Chapter Twenty-Six #3
Okay…maybe Catalysta had a point. Avelina did have teeth. Her and Tala were two side of the same festering anger. Only Avie was tired of pulling her punches. Grahm is real lucky I can’t get my hands on him. Rotten, hateful prick.
Because he saw her ‘getting out’ as the end goal, and once upon a time it had been Then she fell in love with Callum and her goals changed.
She didn’t want to be rid of him, just the swamp.
Just my shackles. She wanted to see the world; taste the air in a place she’d never been.
And she wanted to do all of that with Callum.
Thump.
The sound echoed in the temple, shaking all of them out of it.
All three craned their heads to the door.
Day light was not too far off, so time was of the essence.
Avelina yanked at her chains once, trying to find a weak spot in their construction.
Her fingers helplessly plucked at the metal chains.
Something slid down the other side of the door and dropped heavily to the floor. It was followed by another thud.
Avelina tried again, convinced that it was a Paladin on the other side, dragging more of the crew inside to burn alive with their warlock. Her heart raced in her chest. The doors slid open and two Paladins fell back. Their helmets clattered against the floor.
“No,” Grahm exhaled in exasperation.
“I’ll be damned,” Dan laughed.
Avelina couldn’t form words as Callum slithered inside.
He wiped blood off his brow with the back of his sleeve.
A beautiful man backlit by the hint of sunlight touching the horizon.
Her heart sank into her turbulent stomach.
It was like all her insides were floating pieces of a broken-up ship on an angry sea.
Desperation swirled with little mercy in her blood.
But she couldn’t look away from her rogue slinking forward.
He dragged his kills all the way to the pyre.
Grahm snarled, tossing himself left and right in his chains, but Dan sat perfectly still. He looked genuinely impressed.
Callum dumped the Paladins on their stacked wood before fishing a key from his pockets. “Apologies, little viper. It took some time and a few Paladins to find the keys.”
“You came back for me,” she breathed.
“Of course,” he scoffed, leaning over her to unlock her right wrist from the pillar. She dropped onto the planks and fell into his chest with little control of her body. Callum hugged her with one arm while the other worked her left cuff. “I told ya, darlin’. Yer mine.”
“You liar!” she cried into his chest, curling her fingers in his shirt.
As soon as he eased her off the pyre, those trembling hands turned into fists.
One after the other, she pounded her balled hands ribs.
Relief and despair made the churning ocean within her even more wild.
Something rose up in her throat and the tears refused to stop. “You fucking liar! You—”
“Little viper,” he purred in her ear, easing her further away from the pillar. “I know yer pissed. But right now we gotta scoot.”
“What!” she barked alongside Grahm. Dan sat there, completely desensitized by his situation.
Callum didn’t answer the outlaw on the pew with words.
He struck so fast, she didn’t see him move his arm.
She only realized he stabbed Grahm in the neck when his arm fell away and the Drakonis was loudly gulping down air.
Callum glanced at Dan, arching a brow. “You got somethin’ you wanna get off yer chest? ”
“Nah, we’re even. You tried to get me killed. I tried to get you killed. Fair’s fair, Cottonmouth. Yer king of the castle now.” Dan shrugged, settling in his pew.
“No, I ain’t. I wasn’t here to kill off all of y’all. I was here to get myself out.” Callum and Dan exchanged a look that was strange. A whole conversation passed between them that Avelina couldn’t hear.
Dan snorted, nodding with approval. “That’s what the tail’s for. They’ll think ya burned up to a crisp. Good trick. Cottonmouth, always got a card up his sleeve.”
Avelina watched Callum, studying his face. The outlaw accepted this outcome for his competitor. But she didn’t.
“Come on,” Callum urged, turning from Dan and the pillar as the sun tickled the top of the walls of Parandor.
What Callum didn’t see was that Avelina leaned over and accidentally drop the keys into Dan’s hands that were chained behind his back.
His fingers flexed around them, the metal looking so tiny in his massive palms. She left the man with a single instruction.
“There’s a servants pass behind the temple, spits you out along the coast.”
Dan said nothing. If he could unchain himself before the sun ignited the whole temple, he could probably leave through the doors Callum opened so long as more Paladins weren’t on their way. Or he could chance it with one of the back doors. Either way, Dan’s life was in his hands.
Grahm got what he deserved. Mary was gone. Cottonmouth was gone, having faked his death. Dan was king of the castle…if he made it out alive.