Chapter 30
thirty
Kaiden
I wasn’t sure it would work. It was pure instinct to reach out with my shadows, but I’d never used them like this before. They naturally sought out my bonded and effortlessly wound around her as she fell from the platform. Drawing her to me, I held on tight.
I’ve got you, princess.
Rain and wind merged together into lethal knives that peppered my defenses like heat-seeking missiles.
I pushed more energy into thickening the outer layer of shadows, but they found me anyway.
Fuck, how was the storm still getting through?
In the middle of the madness, Eryn fit perfectly in my arms, her head tucked into my neck, and her little hands clenched on my chest. I squeezed her back, wishing I could wrap my entire body around hers to cushion the blow I knew we couldn’t completely outrun.
My magick flowed from me in a continuous stream.
I gave it full reign and emptied every drop from my reserves trying to strengthen the cloud I enveloped us in.
The fear in Eryn’s eyes before she fell was mirrored in my very soul.
She didn’t think we were going to make it.
I tried to flood our bond with as much love and confidence as I could muster, determined that if these were, in fact, our final moments, she wouldn’t feel a thing besides the happiness our bond filled me with, and the peace within me at finally being able to say mine.
The boat hovered in the air for what felt like a lifetime.
Wrapped in my magick, we were weightless and blind, cut off from the view of the impending crash.
Sounds were muffled as my shadows finally did as I asked and thickened.
Magick pulled everything from me, tugging at the smallest drops hiding in my core and then hungrily searching for more at the other end of the bond.
I shut that shit down. My strength would have to be enough.
Eryn wouldn’t be drained because I wasn’t strong enough to protect us.
There was world shaking and a high-pitched ringing. We hit hard, and I clutched Eryn tighter, terrified she’d be thrown from my arms and I’d never find her again. I spoke to her through it all, repeatedly professing my love in case they were the last words I’d ever say.
I love you too. Came her heartbreaking reply, and then it all went silent.
Small things registered at first, like the fact we were alive.
Well, that was a big thing. The best thing.
I cut the drain of magick, leaving only enough to maintain the sphere of shadows around us.
With my chest no longer throbbing, it was easier to check in with the rest of my body.
No broken bones or intense pain. Exhaustion made me dizzy, and my muscles were locked around Eryn like concrete, but so far so good.
Are you okay, princess?
I checked in, making sure no phantom pain came from her side. She wiggled in my arms, as reluctant to let go as I was but time wasn’t on our side.
Eryn, I pleaded, talk to me. I needed to know, needed to hear her speak.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled into my neck.
Thank the gods.
Slowly, I released my shadows. I kept a layer around us, protection from the unknown, but it was me being over-cautious. Surviving a boat crash wouldn't sound nearly as cool if we were stabbed or mauled by a pit bull immediately after.
Smoke merged with my shadows as I took in the crash site.
The deck was split down the middle, half buried in the sand, and completely on its side.
Eryn and I were tucked into a solid corner near the damaged cabin door at the center of it all.
The framework of the boat had protected us, and I let out a sigh of relief as I took in the rest of our surroundings.
The djinn were still alive if their moans of pain and movements were anything to go by.
Kol lay in a crumpled heap, half dangling over the side of the highest intact wall.
His illusioned pet shook its head and got to its feet, ready to protect its master even while he was half-conscious.
I wasn’t sure which of the guards stirring were under Eryn’s control, but only one was too out of commission to worry about.
“Where is she?”
The last of my magick dropped as Ezra crested the wreckage.
His platinum blond hair shone like a beacon under the dim light of the moon, and the lingering storm clouds moved across his face as he scanned the wreck for the one person he wouldn’t find.
Fuck. Eryn scrambled off me and cautiously approached my cousin with her hands held up.
“She wasn’t on the boat,” she said, calmly. “We haven’t had a chance to ask…what exactly happened.”
Her sorrow was debilitating, but she expertly hid it from Ezra.
His frenzied demeanor eased to the calculated strategist I was used to seeing as he took in the scene, registering small details I knew even I missed and categorized them in order of importance.
There was a reason he was my second, and it wasn’t just his loyalty.
When Ezra’s gaze landed on Kol, I prepared myself for an explosion of power.
“Then let’s find out where she is, shall we?”
Fuck. Fuck. I shared a glance of panic with Eryn and then scrambled to get over there before everything went to shit…
more than it already was. How did I tell him Rani was dead?
Normally, it wasn’t something I’d shy away from, giving my cousin tough news.
I’d spent our entire childhood shielding him from the bad stuff and buffering what I could. I’d had plenty of practice.
But this…this was different. Rani meant something to him. I wasn’t sure what exactly, but I knew I’d never seen my cousin act like this before. He didn’t even seem worried that I almost died, and he took his protection of me very seriously.
“Where is she, you fucker?” Ezra shouted, stopping at the first djinn.
The broken deck of the boat was already slick and treacherous to navigate, but my cousin’s magick made it downright deadly. Ice coated every surface as it burst from him in uncontrolled waves. The frozen crystals inched their way up the legs of the battered djinn, and he moaned in pain.
Ez lifted his foot. “Last chance to talk before I start smashing.”
Too far to grab him, and my power on empty, I couldn’t stop him even if I tried. This was about to get real bloody real fast.
“Ezra!” I shouted, and my cousin paused. “There are protocols to follow.”
There were ways to do this. As much as I wanted to see these guys dead, that would cause more trouble than I could handle.
Already I was being questioned for the murder of one faction heir.
Kol’s death, and that of his men, would only seal my fate…
and Eryn’s. For a second, I wasn’t sure if my order was enough to stop him, but reason won out, and my cousin stepped away.
One breath, that’s the only warning I got before Ezra threw his head back to the sky and screamed. Magick exploded out in front of him like a bomb, encasing the djinn up to their necks. All of them. At once. Kol’s pit bull illusion wavered and disappeared as the last of his energy finally depleted.
We have to tell him, Eryn said, her broken heart written all over her face.
I knew she was right, but for once, I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t know how to intentionally hurt my cousin. Not like this. We weren’t even completely sure what had happened to Rani. The words of one vindictive djinn weren't what I wanted him to hear, even if they were the truth.
Let him question one of the guards under your thrall, I told her. You can make them speak the truth, and then we’ll know for sure.
She nodded and pointed Ezra toward a fully conscious, frozen djinn in the sand. He warily watched us as we carefully climbed out of the wreckage and crossed the short distance to where he was thrown. That my cousin’s magick reached him all the way over here…
Eryn took over before the djinn had a chance to spew his venom, and we watched his eyes glaze. Lavender mixed with the scent of sea salt and brine as she expertly pulled the truth from the depths of his mind.
“Speak,” she ordered. “What did you do with the human you held captive in exchange for us?”
Ezra’s fists clenched at Rani being referred to as “the human,” and I put a hand on his shoulder to ground him. I wished I hadn’t drained my magick keeping us alive, my shadows would be more than useful now when my cousin completely lost it.
“We tossed her over the second we had the Alantes heir.”
Ice froze the palm of my hand as Ezra’s fury spiked, but I held on. His entire body shook, but he said nothing. Did nothing. Just stared at the djinn like he could put a hole through his head with force of will alone.
“She could have swum to shore,” Eryn offered, and I knew it was also her last hope that Rani might have made it.
The djinn shook his head, still in a daze. “We tied her up good and snug.”
Ez didn’t get a chance to retaliate. I felt the surge of power through the bond before it left Eryn on a soul-deep cry of pain.
The djinn’s head fell to the side, his face lax and all intelligence gone from behind his eyes.
She pulverized his mind. I wouldn’t have been surprised if liquid leaked out from his ears.
Princess…
I crouched behind her, afraid she wouldn't accept my touch right now, but she spun and buried her face in my chest. Her tears blended with the ocean spray that still soaked my shirt as I cupped the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her damp curls.
I rocked her, there on the beach, and mourned the loss of our friend.
Ezra was a statue beside us. Tears didn’t fall from his eyes but instead froze on his face and then floated off on the breeze.
He stared at the rolling ocean, its rage matching ours with its cresting waves and roaring undertows.
I expected him to detonate, to drop to his knees and scream beside us, to…
something. But he was locked down and calculated—how he got when he fell into his killing calm.
“She isn’t dead,” he whispered, and I almost didn’t hear him.
“Ezra—”
“She isn’t dead. I would know.”
I didn’t want to argue about this. Forcing my cousin to accept that Rani was tied up and tossed overboard in the middle of the ocean wasn’t on my list of things to do, ever.
I felt like a dick for just thinking about it.
But he had to accept she was gone. We could get revenge, we could…
do something. I didn’t know. Fuck. Why couldn't I have protected her?
“Don’t look at me like that, cuz.” Ezra’s eyes were pleading. “I’m telling you, she’s out there. I can feel her.”
“That’s not possible,” I said as gently as I could.
Actually…
I glanced down at Eryn as she stirred and leaned back with a frown.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks as I tucked a stray curl behind her ear with a shaking hand, waiting for her to sort through her emotions.
Too much was flying at me at once: confusion, hope, disbelief, and more confusion.
She finally peered up at me with a wobbly smile.
I returned it. Whatever has you feeling like that has to be a good thing, right?
I don’t want to get his hopes up, she said, worrying her bottom lip, or mine.
Gods, we were a mess. The small circle we’d created this year was fractured and missing a huge piece. Something we wouldn't easily recover from, but any bit of hope was better than nothing.
“Just tell me,” Ez pleaded, looking at Eryn with a longing I recognized all too well. “You feel her too, don’t you?”
She nodded. “I don’t understand it, but…she’s on my map.”
It was possible that Eryn’s familiarity with Rani’s mind made it so she could track her.
And I guessed it was also possible that by some miracle she had survived being thrown overboard.
All of these were big ifs, though. I wasn’t sure how I would hold them together if their hopes turned out to be nothing but that.
“What are we going to do about the others?” I asked, gesturing back to the boat where Ezra’s magick kept the other djinn from escaping or attacking. “We still have this mess to clean up.”
I wanted to run after this lead as much as they did, but the humans would be scouring this beach soon, drawn in by the storm and wreckage. We had to clean this up or all our lives were forfeit. Exposure wouldn’t let us hunt for Rani any faster.
“I’m not sure,” Eryn said. “We need them for proof, I guess, right?”
That was the last thing I wanted to think about with my bond in my arms, and my hopeful cousin hanging on by a thread.
Fuck Kol and everything he’d caused. If I could have killed him and gotten away with it, I would have.
Just for the principle of it all. If it were only my life on the line, we wouldn’t even be questioning what to do right now.
Ez dug into his pocket, paused, and then pulled out a thin phone. He stared down at it, that mask of his cracking for just a moment before he handed it over.
“Everything we need is on there,” he said.
He’d had that the entire time. Rani’s phone…
I swallowed over the lump in my throat. “Hold onto it for me.”
He nodded and slipped it back into his pocket, then turned as Eryn marched over to the boat.
What was she up to? I wasn’t worried for her safety, not with Ezra’s magick locking everything down, but her ability to process all this?
Definitely. I gave one more glance to the dead djinn in the sand at my feet.
She didn’t need anything else on her conscience.