Chapter Thirty-Five
Lia
“Leo, this way,” I say, leading us toward Kylo.
When Kylo reached out, relief hit me instantly. I need to find him and the others before Leo and I walk into something we might not survive.
“In here, Lia. Follow my voice.”
He repeats the phrase a few times. It sounds like him, yet something about it doesn’t flutter across my mind the way it usually does. This time it’s sharper, a razor slicing through my consciousness.
Leo and I enter another door, and the same rage hits me—the kind I felt the first time I met Kylo.
“Lia! It’s a trap!”
He’s chained to a metal pole, his body slumped and bloodied. Dark bruises cover his face, one eye nearly swollen shut. Leo steps in front of me, shielding me as we move closer to them.
Blair stands beside Kylo, smiling like this is all some grand performance. “Right on time,” she says sweetly. “Draven and Joaquin will be in any moment.”
“Let him go,” I warn, bracing myself for the fight I know is coming.
“That’s not happening. Draven wants everyone dead but you. He needs you alive for a bit longer.”
Kylo’s jaw tightens until the bone looks ready to snap. “He can fucking try.”
Blair’s hand lashes out, striking him across the face. Rage flares inside me, hot and fast.
“Hands off!” I shout, stepping forward.
She raises an eyebrow, unfazed. “Or what? You’re outmatched.”
“It’s you against us,” Leo counters.
“You’re arrogant.” She grins, nodding toward something behind us.
Draven.
No longer a silhouette on the edge of thought.
No longer a nightmare I can wake from.
More Hunters flood into the room, forming a circle around us. Marco is among them, his eyes wild, like he’s one breath away from tearing me apart with his bare hands.
“Don’t be intimidated,” Leo whispers in my ear. “Show them why they should be afraid.”
“There are too many. We can’t win this.”
“Like hell we can’t. Pull their strings until they snap. Let’s free Kylo and go from there. One step at a time, okay?”
The room falls silent. The Aether Hunters and Draven watch us like predators circling their prey. I sense their hunger, their gruesome desire to destroy us.
Across from me, Draven’s vacant, glass-eyed stare draws my glare as Leo yells, “What are you waiting for? Come get us!”
Blades flash as Leo snatches two from his belt and twists into motion, clean, brutal arcs cutting down the nearest hunters as they lunge at him.
Kylo. I need to get to Kylo.
A man intercepts me with a shoulder check, sending me ricocheting off the unyielding glass. I push up quickly and come face-to-face with Abel.
The black in his pupils swirls into dark gray. “Did you miss me?”
Spinning, I land a clean uppercut on Abel. He stumbles back but catches himself, his face twisting into something feral. He lunges, slamming me into the wall and crushing me with the full weight of his body.
“I’m ruined because of you,” he sneers, his hands roaming over my breasts. “If I’ve already lost everything for barely touching you, I might as well finish the job.”
I’m done being a soft place for men to land their rage. I snatch my blade and drive it deep into his abdomen.
As he gasps, I pull him closer. “You should’ve stopped when I said no.”
A boom blasts through the room. Glass explodes above, raining shards. Searching for cover, I find three hunters closing in on Leo.
Charging toward him, I fling both hands forward. My telekinetic force barrels into the trio, sending them flying. Another hunter advances, blade flashing.
“Leo! To your right!”
Leo spins, catching the attacker’s wrist and driving his own blade into the hunter’s chest.
A quick glance reveals the room is crawling with more hunters. Kylo is still pinned to the wall, while Blair watches from the balcony above like she’s front row at a movie. I search for Draven, but he’s nowhere in sight.
A blur moves to my right. I turn just as something slams me into the floor. My skull cracks against the ground, and pain radiates through my head.
“Well, well, well. Look who learned how to fight after all,” Marco pounces, driving his blade into my side.
A scream tears out of me as liquid warmth gushes over my hip, soaking my top. A thunderous crack splits the air. The wall to my right explodes outward, sending shards of glass spraying like needles.
Dust and debris smother the room in a blinding haze. Through the gray, Carter, Elijah, and Zayne charge toward us.
The sight ignites a spark of hope. I seize Marco’s collar. He lets out a strangled groan as he’s yanked skyward, slamming him into a pile of rubble.
Clutching my bleeding side, I lurch to my feet and push toward Kylo, using the pandemonium as cover.
Blair is still there, perched at the top of the spiraling staircase like a bird of prey. Every nerve sparks with purpose as I race for the stairs.
As I reach the first step, she lifts her arms. My body is wrenched off the floor and flung high before crashing down. She looks down at me, her mouth curled into a smug smile.
Two can play this game.
I lock onto Blair and throw her backward. She slams into the railing with a high-pitched scream and a metallic clang, disappearing over the edge. I race up the winding stairs.
Kylo hangs limp in the cuffs, his wrists bruised and bloody, his head lolling forward.
My hands fumble with the chains bolted into the concrete. “How do I get you out?” I pant, my fingers slick with his blood.
“Use your powers,” he rasps.
“They’re metal, Kylo. I can’t—” My hands hover over the restraints, useless and trembling. I glance back over my shoulder, searching for a threat.
“I got Blair!” Zayne’s voice bellows from below. He tackles her, sending them both sprawling into a heap of broken scaffolding.
Kylo leans forward as far as the chains allow. “Zayne’s handling her. Focus on the cuffs, Lia. Channel everything you have. The energy, the rage—all of it. Break them.”
“I’m not strong enough.”
“You are.” His tone cuts straight through my doubt. “I have a concussion. I can’t think straight, let alone fight.”
Rage flares. At Blair. At Marco. At this whole war.
The cuffs have to go.
I don’t picture them breaking.
I demand it.
A guttural groan tears from my throat as I pour every scrap of my power into the steel. A sharp crack rings out, loud as thunder splitting the sky.
Clink—clink—clink—clink.
The restraints snap, the metal segments clattering to the floor.
Kylo collapses forward. I catch him with a grunt, bracing his dead weight before hauling him to his feet.
“That’s my girl.” A proud smile spreads across his face. “I know I fucked up, and I owe you an explanation. But right now, we finish this.”
My mouth parts to respond, but his lips claim mine—a desperate, bruising kiss that tastes faintly of copper.
“Embrace the emotions,” he whispers against my mouth as he pulls away, his eyes alight. “Give them your worst.”
He locks his fingers through mine, and together, we run back into the heart of the war zone.
Bodies fall like broken dolls. Blood streaks the walls and smears the glass in long strokes.
Kylo releases my hand, thrusting his arm forward to unleash a telekinetic wave that blasts about a dozen hunters through the windows. As they plummet, he seizes the glass shards midair, driving them back into the hunters below.
Kylo’s knees buckle. He slams a hand against the wall to stay upright, his face ashen and sweat beading along his temple.
“Kylo!” I rush to his side, catching his shoulder.
“My head is splintering,” he grits out. “I need a healer.”
I whip around, eyes darting through the carnage until I spot Carter shoving through the crowd. “Carter! Over here!”
He skids to a stop, his gaze snapping to Kylo’s unfocused, blown-out pupils. “What happened?”
“Concussion,” Kylo says.
“Cover me,” Carter orders, his hand already hovering over Kylo’s blood-matted hair.
I stand as a shield between them, scanning the room for the next threat.
“You’re good, man,” Carter says, the words barely out of his mouth before he lunges in front of me, driving his blade into a hunter’s back.
“Come at me, assholes!” Kylo whirls, the color returning to his face as he cuts down the next wave with a lethal, renewed grace. “I’m just getting started.”
Something hits me from nowhere and sends me into the wall. Pain flares through my side, aggravating my wound. The gash is shallow but weeping. I look for Carter, but he’s vanished into the swarm of bodies. I yank my blade free, slice a strip from my pants, and wrap it tight around my side.
A crushing emptiness floods my senses. It isn’t mine, but it tears through me like a banshee’s cry, phantom traces of dying souls scraping against my own.
I gasp as the realization dawns on me. If I let my guard down, their final moments become my own.
“You’re dead now,” a man snarls in my ear.
He corners me, but I jam my knee into his groin. He doubles over with a guttural grunt.
Holding onto his arm tightly, I refuse to let go.
“Get your fucking hands off me!” He slaps me. A hot rush of blood gushes from my nose.
I stop fighting the flood of death and pain in the room. Instead, I open the gates and shove every death—every ounce of agony—into him. His body twitches before his eyes roll back.
He doesn’t move again.
“Lia!” Zayne yells. “I’m out of bullets! Toss me your gun since you’re clearly not using it!”
I pull the weapon from my holster and fling it toward him, maybe with a little too much force. Zayne snatches it, pivots, and pulls the trigger.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three shots. Three bodies hit the floor.
More emptiness seeps into my chest, a chill as cold as death’s kiss. I step over the fallen, forcing my eyes away from their frozen, glassy stares.
“Stay close to me,” Kylo says, strained but clear. “I can’t fight and worry about you at the same time.”
“I can’t find Leo.”
“Stay where you are. I’m coming to you.”
I’m driven headfirst into the floor. Fingers tangle in my hair, jerking my head back.
“You’re mine,” Marco hisses against my ear.
He’s behind me now, one arm snaking around my neck. He presses the barrel of his gun directly into my wounded side. A hiss tears from my lungs.