Chapter Twenty-Nine #2
It resonated in the quiet, and it was not the chime of bells like Cora’s, or the sweet giggles of a child. It was obnoxious and sharp and excruciatingly mocking.
“You’re making a mistake,” the king said through clenched teeth.
Solana sobered immediately. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “You are, and I am going to make you pay dearly for it.”
She flipped her dagger in her hand and shifted slightly back.
Killian’s eyes narrowed, but he held his ground.
All at once, the room burst into movement.
Solana rifted forward in a flash of shadows.
Masimu tore himself free from the muki and spun in a whirl of smoke.
Reyes did something fancy she only caught a glimpse of but that made her roll her eyes all the same.
And then Solana was plucked out of the air by a cold body.
It met her with so much force that she solidified in midair and crashed to the ground.
A snarling muki hovered over her, its needlelike teeth an inch from her face.
Stop, Solana yelled in her mind, but it did not heed her commands. She scrabbled for the tether that tied it to the land, that she knew she could bend to her will, but it was out of reach. More precisely, it was already occupied.
“They are mine,” Killian said. Solana couldn’t see where he stood, but it sounded like he was everywhere at once, his voice carrying with pride and victory.
“Thousands of them at my beck and call. You cannot win this, Solana. One way or another, you will join me. Whether by force or by choice. The decision is yours.”
His voice faded, and Solana was left struggling against the muki, dodging its snapping teeth a hairsbreadth from her face.
She could hear grunts from her father and Reyes, metal against metal as they struck out at the collars around the other muki’s throats.
The purple stone on the one closest to her stared accusatorily.
There was no seam that she could see, no keyhole, no way for her to slide her fingers, mental or physical, around it and break it.
She did the only thing she could think to do—she shoved the muki away as hard as she could and rifted out from underneath it.
Another muki tore her out of midair. Again, she slipped away, its talons ripping her skin in the process, and rifted out of its hold, close to the ground this time.
“Solana!” She whirled to find Masimu in the middle of a circle of four large muki. “Go!” he screamed. “Stick to the pl—”
His words cut off with a grunt, mouth open as he stared in shock at Solana. Time slowed, and she let her eyes search his face, then drop to his chest, where the broad end of a sword dripped with blood. Masimu’s gaze followed hers, and he brought one hand up to touch its tip in disbelief.
Solana couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. She couldn’t scream as the sword disappeared, as Masimu dropped to his knees and Killian’s severe eyes met hers. A slow smile spread across his face, vicious reality destroying all her tentative hope.
Together, they had said, and now she was going to have to fix this alone.
No, not alone.
At her back, the sounds of a struggle waged on. In her mind, Solana was fighting her own war. Killian was daring her to keep walking right into his clutches, and she was tempted to give in, if only for the satisfaction of running her dagger through his heart.
But there were others that needed her. A future that hinged upon the necessity of her survival.
With a roar of fury, Solana rifted to Reyes and pushed herself between him and a muki. The muki didn’t pause, but there was no one there by the time it completed its downward swing.
Solana and Reyes were spinning through the dark once again.
They landed in the alley behind the tavern where she had first seen Sami. The stone wall caught them both with a thud that felt strong enough to topple the building, but it stayed standing. Solana did not. She slid down it into a boneless heap.
“FUCK!” Reyes screamed beside her.
“Yes, go ahead and alert every muki and Master in the area where we are.”
But Reyes didn’t respond. He was leaned forward with both palms and his forehead pressed against the wall, shoulders rising and falling with ragged breaths. There was so much pain in every inhale that Solana had to turn away.
There was too much of her own sorrow to witness his.
Instead, Solana got to her feet in a daze and took in her surroundings.
Anything to keep her mind from dwelling on the fact that she had only just found her father to lose him again.
A wound long healed over ripped open twice in the matter of a few days.
If she let herself dwell, she would become something that nobody needed. A monster of the world’s making.
The wide-open back door to the tavern caught her attention. Through the narrow opening, she could see the floor shimmering with shattered glass and what looked like blood, but that she hoped was pisco.
The alley they were in was full of debris. A drying cloth with a blotch of blood. Several wooden crates smashed into sharp pieces. It looked as though a war had started and ended while she was gone. Solana stepped over a small pile of splintered wood and started walking away.
“Where are you going?” Reyes called after her. A warm hand wrapped around her wrist and gently spun her around.
She glanced at his hold, confused as to why she couldn’t feel it, and then looked at his face.
There was blood caked underneath his nose and a bruise blooming on his jaw.
Uncertainty and determination warred within his eyes.
His hair was the most disheveled she had ever seen it, and for a brief moment, she felt it between her fingers, felt him beneath her body, felt his gift under her skin.
The memories grounded her, reminded her of her purpose and of his question. Problem was, she didn’t have an answer, and she wasn’t sure she would ever again.
“I’m going somewhere I can figure out what to do next,” she said, and her voice sounded off even to her.
Concern was heavy in the lines around Reyes’s mouth. His thumb rubbed a circle into the sensitive skin of her inner wrist, making her already sludgy awareness slow further for an entirely different reason. How easy it would be to ignore all of her responsibilities and lose herself in him.
“I know a place we can go.” He bent to eye level with her and spoke slowly. “Can you get us there in one piece?”
“I can try,” she replied with a shrug. “Tell me where.”