Chapter 11 #2
Ace didn’t say anything as I slipped the pins into his shackles and worked the lock.
The metal grew warm under my hands. My magic rose and spread through my body, leaving a tingling sensation running along my skin.
The locking mechanism snapped open, and Ace’s shackles fell to the ground with a loud clank.
My magic fell away as if it lost interest in my actions.
“Finally,” he said, “It’s a good thing we’re not trying to rob someone.” He turned around and pried the picks from my hands and started fiddling with the lock on my shackles. He bent his head near the base of my neck and heat radiated off him.
“I’d like to see you do as well with your hands shackled behind your back.”
“If we get out of here, I’ll let you put me in shackles again, so I can show you the extent of what I can do.” His breath fanned the sensitive skin of my neck while he worked.
What the phaan was going on? Did it take getting captured and shackled to get Ace to express his emotions? Something had definitely shifted in him since staying together at the cabin and now he didn’t seem to be holding anything back.
The metal around my wrists released and fell to the ground like a loud exclamation point.
In unison, we scrambled to our feet. I looked down. Ace was still hard, and still very much jutting from his pants. He returned his lock picks to their hiding place beside his glorious dick.
“That’s impressive,” I said. No one would ever think to look for the pins along the zipper seam.
“Thank you,” Ace practically purred. His normal growl was gone and his gaze had darkened. He looked positively feral right now.
“I was referring to the idea of hiding the lock picks in your zipper seam, not your dick.”
Ace grunted and looked away as he tucked his erection back into his pants. He was still hard enough to tent his pants, and it looked downright painful.
“Rethinking the whole commando situation?”
“As a matter of fact, yes,” he said before turning to the door. He jerked his chin at the stairs. “Come on, let’s get out of here before you get handsy with my junk again.”
“You enjoyed that a little too much,” I said.
His gaze softened for the briefest second. “I really did.”
Not knowing what to say, I spun and headed for the stairs. “We have to find Nala.”
“Mouse.”
I glanced behind me.
“We need to get out of here first. They won’t hurt her.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“They can’t control you without her.”
I pulled my shoulders back and stood straighter. “I’m not leaving without her.”
Ace lifted his hands in mock surrender. “I’m not suggesting this as our first course of action, but if we can’t find her, we need to escape. And we need to be on the same page. We can’t do her any good it we’re recaptured.”
He had a point. I knew he had a point. And it didn’t suck as far as points went, but I still didn’t like it.
“Fine,” I said through clenched teeth.
Ace nodded at the door. “Can you hear anything?”
I shook my head but leaned forward to press my ear to the unfinished wood. Nothing. Nothing except Ace breathing down my neck. Without looking, I reached back and shoved him away. “I can’t hear anything with you mouth breathing in my ear.”
Ace snorted but thankfully didn’t say anything else. I waited a few more minutes, time passing slowly. I wanted to be sure. Once I turned this doorknob and stepped out of the basement, we couldn’t turn back. And yet we couldn’t stay here and wait, either.
Still not hearing a sound, I reached out, slowly turned the doorknob and pulled the door open.
Warmer air rushed in, flowing around me with the scents of pine and cedar.
I poked my head out and looked both ways.
It had been dark by the time we entered the cabin, and exhaustion had started to pull at my limbs.
From what I could recall, the main entrance opened into a foyer and living room.
To the left sat the kitchen, to the right a hallway with doors that probably led to bedrooms. At the end of the hallway, there had been another door. This door.
I stood at the top of the basement stairs and stared down the hallway at the living room. Empty. I let out a long pent-up breath. So far so good. I turned toward the kitchen. Might as well pick up a few knives on my way out. I didn’t dare check the rooms for Nala. What if hunters slept there?
I walked to the edge of the living room and peeked around the corner. The kitchen also sat empty. I padded into the room with Ace on my heels and searched for some knives.
I didn’t sense Nala nearby.
In fact, I didn’t sense her at all. I plucked a sharp knife from a knife block sitting on the counter.
If only our bows and arrows were sitting nearby, too.
But luck wasn’t on our side. I nodded at Ace and moved slowly to the front door.
The wood panels groaned under my feet. Pausing at the door, I leaned forward.
I couldn’t hear any talking or movement outside, but for all I knew, a guard could be standing on the other side of this door.
“Is there a back door?” I asked.
“Not that I saw,” Ace whispered back. Dammit. I hadn’t spotted another exit either.
“Should we try to climb out the window near the back?”
“The windows aren’t that big,” Ace replied. “And none of them open to the back of the cabin. I think it will be faster and cause less of a commotion if we slip out the door and walk calmly to the back of the cabin to get over the fence to the woods.”
That had been my assessment as well, but it felt nice to have Ace come to the same conclusion.
“We’ll meet whatever we find on the other side of that door together,” Ace said.
Well, that was just... sweet. I nodded and turned the handle.
Of course, the hinges whined as loudly as possible as I opened the door.
Peering outside, I didn’t spot anyone. I glanced at Ace.
He shrugged. Now or never. I took a deep breath and slipped out the door.
Ace followed close on my heels and shut the door behind him.
No turning back now. With quick steps, I turned the corner of the cabin to head to the forest around the back.
I held my breath the entire time. We didn’t speak.
Our surroundings filled with the sounds of my rasping breath, the crunch of gravel and dirt under my boots and my heartbeat thudding loudly.
Less than twenty feet separated us from freedom.
Darius stepped out from behind the cabin, his mouth turned down. His gaze met mine briefly, before his expression hardened and his gaze drifted to someone behind me.
“You’re not going anywhere, Em,” a man spoke behind me.
I froze where I stood, still staring at Darius as every brain cell in my head screamed at me to turn around.
I’d recognize that deep timbre voice anywhere.
I’d heard it cheering me on, teasing me, supporting me, and talking me up when doubt got in the way.
This voice had walked beside me my entire life.
We’d shared the same trauma, the same past, the same womb.
I turned around and faced my twin brother.