusion and something else I didn’t understand.
“Are you sure?” Henry grunted.
“Positive,” the man stated, looking back down at me. “Promise me you will get the hell out of here the minute you can. I will do my best to break it…I should have enough power. Try to get the little ones out of here as well.”
I nodded and frowned, feeling like something was very wrong, but I had no idea what. He offered me one more incomprehensible look before turning towards the middle of the room, but not before I caught his hand, causing him to immediately turn back. I felt a surge of power go through us.
My vision blacked out, and I began seeing flashes of a life I didn’t recognize.
There were moments of war, filled with gilded armor and white wings.
There were angelic figures like the ones from the Bible filling the skies.
There was a sense of bloodlust and victory.
Then a sick darkness. Chains. Sadness. One that invaded every pore of his memory, the world turning into a shadowed masterpiece of eternity.
Until something changed…until the memories turned into a burning white electric flame. Not like before, not as free, but equally as intense and powerful. A sense of hope suffused everything before a desperate panic matched it…
I gasped as an electric storm ran through me, causing me to jolt, as it felt like my blood turned into lightning itself. It left a mark on me, and I felt my knees break as someone caught me, the hand I’d been holding falling from my grasp.
“What the hell was that?” someone demanded.
“I have no idea,” Mr. I Put Kittens In Danger said, his voice shaking. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get this shit done. Be ready to get the fuck out of here.”
I couldn’t tell you whose arms I was in, holding me against him, but my eyes opened enough to see the man from before going towards the center of the room.
“What’s your name?” I demanded, my voice hoarse.
Azrael.
The secret, because it was clear that was what his name was, popped into my head and left me trying to get a grasp on this man and the connection we’d seemingly formed. But then it didn’t matter because he left no time for me to think, let alone ask him any more questions.
Suddenly, an electric storm exploded through the room, all of the bars of the cells between us dropping so that the little ones could come near as we gathered them.
I watched as massive onyx and silver wings grew from his back, extending to each side of the room.
A gasp came from my lips as he lifted his hands towards the ruby stone, a peaceful expression invading his face all at once.
It was one of both determination and resignation, the combination making me know that he was doing this for us.
He had nothing to gain, but he clearly had something to lose.
A weird sense of premonition grew in my gut, and I once again felt like there was something very wrong about all of this. ..
Then chaos exploded around us.