Quinn #2
Silvius let out a choked sound. Every one of his guards reached for their weapons, then dropped them to the floor in a clatter of metal. I sauntered closer as Silvius struggled—a fly caught in a spider’s web.
It would only be too easy to block an artery and make him hurt for what he had done to Tobias, to my friends, and to so many others. I could stop his heart right here and feel each vessel die a tiny death until he was cold and still.
I barely noticed as Dolion rushed forward, taking Queen Sariyah into his arms. Not as I watched Silvius tremble.
“Quinn?”
Tobias’s voice sounded far away, drowned out by the accelerating thrum of Silvius’s heart beat in my ears.
This monster had tortured my anima for years. He created the mask that haunted his nightmares and had infected him with the virus now ravaging his body.
Killing him would be the least of what he deserved.
“Sweetheart…” Tobias’s voice broke, pure fear tinging the endearment.
“While I’m all for revenge, you’re the one who told me we need him alive.
And I-I need you to come back to me.” The waver in his voice tugged at me from far away.
Then his tone sharpened into a command. “Five things, Sagray. Listen to my voice and then find four more things, okay?”
I stood motionless, suspended between the intoxicating pull of power and the tether of his love. And then I started to count.
I could hear the whoosh of blood rushing through the veins of everyone in this room.
I could hear Silvius’s choked breaths as I restricted his blood flow, his face turning red.
I could hear Dolion’s murmured pleas for Queen Sariyah to wake, oblivious to the battle being fought within me.
I could hear the faint clang of metal on metal as Tobias leaned forward, his chains shifting.
And I could see…
Him.
My vision cleared as I focused on Tobias’s face, taking in the worry in those gold-flecked eyes. An encouraging smile lifted his lips, just enough for that dimple to form.
With a gasp like I was resurfacing for air, I shoved my bloodlust away. Silvius’s fingers twitched. I snatched the box with the cure from his outstretched hand, its handle digging into my sweaty palm.
“Now bring the guards to the cell,” Tobias instructed, the concern in his voice plain. “Then you can let go of it.”
With a shaky breath, I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, one body at a time. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I made their blood bend to my will. The jerky movements sent a chill down my spine.
Maybe they had once aligned themselves with Silvius. Now I doubted they even knew who they were.
“Keys,” I gasped as the last guard entered the cell.
Dolion gently set Queen Sariyah down. “I saw them.”
My heavy breathing blocked out the rest of his sentence as he limped toward Silvius, rummaging through his pockets. This magic was instinct, intrinsic in a way that felt even more natural than my ability to heal. But I hadn’t trained for this, and my hold was fading fast.
“Hurry,” Tobias said tightly, his eyes fixed on me.
Dolion rushed into the cell, the keychain rattling as he removed Tobias’s shackles one by one. He wrapped an arm beneath Tobias’s shoulders, fully supporting his weight as he helped him to his feet.
The world swayed around me. That red encroached on my vision, my eyelashes fluttering. The cell door slammed closed with a loud clang.
Two hands closed around my shoulders just as I heard a key turn in a lock.
“Let go of it,” Tobias pleaded.
He caught me as my knees buckled, and we both went down hard.
“Quinn.”
He sounded so scared. I lifted my hand to his cheek, touching the corner of his lips, the stubble along his jaw. Drawing the scent of him, like smoke and safety, in with each breath. I leaned in eagerly, tasting his lips—letting him ground me.
One thing I could taste.
I let out a slow breath as I let that power recede completely. My vision cleared in time to watch the guards fall to the floor unconscious, like puppets whose strings had been cut. Silvius slumped against the bars behind him. Dolion immediately held one of the guard’s swords level at his throat.
There was no resignation on his face, no trace of fear. Only a quiet, unsettling anticipation as he studied Tobias.
“Now we just need to get back to the Enclave.” I glanced at the mirror as I got to my feet, then helped Tobias to his. The silver backing reflected a faint imitation of my likeness, ghostly without the glass strewn across the floor like a constellation of broken stars.
Dolion’s borrowed sword wavered. He looked like he barely had the strength to hold it. “To leave the room, you need Silvius’s palm print. I never saw a way out of this compound other than the mirror, but there must be a way.”
I looked at Tobias’s broken leg, then Queen Sariyah. “We’ll need our magic back before we can go anywhere.”
My heart twisted at the thought of everyone who needed this cure. We didn’t have time to blindly search for an exit, not when so many people depended on us.
But Tobias was staring at the keypad. “When Pari was infected, Rivan said that one of the guards touched a wall before his magic was blocked.”
“Silvius would need the ability to turn it on and off for this laboratory to be of any use,” I mused.
Tobias looked at Silvius—who barely blinked as Tobias limped toward him—and then at Dolion. “And the bands he created are locked with blood…and can be unlocked with the same.”
The two of us thinking through a problem in a lab together was strangely comforting.
“The access pads in the Enclave work similarly to control the wards that keep excess magic leaking out,” Dolion added.
It stood to reason the merging of the two was the key to returning our magics.
“So maybe all we need is his blood on the access pad,” I theorized. “After all, Rivan watched one of his supporters trigger it without Silvius there.”
Dolion stepped back, lowering his sword as Tobias finished crossing the distance to Silvius.
In a flash, Silvius reached into his robes like he had been waiting for this.
Before I could so much as scream, Tobias’s hand shot out, clamping around his wrist. Silvius grunted, twisting against him, but even in his current state, Tobias was stronger.
There was a gleam of silver as he wrenched a dagger from Silvius’s hand. Then he slammed its hilt into Silvius’s nose.
A crack split the air, followed by a wet-sounding curse. Blood streamed down Silvius’s face, too reminiscent of the virus’s initial symptom for me to feel even a flicker of sympathy for him.
The diamond on its pommel winked at me. I had almost forgotten that Silvius had stolen my dagger from me. Tobias, obviously, hadn’t.
He pressed it to Silvius’s throat. Silvius hissed as the edge grazed his skin, a thin line of blood appearing in its wake to match the red splattered down his no longer spotless robes.
“How do we get out of here?” Tobias’s voice was chillingly calm. “Don’t think I won’t kill you if you don’t tell me.”
“You wouldn’t,” Silvius whispered, though he sounded less than certain. “You…you can’t…”
That cool mask slid down Tobias’s face, the impassive look in his eyes chilling me to my bones.
“Tobias…this isn’t justice,” I reminded him softly. “This is revenge.”
Tobias nodded without a hint of concern. “Your point?”
I swallowed hard. “But you just said…”
“We both know you’re better than me, sweetheart,” Tobias murmured, staring intently at the blood dripping down his blade.
He was breathing hard—too hard. It was a miracle he was still conscious let alone upright.
“Besides, he owes me his blood after stealing mine for so long. Though there’s one thing I want more—the end of his miserable life. ”
The blade pressed in. Tobias’s cool facade cracked with a hint of a smile that chilled me to the bone.
“You were right,” Silvius gasped, his voice frantic. “My blood…the access pad…just bring me to the access pad and my handprint will open the door. I’ll show you the way out. And this…” He shakily gestured at his bloodied face. “It will remove the block.”
“I knew I could count on you to still be a coward,” Tobias spat. He pulled the dagger back, raising it high in the air.
I gasped as he brought it down.
The blade sliced across Silvius’s hand. His shriek echoed through the room as blood dripped from the wound.
Tobias didn’t look away from the blood as he said, “Would you like the honor?”
He wrenched Silvius’s hand forward, forcing his bloody fingers against the collar on Dolion’s throat.
Dolion nearly dropped his sword as his free hand flew to his bare neck. His voice hardened as he passed Tobias the band. “Oh, this is all yours.”
Silvius shrank back, but with the bars behind him, there was nowhere to go. Tobias nicked his thumb, his blood welling as he pressed it against the band’s open clasp.
He smiled as he closed it around Silvius’s throat.