28. Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Eight

The next morning, I was the last to wake up. The bedroom was empty.

“How in the worlds?” I rubbed sleep from my eyes. I must have been out cold for five men to leave the room without waking me.

I dressed in a skintight shirt, leggings, and my combat boots before putting on my mother’s hunter leathers. The duster wrapped around my body as if it were made for me, protecting everything from my neck to my knees.

The delicious smell of coffee filled the kitchen, and a steaming mug sat on the small, round table. I took a sip. Cream and sugar. Just how I liked my coffee. Felix had left this for me.

I quietly snuck into the living room. I didn’t find any of the guys, but Genny sat on the couch, legs crossed, and already dressed in her own hunter leathers. She was finishing her second braid. She always wore her long silver hair in two braids. Ever since we were kids. My pile of blades sat at her feet.

“Hey.” Genny nodded at me as she finished and tossed her hair over her shoulder.

“Hey.” I grabbed my mother’s dagger and began strapping on my freshly blooded weapons. “Did the guys leave?”

“Yeah. They didn’t want to wake you.”

“Well, they succeeded.” I slung my sheathed sword over my shoulder and fastened the belt across my chest. “You ready?”

Genny shrugged.

“You know you don’t have to do this.”

“I know.” Genny stood, and we walked outside.

The yard was still quiet this early in the morning. The Aegis men weren’t hard to spot, especially since they were joined by a tall, stoic reaper.

Genny touched my arm as we approached. “I’ll get the bikes ready.” She turned towards the garage, as I kept walking.

The guys were locked in an argument. Their hushed voices carried on the crisp morning air.

“We can’t let her do this,” Skye’s whisper was edged with desperation.

“We’re not letting her do anything,” Quillon shot back. “She can make her own decisions.”

I slowed my pace as I neared a patch of bare bushes, trying to eavesdrop before they noticed me.

“Can’t we wait until we come up with a better plan?”

“There is no better plan.”

Enoch’s gaze landed on me. “We can’t wait another day if you want your daeva assassin back.”

“Ari?” Shael asked.

“Yes,” Enoch replied. “The Wraith. His time is running out. His body will soon begin to decay.”

Enoch looked at me as I walked up and the others turned.

I stopped in front of Enoch. “Promise me you’ll do whatever you can to return Ari’s soul if something happens to me.”

Enoch raised his hand and pressed his palm to my chest, above my heart. The guys tensed around me, and Skye took a step closer, but I shook my head. “You may not remember, but your soul does.” I warmed under his touch. “I always keep my word.”

He dropped his hand.

“Okay. You could have just promised like a normal person, maybe even held out your pinky.”

But deep inside me, there was a peace, a sense that even if I met my end in the Castelle compound, Enoch would find a way to return Ari’s soul.

“Why would you need my finger?” Enoch frowned.

Genny pushed her bike to the gate and went back to grab one for me.

Cyrus watched her. “It’s time.”

Shael wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. “We live in a world of magic, Ancients, and reapers. Nothing’s impossible.”

“You’ll come back to us, pup.” Felix joined the hug. He moved more fluidly today. The edges of scabbed wounds peeked out of the sleeves of his button-down. “And we’ll be there to kick Sebastian’s ass once and for all.”

I sucked a breath into my tight lungs. They were big huggers. If Em were here, she’d say something about smothering the talent. I rested my chin on Shael’s shoulder.

Em.

Who would tell her about my death? She wouldn’t take it well. I’d always said I’d go out because I bet my soul in a game of cards with a goblin.

Cyrus’s stern face appeared over Shael’s shoulder.

“You have until daybreak tomorrow.” Cyrus pulled Felix and Shael off me. “Then I’m tearing apart the Castelle compound to find you. Do you understand me, Enchanter?”

I saluted him. “Aye-aye, Captain.”

“Don’t die.” Cyrus’s icy gaze drilled into me. “That’s an order.”

“So dramatic.” Quillon spun me to face him and rolled his eyes. “They act like they don’t know you at all. You’re the fiercest being I know. You’ll find the staff, bring down the wards, and skip into our arms, leaving the compound burning behind you.” He squeezed my shoulders. “Then we’ll figure out this corruption business.”

I gave him a smile, though I didn’t feel it. “Thanks, Quillon. I never expected you to be the optimist.”

Quillon released me, and I turned to my gloomy elemental.

Skye clenched his jaw. His haunting, teal eyes finally met mine. “Is there anything I can say that will make you stay?”

“What if I said I’d stay for a kiss?” I couldn’t resist messing with him one more time.

“I’d kiss you for an eternity if it meant you’d stay,” he said.

His sincerity pierced my heart.

Genny had retrieved her father’s bike, and it sat beside her own, a helmet hanging from its handlebars.

“If we make it through this, I’ll hold you to that.”

I felt their gazes on me as I pulled on my helmet and Genny and I sped through the gates.

My heart pounded as we neared the Castelle compound on the winding road. I hadn’t been here since I was a teenager, visiting the boy I’d been engaged to. Now, I would come face-to-face with that boy again. But things had changed. Everything had changed.

Strong wind whistled in my ears and made the tall pine trees sway violently, spraying fallen snow like glitter. We were almost through the mountain pass. I tightened my grip on the handlebars to calm the trembling in my numb hands.

The hunger was getting worse. I was weak. And I was entering enemy territory. I sighed, fogging up my face shield. At least, if everything went to plan, I wouldn’t have to fight ... much.

The pine trees gave way to the barren landscape of Nevada’s desert with its sandy red cliffs and valleys of sparse brush.

Genny fell back, creating more distance between us as we turned onto a dirt road. It had to look like I came alone. She would have to find her own way in.

The Castelle compound came into view atop a rocky mountain as the faintest tingle spread across my skin. Wards. The bloodforged iron dampened the effect almost entirely.

Tall limestone walls towered above me. The tops crumbled in areas, low enough to climb over. Our people just had to get through the wards first.

I rode up to the iron gates. Genny’s father’s bike wasn’t exactly quiet, so I expected them to open immediately as I approached, but they didn’t. I wasn’t even sure if they could open. One gate even looked like it had rusted so badly, a single touch would cause it to fall off its old hinges.

If I hadn’t passed through the ward, I would have thought Max was mistaken. It didn’t look like an impenetrable fortress guarded by an army of dark hunters.

I glanced around at the quiet grassland before killing my engine and lowering my kickstand. With the roar of my engine gone, I could hear them. Raucous noise came from inside the walls. Shouting and cheering echoed off the stone mountainside.

I dismounted and pulled off my helmet before cautiously approaching the gates. My hands hovered over the daggers at my hips.

“Hello?” I called. Between the swirls of metalwork, I could make out humanoid shapes moving in the yard.

Another round of whooping and laughter drowned out my voice. This was not how I expected this to go.

“Hello?” I called louder. “Is anyone going to come out and greet me?”

“How rude of me,” a deep voice said behind me. That certainly didn’t sound like Sebastian.

I jumped and spun around. It didn’t look like him either.

A muscle-bound hunter, covered in rusty red hunter marks, stalked toward me. Dots of otherworlder blood covered every inch of his bald head.

Shit . I’d gotten too reliant on my ability to sense auras. I hadn’t watched behind me.

I took a step back for every step he took forward. “Uh ... hi there.”

“Hello, beautiful.” He cocked his head and kept advancing. “Did an angel send you for me?”

“I’m here to join, actually.” My heel caught on a rock, and I stumbled, falling to my butt in the dirt.

“I don’t care what you’re here for.”

I scrambled away as the hunter caught up with me. Fear shot down my spine as he smiled, flashing his sharpened yellow teeth.

“We’re running out of blood, and you just happened to stumble onto our doorstep.” His hands wrapped around my throat, pulling me to my feet. His rank breath misted my face.

I kicked and twisted, but days without feeding on mana and ten pounds of bloodforged iron left me weak. I was no match for his strength.

I struggled to breathe through his tightening grip. “Tell Sebastian Ar—”

“Shut that pretty mouth of yours before you make me kill you.”

I clawed at his hands, digging into his skin with my fingernails, but he laughed . Then, he squeezed, cutting off my air. I choked and my lungs constricted; I tried to cough, but my throat was closed.

His crushing grip subsided slightly as the man removed one hand from my neck. His lips peeled back as he lowered his fangs.

Dark static clouded the edges of my vision. Silver hair glinted over the hunter’s shoulder. Something warm sprayed my face as the pressure around my throat released.

I fell to my hands and knees on the dry grass and coughed, gasping for breath. I wiped at my face, and my hand came away covered in oily black blood.

I swallowed and looked up. Two blades poked out of the hunter’s stomach. Sebastian propped his boot in the center of the hunter’s back and pulled out his long, curved hunter swords. The hunter crumpled to the ground.

Sebastian dropped his swords and knelt beside me. His silver hair stirred around his face, grazing his chin. Worry glistened in his silver eyes. I tried to speak, but it came out as a gravelly wheeze.

“Your neck.” Black shadow moved like oil in his eyes, spreading until they took them over. His dark gaze dropped to my throat. “His handprints are on your neck.” He turned back to the hunter, who was now crawling away. “You dare lay your filthy hands on my fiancée?”

Sebastian’s voice held an edge of madness. He strode to the hunter and picked up his weapons, sheathing them.

He grabbed the hunter by his jacket and ripped him from the ground with one hand, sending him flying into the wall. I flinched as Sebastian was on him in a blink. Sebastian opened his mouth and buried his fangs in the hunter’s throat.

I looked away as he screamed and pled for his life. More dark hunters spilled from the gates and looked on with flat expressions, though a few glanced suspiciously at me. I recognized some of them from the fight at my family’s compound.

A hooded figure snuck into the back of the group from around the corner, blending in as they edged closer to the gates. That must have been Genny. Good. At least this mess served as a great distraction to get her inside.

I flinched as a mangled arm went flying over my head ... then another. Sebastian was literally tearing the hunter apart. I didn’t dare say a word. Sebastian’s rage radiated off him like the heat of a volcano. When he finally turned to me, leaving what was left of the hunter’s body to collapse to a heap on the ground, he was smiling.

Dark gray blood splattered across his face. It dripped from his lips and sharp fangs. His smile widened. “I knew you’d come.”