Chapter 34 #2
“People did die.” Anger laced his words, and Raana flinched. The lines of his face softened only slightly. “So, Callan works for her now? Like her rogues?”
“He has no control over what he’s doing.
I’ve tried breaking the spell, but it just hurts him.
That’s why he snapped when Eli—” Adrien flinched.
“When Eli called him by his name. It’s unbearable to watch him try to break the enchantment.
I can’t imagine the experience… I tried to save Eli, but he was too far gone. That’s when you showed up.”
A muscle feathered in Adrien’s jaw. “Where’s Callan now?”
“Somewhere in the hall.”
Adrien raised a brow. “In Phobos?”
Raana nodded.
“It’s still standing?” he asked, clearly baffled.
“Barely,” she said. “It’s falling apart, and the dark magic makes the hallways move. So much of it is warded against the fae and crafted with iron that my magic is almost useless. I’ve been searching for him and anyone else she has enslaved, but I can’t find them anywhere.”
Adrien paced a few steps away, absorbing it all, shaking his head, and cursing under his breath. Raana tracked down her knife behind some crystals and pressed it to the fleshy part of her hand as he asked, “Do you know what she’s planning?”
She cut too deeply. “Not really.”
Lie, her mind screamed. Lie. Don’t tell him the entire truth.
There was a chance he wouldn’t forgive her if he learned who her task had targeted, but… she couldn’t bring herself to spew the untruth.
Her palm itched as her immortal healing kicked in, the wound knitting together.
“Nerissa says she doesn’t want to hurt them.
She’s adamant about it. She even swore it to me by her blood.
” Raana braced herself and turned, using her magic to open the cabinet, feeling the pull and drain of her energy.
Blood magic. There was always a cost. The spell Nerissa was doing would require her own sacrifice, too.
“But she needed Kai and Isla’s blood for a spell, and I had to get some of it from the coronation ceremony. ”
She wished there had been silence.
Wished she hadn’t heard him roar. “She what?”
Raana had pulled the grimoire from the cabinet and shut it just as Adrien cornered her. The wood shook as her back collided with it, and his arms boxed her in. The gold in his eyes blazed, his temper fuming. “Why does she need their blood?”
Raana didn’t find herself cowering from his fire—she matched it. “I don’t know.”
He bared his teeth. “Don’t lie to me.”
She exposed hers right back, tucking her grimoire close to her chest. “I. Don’t. Know. Not fully.” The air between them heated. “She said the blood will help her show them the past—their past—give them answers and help them understand themselves.”
“Understand themselves how?”
“Maybe you should ask her yourself,” she snipped, moving to slide away from him.
With his forearms flat on the cabinet’s wood, he corralled her in entirely. His broad body lined up with hers, leaving her nowhere to go. The scent of him was intoxicating. The heat, the closeness.
She huffed. “You know I can just shadow around you, right?”
Adrien pressed closer. “Then, do it.”
No.
She wouldn’t admit it was because she enjoyed this… as frustrating as he was.
Her heart thundered, and her breath caught when his fingers dipped into her curls, pushing them back to reveal what was hidden beneath them.
He ran his finger over the arch of her ear.
“So, I get the real you—or part of you.” She hadn’t been able to glamour away the ears, only her sharpened teeth and glowing fingertips. “The enchantment’s not as strong?”
“I lost my ring.” She flashed her bracelet. “I’ve had to make do.”
Adrien hummed and leaned closer, his breath a hot wash over the pointed shell. The question he whispered was not what she’d expected. “Why haven’t you killed her?”
The interrogation felt unfair given their closeness. Raana couldn’t think much beyond him to say anything but the truth. “I don’t have anyone. Everyone in my life has died or abandoned me. So, I take what I can get, even allies who are just people with similar enemies.”
Adrien fell back, a plethora of emotions moving over his face as he scanned hers. “You want my father dead?” A mutual desire between her and the elder witch… and many others, she was sure.
Raana inclined her head, her lips inching closer to his. “Do you?”
For a moment, there was only their mingling breath, the places their bodies barely brushed, and this cabinet whose contents wouldn’t survive if he took her against it.
Adrien’s throat bobbed, and then he straightened. Raana found herself gasping for air as he paced a few steps away.
He ran his hands through his hair in the way he always did when he was frustrated. In the way she wanted to right now. Her eyes flicked down to where he strained against his pants. She bit her lip.
“Is she expecting you back?”
Raana snapped her eyes up to meet his, seeking a dark and mischievous glint there, finding enough of a glimmer to set her blood and mind racing.
Sex with him would solve a lot of problems. Mainly short-term ones, and then create long-term problems. But life was short… unless she was immortal.
“She doesn’t know I left,” she said wantonly.
“That’s good.” Adrien matched her low tone. “Because I need you.”
Raana’s heart was about to burst through her ribcage. She stepped closer, leaving her grimoire on the counter and leaning against it. “For what?”
Adrien grinned, and it was every bit as reckless, damning, and charming as he was. “We’re breaking into the prison.”