Chapter 14

My face must have become notorious to these men, for as I removed my mask, each commander reached for their gun.

"Nico!" Milla shouted my name this time, and it made my smile widen despite the barrels of five pistols pointed in my direction. Despite Felix fucking Firenze and his cadre crashing the party.

I was about to use my remnant to stop time, but Milla's chained wrists filled with darkness, a warning sign of her remnant from what I remembered in my brief encounter with her Chaos. Black flames ate away at her bindings, setting herself free.

The alchemist, Delilah, cursed and flung herself behind a workbench. "Get the glint!"

With a whip of dark fire, Milla lashed out at the nearest watchman, slicing him clean in half.

There were four left before I could lift a finger to defend myself.

She snapped her head in the opposite direction, where Felix and his men stood unaware, and thrusted her hand out. Her remnant followed, racing across the floor to travel up the wall as if the stone were just a tapestry. The wall crumbled with a loud crack, sending large, heavy rocks crumbling over their heads. They disappeared behind the falling rubble, finding coverage in the hall. One of the watchmen tried to run for it, back to the doorway to the stairwell—and was crushed instead.

Three.

I paused time just as the remaining returned their attention from Milla to me. They sent off their guns, and bullets hovered just inches from their barrels. Milla looked at one, golden eyes wide with worry. Not desiring to waste good bullets, I pulled a dagger from one of their belts, slashed each of their throats to finish them off.

Finally—finally—I crossed the remaining distance to Milla, nearly diving to the floor to kneel beside her.

I took a moment while she was still frozen in time to study her, ignoring the ache inside my bones as the strength of my remnant was tested. The sight of her made me choke on my breath, gathered a glaze over my eyes as I ran my thumb over a split in her bottom lip.

My goal had been to wait until we received more information out of Delilah. When Felix entered the conversation, my interest piqued, desiring to understand the dynamic between the alchemists. But when that Society bastard slammed my wife to the ground, I lost all interest in keeping anyone in this room alive.

She looked well for being in Hightower for the last several weeks. Her frame was thinner, her once flawless, soft skin now covered in various sizes and phases of bruising. But she was alive, and mostly, uninjured. More than that, she was fighting. Whatever this place had done to her spirit, it hadn't taken that much from her, at least.

I could have stared at her all night, amazed by her existence and her beauty and her power if not for the flash of warning from my remnant striking through my marrow. There would be time to bask in her later. For now, we needed to get the hells out of here.

I shifted in my crouch, giving her space, and released the second.

The commanders fell dead as their bullets hit the wall where I had just stood. Milla blinked, startling when she realized I was right in front of her.

"You," she whispered. Her eyes were saucers of golds and greens, glossy and red with stifled tears.

"Me." My voice cracked. "Isn't this great?"

She released a laugh that mixed with a sob, reaching for my face to take my head in her hands. Her fingers played up the line of my jaw, fixed themselves into my outgrown hair. "I can't believe it. You're really here. You're real."

My hands went to her arms, which slowly returned to her natural skin tone with the receding of her remnant. She flinched, sucking a breath in pain.

I cursed my idiocy and tugged off the gloves. "Hells, I'm sorry, Milla. For the gloves, for not being here sooner, for letting this happen. All of it."

"But you came for me," she said in a strained voice. "Delilah said—" Something shifted in her eyes, looking over my shoulder. "Nico, move!"

She shoved me back with surprising strength, putting distance between us. I spun around to face Delilah, who had crawled across the floor to retrieve the dark red ink from a dead alchemist to finish the symbols drawn in a circle around the floor. As soon as she closed the final loop of a symbol, a wall of milky light formed a circle around Milla, shimmering strange arcane symbols in the iridescent glow.

"Fuck," I hissed. "What is this?"

"A barrier," Milla replied, but she glared at the alchemist. "Once you cross it, you cannot leave unless the symbols are disrupted."

I dove toward the images—stopped by a sharp penetration near my spine.

"Nico!"

It sent me to my knees, just short of the runes. The dagger—laced with glint—pierced my lung and burned the right side of my chest every time I gasped for breath. Warmth trickled from the hole below my shoulder.

"If you move another muscle, I'll end you for good," the alchemedis hissed in my ear. "It doesn't take a crimson dagger to send your kind to the void. Anything sharp enough will do."

"That warning extends to you as well, Milla. If you do not comply, we will kill him." Delilah stood in front of the barrier, her hands clasped in front of her. "Remember this: we've spent quite a lot of time together. I know everything about you now. Your strengths, the extents of your power, your limitations"—her eyes glanced my way—"and your weaknesses."

Milla lifted her chin an inch. "Then you also know that without this barrier, I could turn you to dust. You can't touch me anymore. If you want my key, I'll have to give it to you willingly. And I will do so if you leave him alone."

Delilah smoothed a palm over the slick slant of her hair pulled high into a bun before nodding once. "A fair exchange."

Milla looked at me once more. I shook my head, encouraging her to keep fighting. Whatever the OIC wanted with her mark, it wasn't worth my life. Hells, I was a ticking time bomb anyway, thanks to a missing shadow.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

Delilah looked at the alchemedis still holding a blade to my throat. "Knock him out, first."

"Milla, no—"

I lurched forward, disregarding the dagger. But the woman behind me stuffed a rag soaked in something foul over my face. My body went limp, out of my control, only to plummet into darkness.

The dark didn't consumeme fully. I still heard everything. Could vaguely witness the entire operation from the front-row seat. My hands and feet were bound behind a chair near the edge of the barrier. My remnant dull and quiet.

Milla's tortured screams haunted the haze of my delirium, clearing away the fog. I could only watch as the images they drew on her skin glowed a blazing orange as they bled and dripped dark blood down the sides of her arms and legs.

Delilah claimed they needed her awake for the procedure, but I think they just wanted her to hurt. She tried so hard not to show them how much pain they put her through, but in the end, she conceded the fight, writhing on all fours as strange science turned the ink on her body into something molten.

Thunder rolled overhead, drawing my attention briefly to the sky. Dark clouds drifted across the starlight, accumulating like an incoming storm. The night had darkened completely as the moonlight was snuffed out, illuminated only by flashes of dry lightning. The first fall of rain hit the top of the barrier, rolling down the translucent slope.

"Alright, I think you've loosened it. Make the transfer." Delilah held out her arm.

"We should let the Arcane penetrate deeper, just to be sure it doesn't break—"

"Make the transfer!" she hissed.

The alchemedis sighed and drew a symbol across Delilah's forearm.

My fingers twitched, the sensation returning with every quickening pulse of my heart. Neither of the scientists paid me any mind. If she could hang on a bit longer, I could stop this. With the little control returning to my wrist, I gathered the cape covering my belt and slipped a dagger from the sheath near my hip, thankful they hadn't thought of taking my weapons.

The mark on Milla's spine glowed, similar to a symbol on Delilah's arm. I imagined Luther had gone through something similar in the experiments he spoke about. Delilah would take Milla's mark by taking her power as well, just as she had taken Luther's and bound it to the watchman.

"I'm going to open the boundary," Delilah said. "If you do anything to harm me, my assistant will make sure your lover suffers."

Milla didn't respond. Her form trembled, like it took all her strength and focus just to hold herself up.

Before she could open the boundary, the ropes binding my wrist snapped as I cut through the last knot. I emptied the contents of my pockets, rolled them behind the equipment to conceal the small, highly flammable orbs. A quick dash through the barrier, and I pulled Milla's trembling form into my chest, holding her steady as she lashed out in my arms.

"Milla, relax. It's me." My voice tamed her fight, though her heart still hammered against her ribs. "I've got you."

"What are you doing?" she whispered. Icy fingers dug into my shoulders, slipping beneath the armor. "I told you not to cross the line!"

Delilah laughed. "You think you can protect her in there, Bender? You've made a foolish mistake."

I ignored her remark. Instead, pressed my lips near Milla's temple. "Cover your ears."

"What?"

I pulled her into my chest and shielded us both from the succession of explosions. Four of them detonated.

Only a quick scream rang in the air before the sounds of the explosion cut them off. Metal twisted within a fiery cloud of ash and charred debris, swirling outside the barrier that blocked out the bedlam. Milla dug her face into my neck, shielding her eyes from the flash of light, followed by a flurry of destruction.

Less than a minute had passed before a soft hiss was the only sound beyond the barrier, the burned remains of equipment and dead bodies settled across the ruined lab in a fine dust. Flickers of lingering flames burned the ash dredged across the floor, joined by the moon peeking behind the thunderous clouds, draping the debris in pale light.

A shiver rolled down Milla's arms. "How did you know the barrier would keep out the bombs?"

I tapped her chin, tilting it upward. The gold in her eyes filled with silver from the moonlight. "It kept the rain out. I figured—and hoped to hell—it would keep out the rest of the elements."

"Your faith always impressed me," she said with a nervous laugh. Her gaze fell back to me. "But now we're trapped in here together. I'm assuming you have a plan to escape?"

"More hopes, actually," I said. "Luther will come check on the tower when I don't show up at the meeting point. He'll see the smoke and come to help us."

"Luther is here as well?" Her eyes widened. "He came back to this place?"

"Of course he did. He was the first to volunteer, and as it happens, the only one who can control the stone thanks to Delilah's experiments. All the cousins are here except Esme, but she's worked tirelessly in her own way to bring you home."

She shook her head with a look of disbelief. Warm tears rolled from the corners of her eyes, meeting my thumb still cradling her face. "You all came for me? Why?"

Because I love you. Because they know I do.

I wanted to say the words I'd kept saved for the right time, but that moment wasn't here, not in a filthy lab where unspeakable acts most likely haunted her memories. I settled on, "Because you're an Attano now, princess. The house has been entirely too quiet without you."

She adjusted on my lap, wrapping her legs around my waist to sit more comfortably. The position made me ache for her, despite the situation, our surroundings, the hole in my back, my cock seemed to disregard the rest of the world when she was near. Her scent, the silky skin over her throat, those eyes that were my personal form of glint, rendering me powerless as they crossed me—this is what I'd burn the world to have and keep forever.

"Delilah told me everyone thought I was dead. She made me think no one was coming." Her forehead split as her brows furrowed. "Is what Felix said about Sera true, then?"

It wasn't the way I wished she would've learned about her friend's death, but I nodded anyway, unable to keep the truth from her. "When the train stopped, I found what I thought was you in an altercation with Felix on the roof. You said something to him, and he shot you through the stomach. I brought you home, buried you next to my family, all to find out after a few days that it wasn't you at all. It was Sera, wearing your skin."

Milla crumbled, her narrow shoulders sagged with the weight of her grief. "Why would she..." She shook her head. "This is all my fault. She shouldn't have ever been involved in all this. Her death was for nothing—"

"It was not," I snapped. She peered up at me, eyes glazed. "Sera made the whole city believe you were dead, including the Firenzes. Imagine how much worse things would have been if Felix believed you were alive. Sera's sacrifice gave us time we desperately needed to get you back. I don't consider that a waste."

"Someone betrayed Delilah, though. Felix said he knew she lied about keeping me." She swiped the tears brimming in her eyes. Taking my false hand, which was lifeless without my remnant, she held it between us, tucking it against her stomach. "How did you find out?"

"Aramis." His name wasn't what she expected by the twist of her expression. "Milla, there is a lot to catch you up on. Some things that are not my place to share with you. But once we get home, we'll tell you everything, alright?"

She gave a small nod in agreement. My right hand smoothed down the length of her thigh, hooking her around my hip. It was strange, realizing it had been nearly two months since I'd felt her body, and yet the time apart was like dust in the wind now that I had her back. Like a bad dream, nearly forgotten with the arrival of a new day.

Her torn tunic slipped down her shoulder, the only coverage she donned was a linen band around her breasts and similarly made undergarments. Chill bumps prickled her skin. I did what I could to wrap the thick material of the watchman's cape around her shoulders.

A smile flickered on her lips. "For what it's worth, I'm really glad you're here. I didn't think..." She swallowed hard. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

The pain of that truth filled her eyes, and the force of it nearly broke my heart. "There isn't a hell in the void that could keep me from you, Milla. I'd suffer for a lifetime to have another moment on your lips."

My honesty was rewarded with the tip of her chin, lifting her mouth to mine in a way that felt like an offering. "I think we have a moment to spare."

Without sparing another, I kissed her.

There was no gentleness left in my body, no mercy in my heart. I claimed her mouth like I was taking back every second. Milla returned the force of my kiss with equal parts passion and need, as if I was the air to her flame. The heat between us became a tangible fire, burning away every painful moment without her, burnishing it with a new purpose. Making way for a future.

Without breaking the seal of our lips, she slipped her arm around my neck, threaded her fingers into the length of my hair and pulled my face to hers, forbidding me to move away—like I'd dare try.

My hand traveled up her waist, down the slope of her backside, pressed her firm against my hips as her body writhed against the armor between us. I wanted to rip off the leather and metal, wanted to lay her down in this circle where nothing could touch us and fuck her like the first time. She'd let me have a taste of everything before it was all taken away, and the tease of knowing how good it could be, how it was supposed to be, had driven me into a mild madness waiting to experience it again.

I angled my face to deepen our kiss. Milla's lips parted in invitation, sucking my tongue into her mouth with a demand that dragged a moan through my chest. She pulled back, taking control of this wordless conversation, this fight for dominance between our tongues, and pinched my lip between her teeth.

"Fuck, I missed you," I said as she took a ragged breath.

A sweet whimper fluttered from her throat in reply as I stole whatever words she had with another thieving kiss. My hand snatched the indent of her waist, thumbs inching toward the underside of her—

"Should we come back later?"

Never had I been so frustrated and relieved to hear my cousin's voice. Milla gasped as she jolted back from my face, turning her gaze toward the intruder.

"Luther!" she shrieked.

He coughed once to clear his fluster at finding us in such a compromised position. But a smile spread across flushed cheeks, the coloring matching the red tint in his mustache.

His eyes narrowed on Milla as he dipped his chin. "Hello, boss."