37. Adrianna

37

ADRIANNA

A plan is a plan. Strong and decisive until you're left to sit and rot away in it. I have no idea of the time. I foolishly chased after Bozzelli without considering my cell phone, but none of that really matters when there are bigger things at play. It's not like I could call for help from down here. That's the whole point: Shut us off from the rest of the world and take our lives in the darkness like we mean nothing.

It's almost funny. Almost .

I spent hours upon hours losing myself to the actions I took. I killed her, and for a moment, I regretted it. But now that I know she's alive, planning some cunning shit with that damn uncle of hers, I know I've wasted too much time churning over what I did.

It seems I'm all set to do it again.

Her words from the dining hall replay in my mind. You have no idea of the power.

Fuck her and fuck her uncle's promise of power. The Council is corrupt beyond words and we need to put a stop to it. Killing Vallie so they don't kill me is only fitting. Besides, it's clear now that she was purposely goading me to attack her. Shit, they even had a mage on standby, ready to revive her.

Bozzelli was right. If I want to save the kingdom, we must first save it from them. No one else will, and I refuse to allow the kingdom to continue to crumble under the weight of their desire for more and more power. The Council has to be disbanded, even if it's not me who replaces them. I know I will have done what I was meant to do if I focus all my efforts on stopping them.

That's my core purpose.

I know it.

What's not my core purpose is waiting. My patience is running thin.

All the rushing Bozzelli had getting us here, and now we're waiting. Hours. My mind and body know it has at least been hours; I just don't know how many exactly.

"Are we going to address the beacon in the room?" Raiden asks, cutting through the silence, and my gaze snaps to his. We're each nestled against the wall. Kryll is beside the door, opposite me, Raiden along the left wall, while Brody and Cassian take up the right wall.

All perfectly in position for when the time comes.

Raiden cocks his brow at me and his comment finally registers in my brain, making me roll my eyes as a sarcastic laugh parts my lips.

"Ha ha, very funny," I grumble, stretching my legs out in front of me, but when none of the others laugh along with me, I know it's a topic that does actually need addressing. What better time than while sitting patiently, waiting to be attacked. "Fine," I mutter, nervously rubbing my hands down my thighs.

"If you don't want to talk about it yet, then you don't have to," Brody insists, making me smile as I shake my head.

"I'm good. We do need to talk about it. I'm just not in the best zone to find all of the right words," I admit. "The light… I remember it from one other time in my life," I start, avoiding their watchful stares as I look down at my lap. "It happened the night Kenner took my ears," I add, a shiver running up my spine and making my pointed tips tingle at the memory. "I didn't realize the light was coming from me at the time. I didn't realize much about it at all until earlier, but when our magic connected, it came to life again, like it was protecting me. Just like it had all those years ago."

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Princess," Kryll murmurs, his hands twitching as if he wants to reach out for me, but the comforting will have to wait in case our long-overdue guests join us.

"It's okay. When our magic connected, the memory from that night played out in my mind, only this time, I wasn't blinded by the light. I saw everything; crisp and clear. You were there," I state, turning to Cassian, who frowns.

"I was where?"

"At the castle that night."

"No, I wasn't," he grunts, his defenses rising as I shake my head.

"You don't remember, and you won't because your father made it so." His brows furrow deeper as my words linger in the air. "You tried to stop him," I admit, a sad smile tainting the corner of my mouth as I intertwine my fingers. "You tried to stop him from getting Nora. You defied him, and I'm sure you can guess how well he took that."

He stares at me, his jaw slightly slack as disbelief washes over him. "I don't remember."

"And I'm glad you don't," I insist. "I felt a connection to you that night," I add, wanting him to understand the best I can. "I couldn't explain it, and I still wouldn't be able to now, but I felt it deep in my veins. A tug pulled me toward you just as fiercely as it screamed for me to protect my sister."

"Maybe your heart knew he was your mate. Well, the wolf one," Brody states, a wink accompanying his play on words.

I hum in acknowledgment. That would make sense.

"Did anyone else have a vision when our magic collided?" I ask, receiving four blank stares in response. I nod in understanding when another thought comes to mind. "There was also a woman," I explain, bending my knees as I wrap my arms around them protectively.

"A woman? The same one who led us to you?" Brody asks, and I shake my head, recalling what she looked like.

"No. She was… technically in the cell beside me—until she wasn't, " I say, earning four confused stares.

"You're going to have to explain that a little more, Alpha," Cassian grunts, scrubbing at the back of his neck, and I nod.

"She was in the cell beside me with her back turned to me for ages. Then she apparently could sense I was overthinking, and she started to talk about herself cryptically."

"Did she say anything exciting?" Raiden asks, a bored tone on his tongue as he tries to see the point of her, and I shake my head.

"Not really. She talked about wanting to be a leader, her family abandoning her after treating her like a princess, and how an amethyst kiss of death works, but when the soldiers came to take me to The Council members, she was gone."

"Gone?"

"Yeah, and I even asked the soldiers to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. They made it clear that I was because no other prisoners were being held in those cells."

It sounds dumb now that I'm saying it out loud.

Raiden clears his throat, glancing at the others before turning back to me. "Maybe it was?—"

"She appeared in my vision too," I interject, refusing to accept the fact that I might be delusional.

"In your vision?" Brody repeats, and I sigh.

"Yes. She said something like, ‘You're welcome,' before I was slammed back into the present. That's when I started to glow," I grumble, waving my hands up and down the length of my body.

"That glow bit was fucking hot, I'm not going to lie," Raiden says with a contented sigh. It should surprise me, but in reality, it's just so freaking Raiden that it's impossible to shock me.

"What did it feel like?" Kryll asks as I spy Raiden adjusting his dick beneath his pants.

Opting to distract from his growing length, I focus on my dragon.

"It felt out of control," I state, and as usual, he doesn't push or nudge for me to continue, he simply gives me the wide berth I need to find my words. "It was controlling me, not the other way around. I wanted to kill those fuckers and teach them a lesson, but the light was hell-bent on using all of my energy to protect everyone."

"The dome it formed around us was impressive," Brody muses, and I shake my head.

"But if it wasn't there, one of us could have hit back at them," I state, completely aware that one of the people on the other side of that barrier was his father. We should probably have a conversation about that and what our response will be, but for now, we can focus on Vallie and her uncle. The rest will come later.

"I feel like I've read something about this before," he replies, tapping his finger mindlessly against his chin as he thinks. "I'm not sure."

"I thought you were a mage? Aren't you supposed to retain every scrap of information you've ever so much as glanced at so you can recall it in the most annoying circumstance possible?" Cassian grumbles, cocking a brow at his friend, who offers him a one-finger salute in response.

"You're damn right I'm a mage, but the shit I'm talking about, it's not part of the formal curriculum. It's tingling at the edge of my brain, but I feel like it was a myth or something, so my mind didn't filter it in," he explains, offering me an apologetic look.

"Whatever it is, its sole focus seems to be on protection. I'm not a defensive person; I'm all about charging into the chaos," I state, releasing a frustrated huff that makes my chest deflate.

"Maybe it's a counter-balance to the chaos you usually seek. Maybe it's supposed to make you step back and think," Kryll offers, which does nothing to ease the annoyance rattling in my chest.

"There's stepping back to think, and there's stepping out of the picture entirely, and that's exactly what it felt like."

Footsteps echo in the distance, cutting off the rest of my grumbling as we all stiffen. The shrill sound of Vallie's voice makes my muscles bunch together, but I force them to ease as she draws closer.

"Ready?" Raiden asks as Brody starts to chant softly under his breath.

I take a deep breath, shaking out my bones as I lie down. "As I'll ever be."