Chapter 31

Rhi

Time distortsand the next events occur as if I'm watching them in slow motion.

One moment we're cloaked in darkness, hidden from all around us, the next light streaks across the mountain and everything is cast in a startling brightness.

I see Azlan, Stone and Winnie on the slope beneath me. I see the exact moment they spot me on the hill above them. I see them wave. I see Winnie start to run. I see Azlan's face flood with relief.

And then I see the moment all three spy the man beside me.

Renzo Barone.

Winnie halts. Stone lifts his arms. Azlan growls.

And then the flare puffs out and we're all plunged into blackness again.

"You could have warned me," Renzo mumbles in the dark beside me and then a bolt of magic comes hurtling his way. He ducks and the thing skims right above his head, lighting him up in a hue of blue.

"Stop!" I scream, "Azlan stop!"

Another stream of magic crashes in Renzo's direction, and I use my own to block it and send it fizzling to the ground.

"For fuck's sake, I said stop!" I shout louder still, struggling to hear myself above the noise of more magic.

"Am I allowed to fight back?" Renzo asks, sounding bored.

"No!" I tell him. "Just … just behave."

"Fuck me," he mutters, swerving to the left as a ball of fire almost melts his cheek.

I growl. I knew this first meeting was going to be difficult. I knew Stone and Azlan would take some talking to, some persuading. I didn't think they'd try and kill him quite so quickly.

"Azlan! Stone! Stop, please! We need to talk!"

I deflect more of their magic, Renzo crouching and forming a shield as a barrage of coordinated magic hurtles his way.

"Are they always so difficult?" he says, looking like he may actually be enjoying this.

"Yes," I say through gritted teeth, "and in case you forgot, you did nearly kill me."

"Shit, yeah, I did!" he says grinning. "You should be honored, little rabbit. That's practically a declaration of love from me."

Remembering how fucking painful that was, I consider sending my own bolt of magic his way, but before I have a chance, a speeding bolt hits Renzo smack on the right shoulder and sends him flying to the ground. He lies there panting, a wound the size of my fist visible through his scorched jacket, and grins up at me.

I roll my eyes, spin around and send a smack of thunder crashing through the air, enough to send Winnie, Azlan and Stone falling to the ground as well.

Then, with my hands on my hips, I stride down the hill towards them.

"Did you not hear me?" I yell. "I said stop!"

Before I can say more, Winnie jumps back up to her feet and flings her arms around me, squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe.

"Rhi, you're okay?" I can hear tears in her voice and I laugh, pulling away to look at my friend. I can't help smiling into her worried face.

"Of course, I'm okay."

"He didn't hurt you? He didn't … Oh stars, I've been so worried about you and–"

But I don't hear the rest of her rambled words because Stone is pulling her off me and wrapping me in his own arms.

"Thank fuck," he mutters, hugging me against his chest, one hand pressing the back of my head, the other the small of my back. I bury my face into my mate's jacket and inhale his scent, overwhelmed to be back in his arms. He kisses the crown of my head and I shake, relief suddenly flooding through me. There was a little part of me, a secret part I tried to suppress, that wondered if I'd ever see him again.

The relief lasts precisely one second and then I remember my other mate. Azlan.

I peek out from Stone's jacket and see that mate, not striding towards me, but up the hill with a murderous look on his face.

I wriggle free of Stone and chase after him.

"What are you doing?" I cry, struggling to catch up with him.

"What else? Going to finish him off."

"No, you're not," I say. I don't think he even hears me and I pick up my pace, racing to catch him. I grab his arm, just as he halts.

Renzo is sitting cross-legged on the ground, Pip curled up in his lap.

"Hey man," Renzo says, "what's up?"

Azlan growls and lifts his hand but I catch it in mine and yank it back down.

"Rhianna," he hisses, "let go of me. I'm going to kill him."

"No, you're not," I say, stepping between the two men.

"Rhianna!" he growls, sounding more like a rabid wolf than a human man.

"You're not going to kill him. You're not going to hurt him. I won't let you."

Pain washes across the man in black's face. "Rhi, he tried to kill you – he nearly killed you! I held you in my arms and felt you slipping away. Do you have any idea how that felt? Do you think I'd stand here and risk him doing it again?"

"You're going to have to, Azlan."

"Rhianna, I don't know what he's told you. What he's said. But this man is a killer. A known psychopath," he says as Stone comes to stand alongside him.

"Azlan, you've killed people. I've killed people," I say, repeating the assassin's argument.

"Don't tell me, sweetheart," Stone says, crossing his arms over his chest. "You've succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome."

"This isn't Stockholm Syndrome, or whatever …" I wave my hands in frustration. "This is me asking you not to kill the man who saved me at the academy, he brought me somewhere safe and has been looking out for me ever since."

"Him?" Stone says, staring down at Renzo with obvious disgust.

"Me, Prof.," Renzo says grinning up at him in an infuriating manner that is most definitely not going to help our cause.

Stone turns his head and addresses his friend. "Definitely Stockholm Syndrome. Or possibly a bad knock to her head."

"He could have warped her memories. Fooled her into thinking–"

"I am in complete control of my senses!"

"Clearly not," Stone says, "otherwise you'd have killed that man yourself, instead of letting him molest your pig."

"Hey, hey," Renzo says, frowning, "me and the little dude do not have that kind of relationship. I'm much more interested in molest–"

"Yes, thank you," I say, feeling a headache building behind my eyes.

Winnie appears alongside the others and assesses us all wearily.

"What's going on?" she asks.

"Rhianna is having some kind of mental breakdown," Stone mutters.

"Does he always talk to you like this?" Renzo says menacingly.

"Yep," I answer.

"I wasn't the one who nearly killed you," Stone snarls.

Azlan growls again and takes a menacing step forward, one I'm forced to block with my body.

"I'm no clearer," Winnie says.

"Rhianna won't let us kill the assassin."

Winnie rolls her eyes. "Your boyfriends are really dumb." I smile at her, relieved by the knowledge that Winnie at least will be on my side, no matter how crazy-assed that side is.

"Mate, not boyfriend," Azlan spits.

"Well, in that case you should know her better by now. Rhi isn't going to let you kill anyone on her behalf. Gently torture perhaps. Maybe a little maiming–"

"–I like her," Renzo says.

"But no killing."

"Exactly," I say.

"So I have your permission to torture him?" Azlan says, cracking his knuckles.

"No!" I say, "Winnie was joking." Both Azlan and Renzo look disappointed. "We're not going to hurt each other."

"Looks like I already did," Stone says, peering proudly at the injury on Renzo's shoulder.

"We're going to talk like civilized human beings."

"He isn't civilized," Azlan sneers.

"Urgh!" I say throwing my head backwards.

"Maybe you should just hear Rhi out," Winnie says. "We've been separated for days. You've no idea what she's been through and she has no idea what we've been through."

My gaze skips to my friend and she smiles at me weakly.

"What happened?" I ask.

"You go first," she says. "Tell us what happened."

I start from the beginning. From the moment of the attack at the academy. Of fighting alongside Tristan, of seeing him fall. Of losing my mind and then falling into the hands of Lowsky. Of Renzo saving me, nursing me and then knocking me fucking out. Of the attack in the forest, of our climb up the mountain, of our discovery of the dragon.

I skip over our stay in the shepherd's hut and Renzo eyes me with curiosity.

When I'm done, Winnie's mouth is hanging open.

"You rode on the back of a dragon? Oh my stars! What was that like?"

But Azlan is less concerned with the dragon and more so with the men that attacked us in the forest.

"Who were they?" he asks me.

"Lowsky's men," Renzo says, then shrugs. "Or not anymore. Lowsky's dead."

"You killed him?" Stone asks.

"Yep."

"Good."

"And the men in the forest," Renzo adds.

Both Azlan and Stone nod reluctantly.

"Why did they attack you?" Azlan asks.

"They weren't attacking us at first. They attacked a couple of families fleeing through the forest."

"And you intervened," Stone says flatly, shaking his head like I'm stupid.

"You'd have done the same," Winnie says. And we all know she's right. Stone may act the asshole with the hard outer shell. But underneath, he's soft as butter really.

"They knew who she was," Renzo says from the ground. "They said the reward for her capture has quadrupled."

"My uncle," Azlan sneers, "the new Lord Protector is after her."

"I don't think he's the only one," Renzo says, stroking Pip's head.

"What makes you say that?" Stone asks.

"The men at her house–"

"The men at my house?" I say.

"Yeah, the ones who came for you when we were leaving." I stare at him flabbergasted. He never mentioned them before. "They weren't from the authorities, or the gangs. They were from the West."

"The West?" Stone stares at me. "Why would men from the West want Rhianna?"

"Same reason your uncle does, I presume," Winnie says.

I peer at Renzo, wait for him to say more, for him to reveal–

"What?" Stone says. "What was that?"

I spin my face around to face him. "Nothing."

"You're a horrible liar. That wasn't nothing."

I glare at him and dare him to press me. He doesn't, he simply shakes his head.

"So what now?" Winnie says. "We can't go back to Los Magicos. I'm sure the capital is going to be full of the Lord Protector's spies and you – as well as us – are on the most wanted list."

"Congratulations!" Renzo says.

Winnie looks at him like he's mad, which he probably is. "And now it seems that the West may be after Rhi too. So what are we going to do?"

They all begin to debate this. Renzo wants us to go hide out in the mountains. Stone thinks we should leave the continent. And Azlan wants to try and reason with his uncle. They go round and round in circles, and all I really want to do is ask after Tristan and Spencer. I know Tristan's alive. I can feel him through the bond. But Spencer? I haven't seen him since the night of the attack on the academy. Is he even alive?

Something, however, keeps me from asking. Tristan may be my mate, but his father is now Lord Protector and after my head. Tristan has always considered me to be below him, not good enough to be his mate. He told me so himself. Okay, so he had a temporary change of heart, but now his dad's running the republic, it's likely he's returned to his original way of thinking. He's certainly not here, is he?

And as for Spencer … He left the academy. He chose to turn his back on the bond.

Maybe I'm a fool to think of either of them at all.