I looked around in the dark and made out the faces of my friends and family. We were in a large cupboard in the kitchen. I recognized it after a few moments of staring blankly at the food stored along the shelves.
Kiran’s strong hand on my shoulder helped bring me out of a daze. “Good to have you back, Cousin.”
“Good to be back,” I whispered. That was when my memory decided to return. I’d been stabbed, nearly to death. Someone had healed me… A voice. A few voices?
Eden.
I turned to my cousin-in-law, who sat huddled in the corner with a baby held tightly against her chest. “Thank you.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “As if there was any other option.”
“What’s the plan?” My voice stayed a near-silent whisper.
“We need to get to the backyard,” Kiran whispered. He also held a sleeping baby in his arms. “Eden apparently knows of a tunnel that will lead us out of here.” There was a sarcastic edge to his voice and I almost smiled.
Eden trying to kill Kiran… those were the good old days.
“Terletov,” Avalon growled.
“He knows about the babes?”
Avalon nodded gruffly. “He won’t get them.”
I nodded. Of course, he wouldn’t. There was not a scenario in this world in which anyone in this pantry would let that demonic monster take these precious infants.
I looked to my left at Seraphina, who sat with her back to the shelves and her fingers tapping nervously on her bent knees. Terletov would get none of these people. Not one of them.
But just as I’d had those thoughts, the man himself came bursting into the kitchen with raucous behavior and what sounded like at least ten men. They filled the large room with fast precision and started tearing it apart in the next second.
I could hear Terletov bark orders and his men’s boots stomp around and rip open cupboards and drawers and wherever else they imagined we could be found.
Shite.
Not one of us moved as they continued to search the room. We had an advantage of being somewhat hidden away. We were really stashed away in a pantry within a pantry. And nobody had dared use our Magic to even quiet our movements for fear they would sense it.
There was a half window at the back of this room. I could just barely make it out between the top of a shelf and the ceiling. I tapped Avalon’s shoulder and pointed to our only hope. He nodded, moving stealthily to open it. I held my breath while he silently swung the pane down.
He gestured at Titus, the biggest man in our group, and helped him jump up and squeeze through the window. Titus couldn’t manage to do this entirely without sound and my head felt close to exploding while we waited for him to clear the space. Xander and Xavier crawled through next, so they could provide cover for the women and children. I knew they used Magic to muffle their movements and I just had to hope Terletov’s men couldn’t pick up on it.
This was too much stress. Even for me.
When a goon searched the front pantry, I had to close my eyes to keep myself in check. Every instinct inside of me screamed to bust through this wall and kill the man that would dare come after innocent babies or my friends.
But that was the thing.
The infants were in the room, as well as both Kings and Queens, and Sylvia and Anjelica, who did not stand a chance against Terletov and his forces.
Roxie and Seraphina were also in here. Jericho and the human Immortal sisters were nowhere to be found, but I decided that might be a good thing.
My heart pounded in my chest and I swore it would give us away. I struggled to labor out my breathing, but I was beyond rational thinking at this point. Fight or flight had kicked in and I would do anything to fight for the survival of these people that I loved. Seraphina, my sister and the babies were at the top of that list, but everyone in here meant something tremendous to me.
“Move on,” Terletov called out in a thin, reedy voice.
Whoever was searching the cupboard didn’t hesitate. I heard him immediately pull back and rejoin Terletov.
But just as their boots cleared out, and their voices started to drift down the hallway, Gavriel let out a bleat of unhappiness. Kiran immediately turned him in his arm and offered him the tip of his father’s finger, but the little guy was too hungry to be tricked.
He made just one more small sound before a pacifier could be shoved in his mouth.
It was too late.
As if in one, synchronized movement, the retreat on the outside of the pantry stopped. Completely.
Silence screamed at us from the other side of the false wall. I swear I could hear Terletov mulling over what he thought he might have heard. I felt it crawl over my skin and sink into my nerves.
I didn’t know how many of them would be on the other side if they were to discover us in here, but I did know we would be rounded up for capture.
Or worse.
We had practically gift-wrapped ourselves for them.
And I would not let that happen.
Sylvia and Amelia had made it out the window. Eden was halfway through and passing Amari off to someone on the other side. Kiran stood with Gavriel in his arms while he shared meaningful looks with Avalon. Angelica had yet to make it through the window. And Seraphina sat next to me, shaking with nerves.
Shite.
I stood up on still-shaking legs and moved to the exit. I heard Kiran whisper something from behind me, but I was too focused on my goal to bother listening to his reprimand. A hand clutched my knee, but I shook it free by soundlessly sliding the door to the side. I slipped into the dark pantry and shot one last glance back at my cousin. I gave Kiran a cheeky wave and then darted into the kitchen.
Terletov had been staring in the direction of the pantry, but the doorway had obscured me until I came directly into view.
“Oh, I thought you’d gone.”
“Where did you come from?” His thick Russian accent sounded more slurred than I remembered from before. His color had significantly paled as well.
He was a weak, monstrous version of himself and I nearly smiled at his obvious misery.
“I just popped down here for a midnight snack. Didn’t expect to run into another houseguest.” My tone sounded flippant, but my heart hammered violently in my chest.
Seraphina suddenly stumbled out behind me, stretching seductively and blinking at Terletov with wide-eyed confusion.
“Bastian?” she murmured with all the sex-kitten sultriness I knew she was capable of. She rested her hands on my shoulder and pressed her body against my back. “I wondered where you went to.”
“My men searched that room,” Terletov pointed out.
I shared a smug look with Seraphina and murmured, “Not very well.”
Terletov growled out a very unhappy sound. “Take them,” he ordered his men. “This is the prince.”
“I’m not a prince,” I argued out of principle.
I wasn’t a prince.
Why didn’t anyone ever get that I had given that title up? I gave it up!
“It doesn’t matter,” Terletov grinned at me. “You’re coming with us.”
“Thank you, but we’ll decline.”
“You don’t have an option.” He raised a gun that trembled in his hands and I raised my hands in submission. I did not want to go through the pain of death again.
I would do almost anything to avoid it actually.
“We’d rather not.”
“Bag them,” he ordered. “But don’t hurt them too badly. Yet.”
“That sounds ominous,” I mumbled to Seraphina. She clutched me tightly and breathed in my ear. I could feel her Magic trembling around me. I glared at her. She should have stayed inside the hiding place. I had this covered!
I was the only one that was supposed to go!
What had she been thinking?
“And then search the cupboard again,” he went on. “Make sure we didn’t miss-”
Another explosion detonated painfully
close. I wrapped my arms around Seraphina’s waist and clutched her to me. I needed this as much as she did right now.
I glanced around frantically for a weapon or something to fight these people off with, but the gun pointed at Sera happened to be incentive enough for me to behave.
One of Terletov’s men popped his head in the kitchen looking completely insane with pinpricks for pupils and wild hair. “Boss, they’re coming.”
“How many?”
The guy shrugged. “At least twelve. They have explosives too.”
“The King? The Queen? Where are they?”
Nobody answered. Nobody knew.
Except Seraphina and me.
Another explosion. Closer.
“Move!” Terletov screamed. “Now!”
His violent tone propelled his men into action. Seraphina and I were suddenly swept up in their departure-chaos. We clung to each other, reaching for each other’s hands and staying pressed against one another.
I didn’t want to do this. It was guaranteed torture and general awfulness.
But I didn’t see a way out or a way to leave Sera here and out of this. She was in this now, whether she wanted to be or not.
Whether I wanted her to be or not.
Chapter Sixteen
Seraphina
Hours later, many hours later, I crawled to the middle of my “cell” and dropped to the floor in agony.
My prison cell, a converted room in the castle, had been completely emptied out. No drapes hung over the large windows, no furniture adorned the now-cold space and no rugs covered the hard stone floor.
We were back in the Citadel, but I could hardly recognize this once vibrant star of the Kingdom.
Not even under Lucan’s tyranny had this place felt so stark and purely evil.
Every inch of my body ached and thrummed with pain. I felt my heartbeat all over. It pulsed and throbbed as if the very beats pounded too harshly for my sensitive body. My blood seared with fiery agony and my brain wanted nothing more than to shut down completely.
They hadn’t taken my Magic or infused me with anything else, but they had tortured me until I couldn’t have told them the truth if I wanted to. The torture made me delirious and my thoughts confused and jumbled.
A body landed next to me, limp and hardly breathing.
I lifted my head just long enough to make out Sebastian’s unconscious body crumpled in an awkward position.
Although I wanted to help him, but it took a very long time before I could summon the strength and convince my body to cooperate. I pulled on his shoulder until his body flopped to his back. I kicked out his legs so that he could be semi-comfortable.
Or as comfortable as possible on a stone floor with nothing to soften the hard rock.
I heaved my body the rest of the way and collapsed on top of him. It hurt to touch him, to touch anything really. But I needed something to hold me together. I needed to grab onto the fragile pieces of myself that threatened to shatter into a million broken fragments after what I just went through.
And I hoped the closeness would be good for Sebastian too. I had followed him deliberately. I couldn’t let him go through this alone. I couldn’t let him suffer for all of us alone. I couldn’t let him take the brunt of Terletov’s wrath or give that monster a reason to keep searching.
But I probably should have taken some more time to think this through.
Like thirty more seconds.
Then I would have realized what I signed up for and what a colossal mistake it would be.
Instead, I’d seen Sebastian throw himself through the false door and panic. Since when did he get so martyr-ish?
And why had my heart stopped beating completely when his body disappeared?
He groaned next to me and I shifted my body so he could stretch out more comfortably, although that was its own personal joke. There was no way we would feel “comfortable” while we were here.
Not on the unforgiving floor and not when Terletov felt the desire to ask us more questions.
His methods of interrogation weren’t exactly hospitable.
“Sera?” Sebastian croaked.
“I’m here,” I whispered through tears. I would not let this psychopath break me. I was strong. Or, maybe not. But I could be strong.
I would be strong for this Kingdom and for the man next to me.
“Are you alive?”
I would have laughed if my lungs didn’t burn so intensely. “As alive as you are.”
Sebastian squirmed under me and managed to wrap his arm around my waist. His fingers slid beneath my tattered silk cami and held me tightly to him.
Word of advice, if you’re going to be kidnapped, and then tortured for hours, try to wear something that is not silk pajamas.
“I have to say, this little adventure is living up to all of my expectations.”
This time I did snort. “I would love to be as cavalier about this as you are.”
His arm tightened around my waist and he shifted again so that we lay facing each other. “You shouldn’t have come, Sera. You should have stayed with Eden and Kiran.”
“You should have too. You were an idiot to do what you did.”
“And you were an idiot to follow me.”
“Fine, I accept that.”
His face was bloodied and bruised. Eventually, our Magic would work its way through our battered bodies, but this kind of damage would take time to heal. And there were parts of us that might not ever heal; spiritual, emotional parts that would recall these hours until the day we died.
Terletov and his crazy brother, Alexi, had abused us until we were useless. And then he locked us away for our bodies to piece back together, just so he could start all over again later. He wanted to know where Eden and Kiran were; more specifically he wanted as much information on the babies as possible.
Clearly, he had a spy at the London palace. And he really, really wanted those babies.
Which scared the ever-living hell out of me.
“Sera, we’re going to make it out of here alive. I won’t let him… let him…”
“Kill me.”
“Yeah, that.”
My lips pushed up into a soft smile, despite my belief that I might not ever smile again. “It’s alright, Sebastian. I’m not asking you to protect me.”
“You don’t have to ask. I will protect you whether you want me to or not. I’ve always wanted to Sera, that won’t change now. Especially not now.”
I hummed something that sounded like disbelief. “I can’t believe we’re here. We were supposed to catch him, not the other way around.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
“Don’t be.” My hands rested on his chest and I felt his heart beat more normally beneath my open palms. The feeling was comforting, so comforting. I wanted to keep it beating. I wanted to be the very reason it beat to begin with. But that was silly. That part of my life was over. I wasn’t Sebastian’s reason for anything anymore. And he wasn’t mine either. Lying in his arms while I went through a life and death experience might just ruin me forever.
But what could I do?
Nothing could make me leave this place until, well, until something actually made me leave it. Like Terletov and his merry band of insurgents.
And nothing could have kept me from following after Sebastian when I knew he was going to kill himself.
“I like you here with me,” Sebastian said on a raw whisper. “I should have realized this sooner.”
My breath caught and my stomach flipped. “What do you mean?”
“I was afraid of this, Sera. I was afraid I’d drag you into something we couldn’t fight our way out of. I was afraid you’d get hurt. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to protect you from everything you needed to be protected from.”
“You mean something like this?”
“I mean something exactly like this.”
“I’m not breakable, Bastian. I’m stronger than you think.” My words came
out in a shaky whisper that contradicted them completely. But I meant it. I wasn’t fragile or weak or incapable. I had trained for circumstances like these as long as Sebastian had and I had always known I could end up somewhere just like this or worse. Even when Lucan was in charge.
“I can see that,” he murmured. “And now that we’re in this bloody place, I realize how nice it is to have you with me.”
A sound came out of me that would have been laughter if my lungs didn’t feel bruised and beaten. “Oh, this is so nice.”
“I’m not alone though.” The arm that held me around my waist squeezed weakly. “And I like that I’m not alone. This would have been hell to go through all by myself. And I have this nice, warm, body to comfort and console me. I should have thought of that before.”
“Mmm.”
He dipped his head and nestled in the curve of my neck. “You know, this might be our last night alive.” I felt the slow burn of a trail of kisses across my collarbone. Even in this much pain, my skin tingled and my heartbeat picked up. “We don’t want to waste it.”
“Are you hitting on me?”
“I’m making the most of an opportunistic moment.”
I should have pushed him away. I really, truly should have. But he had started kissing up my neck and I knew we were physically not capable of taking this further than these sweet, but oh, so hot, kisses.
His mouth was warm as it marked a sizzling path along my throat. My breath hitched again and my head swam with fuzzy thoughts and nostalgic memories.
I found my hands gripping his biceps with what little strength I had left. His body moved closer to mine until we were pressed chest against chest, hips against hips. His teeth nibbled at my earlobe and then tenderly bit down on the curve of my jaw.
His playful nipping turned to more kisses as he seared his mouth along my jaw. I licked my lips and prepared for his next move. He would kiss me on the mouth. I had this routine memorized. Our physical relationship had never been boring, but after so many years together, I had come to know what to expect… what to anticipate.
His lips hovered over mine, but he did not seal them together. He stayed there, so close but not touching. I felt every inch of his hard body as we lay there length to length. I felt his damaged, tortured Magic revived with purpose to pulse and surge and wrap around mine with tight, inseparable union. And yet he didn’t kiss me.