Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
Ophelia
I didn’t stop to think. I ran.
Another echoing cry spurred me on, faster.
Tangled branches of the cypher trees whipped at my cheeks, a trickle of blood slipping down, but I was barely aware of anything besides my pounding heart and trying to keep my hands locked on Angelborn. One name repeated in my mind:
Tolek.
He screamed again—more ragged and closer this time—and I sped up.
My throat was raw by the time I saw a smaller tent through the gaps in the trees. Darker than the rest and tucked away from their crowd. Hidden.
Angelborn’s second pulse beat through my body, the necklace heating. I shut off all emotion welling up within me and sank into that primal, fury-fueled instinct. Burned ice cold with the need to protect what was mine.
I burst into the clearing. Angelborn shot through the head of a guard, pinning him to the tent’s leather wall. Crimson oozed down the side, shining death against the dark fabric.
Starfire sang as I pulled her free and easily knocked aside the jagged knife the second guard slashed at me.
Fool.
Even with their unnatural movements and silent approach, that knife was no more than a stick compared to my short sword.
She swiped across his throat, brutal and bloodthirsty.
A tingle traveled down the back of my neck, and I whirled. The third guard swung his ax. I crouched, pulling my dagger and sheathing it between his ribs as I stood.
Seconds—that was all it had taken.
I caught my breath, listening to make sure no other guards were coming. Then, I sheathed my dagger at my thigh and was ducking inside the tent. An orange glow from a woodstove illuminated a small space with a desk, a shelf lined with weapons, and—
I couldn’t see much more before an arm looped around my neck, crushing my windpipe.
Starfire tumbled from my grip, pommel smacking my shin.
“Took you longer than we expected,” the guard growled in my ear. His leathers pressed against my spine, vambrace hard against my throat.
A second guard lifted an ax. It hovered above me, small and sharp.
How many people had that weapon killed? Had it taken anyone I knew during the war? Did families now grieve because of the lethal blade and the sharp-eyed, remorseless warrior before me?
I didn’t know the answers, but I knew no more would weep because of this man.
Kicking out, I drove the heel of my thick-soled boot into his groin, and the blade fell. I caught it before it could hit the ground and swung.
The warrior with his arm around my neck pulled me back. Too late.
It sliced cleanly into his comrade’s skull.
But he kept pressing down on my throat, metal digging into my airway until breaths were nothing more than choked gasps.
Keeping my grip tight on the handle, I wrenched the ax out of the warrior’s head and kept swinging true. Not caring where I hit, only that I hit something.
The impact jolted my bones as he screamed.
He released my throat and lurched forward, nearly crushing me.
Scrambling out of the way, I watched him tumble to the ground with that ax in his side. I braced my hands on my knees, catching my breath.
“By the fucking Angels,” I panted.
“You’re glorious.” Though the voice was strained, laughter and utter adoration bubbled beneath it, and every strand of tension within me unknotted.
Across the tent, just on the outskirts of the fire’s warmth, Tolek stood tied to a wooden post.
“Hey, Alabath.” He grinned.
Despite the bruises on his torso and the exhaustion dimming his eyes, he fucking grinned.
I flew across the tent, throwing my arms around him. He grunted, but I held on tighter.
For a moment, the danger fell away. It was just me and Tol, his heart pounding against my chest, each beat tying me back down to sanity.
My hand slid up his neck, running through his hair, pressing his head into my shoulder.
He sighed, and the heat of that breath against my neck was the purest form of relief.
His hands were cuffed. A rope wrapped around him and the post, restraining his arms so he couldn’t embrace me, but I didn’t care.
That spicy citrus scent caressed me, and I sank into it, losing myself to a reprieve.
I have him back. I have him back.
The mantra brought tears to my eyes, my breaths turning shallow as I tried to stifle them. I must have repeated it out loud because Tolek whispered against my ear, low and soothing, “Easy there. I’m right here.”
I pulled back, assessing him. Bruises littered his torso, a purple one dotting his cheek. I couldn’t see any new scars, but as I ran my hands over his ribs, he winced.
My eyes snapped up to his. Where I expected to see the sting of physical pain, I instead found reluctant anguish.
“What is it?”
“Hell Spirits…” His head dropped. “You shouldn’t have come.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s not quite the gratitude I was hoping for,” I teased, retrieving my dagger and sword and slicing through his ropes. I inspected his handcuffs but couldn’t see a keyhole anywhere to pick.
“You know I’m always happy to see you, Alabath, but I’ve never been more frightened about it than I am now.” His voice held none of his usual mirth. “Didn’t you realize it’s a trap?”
“Of course, I realized that.” Didn’t he realize I’d stop at nothing to save him?
“Then, why are you here?” Loathing snaked into his voice, and for a moment it stung. But then, his eyes fell to the cuffs around his wrists, and it hit me. That shame wasn’t directed at me. Spirits, it wasn’t even directed at Kakias.
It was at himself for getting caught.
Tolek had been raised with undeserved blame on his shoulders, and I was still learning to pick apart the pieces of him that he used to hide it from the world. Deep down he warred with the guilt his parents had shoved on him since birth.
Didn’t he see he was more than that? He was the brightest source of light in my life. Teasing stares may mask how he really felt, but there was no hiding from me.
I gripped his chin, turning it toward me. “Because I don’t care what you think you deserve, Vincienzo. I would never leave you here.”
Saying those words aloud unlocked a latch within me, some small shard of my heart sliding back into place.
It seemed to do the same to him. For a moment, I watched my words sink in, lifting spots of that loathing, disbelief unfolding in its place. His face brightened beneath the bruises.
Tol’s eyes dropped to my lips, and his own parted.
But he didn’t get to speak, because boots thundered outside the tent.
“You know,” a familiar voice scolded as the tent flap swept open, “I told her this plan would never work.” Aird stepped into the dim space. My gut curled when I saw Angelborn in his hand. “But I suppose I overestimated your intelligence, Miss Alabath.”
Tolek cursed beneath his breath, stepping closer to me.
I hadn’t asked who was responsible for his capture. I’d assumed it was only Kakias. But I supposed the enemy you knew was not always the greatest threat. It was those lurking in the shadows who wielded the sharpest knives.
“Aird,” I sneered, summoning my mask of Revered and stifling every other emotion. “It appears we both were victims of overestimation.” Aird raised his brows. “I wasn’t foolish enough to trust you after the Rapture, but I assumed you weren’t dim-witted enough to fall prey to Kakias’s scheming.”
The Mindshaper chancellor laughed, meandering across the space. Tol tensed, reaching for me, but he realized with his hands cuffed he’d only be in my way and dropped them.
Still, the look on his face turned more murderous with each step Aird took.
“You think I’m the fool?” the chancellor asked. “I don’t engage in deals unless I’m gaining more than the other. She’s promised me things you can never imagine.” Power emanated from him, practically blurring the space around his body.
I stood straighter to block Tolek, though both men towered over me.
“And what exactly has she promised you that made you turn against the rest of the continent so easily?”
A manic gleam entered his eye. He removed a small, jagged knife from his belt—the Mindshaper weapons, I finally realized. Kakias had them in her army, too.
Aird’s movements were as windswept as the guards had been.
I narrowed my eyes. “What has she done to you?”
“Defeated my weaknesses.” A breeze—uncannily inside the tent—lifted his hair from his shoulders.
“Everyone has weaknesses,” I told him. “They help us appreciate our strengths and relate to others. Weaknesses balance us as individuals.”
“Weaknesses get you killed. Without them, you’re infallible.
” Aird sneered at me, eyes lifting over my head.
Evaluating Tolek. “And we found yours.” He straightened, and a conniving smile twisted his lips.
“Did you truly think you could be Revered of the Mystique Warriors, the most powerful leader on the continent, and choose to save your lover over everyone else? You cannot have it both ways, Miss Alabath.”
His threats lit a fire within me—one capable of burning the world to ashes, his words dancing among them.
Love was no weakness, except perhaps the love of power that he and the queen seemed to share. That kind of toxic ambition would kill you.
“Protecting someone you care for is not a weakness. Relying on others is not a weakness. To love is a strength, and it is that compassion which makes me fit for the position of Revered.” The air in the room stretched taut, about to snap.
“Maybe if Kakias would stop kidnapping the men I love, I wouldn’t have to rescue them. ”
“Why would she when it has proven to get you to come running?” He laughed, but there was no humor in the sound—only corrupt glee.
Tol slid out from behind me, but Aird’s manic stare remained locked on my face. Where his eyes had once been dove gray, they were as deep as roaring storm clouds.
“Why does she want you?” He seemed to be talking to himself as much as he was me.
“No clue,” I said, keeping my hand at my side as I flipped my dagger around.