Chapter 34 #2
“What’s in your blood that makes you so special? Makes her so desperate—”
Quick as a whip, my dagger flashed toward his thigh. His reaction was quicker, though. He swiveled, the blade only skimming his leg instead of disarming him.
Blood gushed, but the wound began healing over quickly.
His hand flashed out, gripping my shoulder before I could dodge and throwing me back. I collided with the wooden shelf, spine cracking against the edge.
Knives clattered to the floor around my boots. I stretched a hand out to stop myself from falling, and a blade sliced up my forearm.
I cried out. Aird grasped the wound, lifting it.
“You’re speaking nonsense,” I panted, wincing as he tightened his grip. “Whatever she’s promised you has taken your wits in exchange.”
“Oh no, your blood seems very precious to her. I was instructed not to spill it.” He shook my arm in his grasp. I blinked against the sting, fighting a scream. “But accidents do happen.”
A secret darkened his voice—and that confirmed it. He wasn’t loyal to Kakias. Aird was devoted only to himself. Greed dripped over his words. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know why Kakias wanted me; only that she did, and that he claimed me first.
“Sorry to tell you, I’m nothing special,” I hissed. I clenched my teeth, refusing to squirm for him.
Aird leaned over me, chest crushing me to the shelf. The rough edge dug deeper into my spine. Starfire was still at my hip, but Aird was too close for me to reach her.
“There’s time before she returns. I’ll find out what she wants from you.” His rabid gaze switched from the blood on my arm to my eyes.
Face close enough to mine that his breath fanned across my cheeks, he murmured, “Luckily for us both, she was on her own mission when you arrived. I’m supposed to hold you for her.” He dragged the blade across my throat, marking the spot. “But if you’re being difficult, I have to defend my—”
Aird’s words broke off with a gurgle as cuffed hands slipped around his head.
A chain tightened against his throat, crushing his windpipe. The Mindshaper’s eyes bulged out.
“Hands off, Chancellor,” Tolek growled in his ear.
My jaw hung open as Tol used his handcuffs to choke the man who had been trying to kill me. Aird struggled, his face purpling. All too quickly, his body relaxed, and Tol shoved him to the floor, kicking the unconscious chancellor in the ribs.
The murderous rage glowing in Tol’s eyes awakened parts of my body it shouldn’t have. When he looked at me, though, he softened back into himself. Hair in disarray, chest rising and falling rapidly.
“Seems I’m always saving your life, Alabath,” he panted.
I looked pointedly at the post he’d been chained to. “Yes, that’s clearly what’s happening here, Vincienzo.”
“So ungrateful…” he mused, shaking his head. “You can thank me later.” He gave me a roguish wink, and I fought the smile that bloomed across my face.
Cradling my injured arm, I retrieved Angelborn. When I turned back to Tol, he was holding my dagger. Without dropping his gaze from mine, he slid the blade home. His hand lingered on my thigh, burning into me.
“You’re okay?” he asked, fingers curling into my skin above the sheath like he’d never let go.
“I’m okay.” My arm was already healing, another proud scar for my collection. “And you?”
“I’m fine now.”
“The warriors who came with you…”
“Gone.” His lips pulled into a line. That explained the blood Kakias and Aird had delivered to us, using whatever power the queen was manipulating to freeze it.
I scowled at the Mindshaper on the floor, considering ending his life now for his crimes against Mystiques, but Tol twisted my fingers between his. “It could incite more problems.”
He was right. Though Aird was complicit in Tol’s kidnapping and the murder of our warriors, killing a chancellor now could turn clans against us. But I did stomp over to him and punch him squarely in the face, his nose crunching under my knuckles.
Turning back to Tol, his eyes weren’t on mine, but my necklace. “What’s this?” He touched the new charm from Lancaster.
“I—um—” I stumbled, realizing how foolish I was about to sound.
“Alabath?”
“Do you remember the fae who attacked Rina?” Spirits, he was going to think I was careless.
“Yes…”
My next words were rushed. “He found me on my way here and offered a bargain in order to help me get you out, so I took it.”
Tol’s face went blank. “You made a deal with a faerie in order to rescue me?”
“An indefinite bargain.” I supposed I would tell him everything now. “We can each call on the other when needed, so long as it doesn’t harm anyone I care about. The camp was heavily guarded. It didn’t seem like I’d be able to get in any other way. I was careful with my parameters, though.”
I looked at my boots, awaiting the anger that would meet my reckless decision.
But Tol slipped a hand beneath my chin, lifting my gaze.
“You did that to rescue me?”
I nodded.
“You shouldn’t have…” A beautiful, crooked smile bloomed across his face. “But thank you.”
“What?” I tilted my head.
“I know that you wouldn’t have wanted to do that, to hand over a piece of control in that way, but you did it for me.
Thank you.” Cuffed hands slipped around me, pulling me close, one cradling the back of my head against his chest. Bemused, I wrapped my arms around him.
Because I’d barely been thinking of myself or what it might mean when I made that deal—
I’d thought of Tol, and what it would feel like to lose him.
“You have to kiss the fae to seal a bargain, don’t you?” Tol asked, his voice rumbling in his chest beneath my ear.
I looked up at him. “Am I the only one who was unaware of that?”
“You kissed him?” His smile didn’t falter—he was laughing.
“Why is me kissing someone so funny?” I ducked under his cuffed hands and stepped back, crossing my arms.
That shut up his laughter. “Believe me, Alabath. I think more about you kissing someone than I care to admit.” My breath caught at the implication darkening his voice. “But next time you kiss a beautiful immortal, I’d like to be present.”
“Sure, next time.” Now that I was away from his warmth, our reality set back in—starting with the pressing need to get out of this camp. “Is there a key for the cuffs?”
Tol shook his head. “Sealed magically.”
A shiver danced down my spine. “Kakias didn’t—what did she do—”
“Not here.” Shadows danced in his eyes. I was afraid to learn the cause of them, but he bent to press a kiss to my forehead, and a bit of the tension in my shoulders loosened. “Let’s go.”
Swallowing my questions and the agony burning through me at Tol’s pain, I locked my fingers around the chain between his wrists and tugged him after me. He smirked but followed obediently.
“What?” I asked, heat rising to my cheeks.
“Nothing,” he laughed.
“Come on.” I jerked the chain forward, and he obliged.
Under the cover of night, we fled into the trees to meet Sapphire, my heart pounding but a bit fuller with Tolek breathing beside me.