Central

  “I will not kill her,” Ryce said dismissively. “And I will not mar her face or break her bones, so you can just stop arguing.”

  When he pulled out a dagger, she realized James had been correct. She felt lightheaded as she focused on the gleaming blade. Unable to stop herself, she pulled ineffectively against her restraints, scraping the skin of her wrists raw.

  What about a broom or some other cleaning tool with a handle? Amber suggested.

  Yes, James quickly agreed. Olivia, as soon as your hands are free, instruct Brenna to send you a kitchen tool with a long, sturdy handle that you can wield like a bo.

  She gave a mental nod as Ryce bent down and sliced through the ropes around her ankles and her heart thundered in her chest. Now she just had to find the strength and courage to do it.

  Grolkinei led the way through the tunnels back toward his home. He imagined it would be a long night for Saraqael’s daughter. Ryce wouldn’t be satisfied with a brief encounter, he was sure, and Cesaro knew very well how to draw out the information-gathering process. But by morning they would certainly have the answers they needed.

  She really had surprised him. Her powerful beauty aside, she was much more complex and remarkable than he had ever envisioned. Although he was certain she must have been terrified, she only rarely allowed that emotion to show during their conversation. Her answers had been well-crafted, answering him without really telling him anything.

  She was obviously protecting herself, but he strongly suspected she was also protecting her sisters. Such loyalty was unheard of among the Mercesti. He admittedly found it intriguing. He wondered if her sisters were as devoted to her as she was to them. Could he use that connection to draw them out and into his grasp?

  It was something to consider.

  Although he had serious doubts that the other elders would bow to his demand to abolish the Estilorian plane for the sake of one of Saraqael’s daughters, the question certainly remained to be answered if he had all three of them.

  There was also the thought that the girls themselves could help him transition to the human plane. He was confident that he would know the answer to that by the morning.

  Not too far from his home, he suddenly paused at the entrance to one of the tunnels, alerted to the sound of frantically beating wings. Angius and the soldiers around him drew their swords. Kanika’s eyes grew wide.

  Within a minute, a guard nearly flew right into them in his haste. He was bleeding heavily from a wound to his left side.

  “My lord,” he gasped as he jerked to a halt. “We are under attack. Hundreds of them—Gloresti, Waresti, Corgloresti…even the classes we have never battled before. We are sorely outnumbered and they are fighting as if possessed. They have breached the tunnels.” He winced and clutched his side. “And there is a panther among them. Huge. Black.”

  “They have come for the girl,” Angius said as he caught Grolkinei’s gaze. His voice rang with shock and disbelief. “They sent all of their soldiers and even those who do not usually fight to recover one girl?”

  Whirling as realization set in, Grolkinei pushed past the soldiers behind him and moved to fly back to the chamber they had vacated. He hadn’t gone ten feet when he heard fighting coming from the tunnels that led back to the chamber. They would have to battle insurmountable odds to get back to her now. They would never succeed.

  He threw his head back and screamed in outrage. But he had the answer to one of his questions.

  He now knew Olivia’s worth.

  Without Olivia having to ask, Amber quickly sent a surge of healing energy through their connection to return feeling to her feet as soon as her ankle bindings were released.

  Olivia realized that she could have kicked Ryce in the face or even disarmed him if she had wanted to. Of course, she would have still been chained and at the mercy of Cesaro, so it didn’t make any sense to do so. It did tell her, though, that he was so distracted by his thoughts of what was to come that he was being careless.

  “Give me the key,” Ryce said to Cesaro as he resheathed his dagger.

  “I think you are making a mistake.”

  “Allow me to be the judge of that,” Ryce said through his teeth, obviously straining to maintain his temper.

  “Very well.” Cesaro handed the key to her chains over to Ryce, his expression bland. “I will wait over here and consider which tools to use when you are done with her.”

  His eyes gleaming with twisted excitement, Ryce turned back to her. He moved to within a few inches of her and ran the tip of the key along the skin of her now-bare midsection and up over her breastbone. She didn’t have to fake the fear that he obviously sought, but she did have to struggle not to lose whatever contents were left in her stomach.

  Then he reached up and unlocked her left wrist. When the cuff opened to release her, he immediately encircled her wrist with his right hand in a ferocious grip. Keeping her left arm in his hold, he reached over with both hands and unlocked her right wrist, swiftly catching her with his left hand before she could pull away. Leaving the key in the cuff, he hauled her up against him, crushing her wrists in his effort.

  Then he caught her off-guard by swiftly throwing his leg behind hers and falling on her with his full weight. Her head connected with the stone floor, unprotected. The excruciating pain that rocketed through her had darkness ringing her vision and her eyes rolling back in her head.

  Amber hurried to try and heal her. Olivia vaguely felt Ryce’s groping hand at her waist. Her mind was screaming at her to get up, joined by the united voices of her family, but she couldn’t command herself to move.

  Oh no, you don’t, Skye seethed when Ryce took hold of the fastening at Olivia’s waist. She used her fury to focus on sending the only weapon at her disposal to Olivia’s aid.

  The blast of holy light she sent through Olivia’s mark had Ryce screeching in pain and leaping off her, clutching his left hand in agony. It bought them enough time that Amber was able to finish healing Olivia’s injury.

  Scrambling to her feet, Olivia sent a thought to Brenna, who had assured her she would be ready.

  Now.

  The wooden pole appeared in her hands even as Cesaro approached with a curved, bladed tool. She faced him with unnatural calm, feeling suddenly as though she had prepared for this moment for her entire life.

  Even as she deflected Cesaro’s first swing of his weapon, she saw Ryce getting to his feet. His left hand was an angry red. Blisters were already forming. He was spewing a stream of foul words at her.

  She noted with one part of her mind that Ryce wasn’t wearing a sword as she deflected another attempted strike from Cesaro. But he had his dagger and his injured hand wasn’t his dominant one.

  On the next deflection, she spun her weapon into a countermove and struck Cesaro in the face. She missed her target of his nose and hit his mouth instead. When he staggered back and spit, blood and a couple of teeth poured from his mouth.

  That was all she saw before Ryce advanced.

  “You little bitch,” he hissed. “When I get my hands on you, I will knock you straight into oblivion. You will not feel the things I do to you until you wake, and I promise you, you will—”

  “Oh, shut up,” Olivia ordered, bringing her weapon up and back like a baseball bat and swinging it at his midsection.

  He was only able to partially block the shot, not prepared for the untraditional manner in which she wielded the weapon. His breath left him in a heaving whoosh.

  Still, he remained on his feet and brought his dagger up.

  “Don’t forget,” she reminded him in a ridiculously cheerful tone, “you can’t kill me. Grolkinei’s orders and all.”

  His lips curled as his red eyes blazed with fury.

  She easily deflected his attempts to reach her with the blade. They circled the room, him taking lurching swipes, feinting and attacking, her watching him for an opening.

  And then, during one of his more awkward attempts, she held her weapon in bo
th hands horizontally in front of her, blocking the knife. Then she brought her booted foot up into his groin. Cheering erupted in her head over his tormented, gagging moan.

  When she swiftly followed that with another blow of her weapon, this one to the side of his head, he crumpled to the ground like a sack of wheat.

  Cesaro!

  The warning sounded in her head. She moved, but not in time to avoid getting sliced on her left bicep by the Mercesti’s weapon.

  “You have some skill,” he said, taking another swipe at her. “And you have more determination than perhaps any Estilorian I have encountered.” His eyes flashed with dark humor. “But you will soon feel the effects of the poison from this blade coursing through your veins. We will see how well you fare then, half-breed.”

  I’m on it, Amber said, her tone calm and confident. You’ll be fine.

  Kick his ass, Skye added.

  Olivia smiled. The expression made the humor in the Mercesti’s eyes vanish.

  She felt the pride of her family behind her as she deflected several more blows and struck her opponent again and again. He was tough, despite the fact he was much smaller than most other males, and was obviously as skilled in accepting pain as he was in doling it out.

  Finally, she issued the coup de grace. Bringing up the end of the weapon, she caught him under the chin in an upper-cut. She followed that with a vicious blow to the throat using her fingers in a straight jab she had learned from Amber. As he choked and gasped unsuccessfully for breath through his crushed windpipe, she stepped back and swung with all of her might. The weapon broke in half as it connected with his skull and he joined Ryce on the ground.

  Then she stood, clutching what was left of the weapon and breathing in harsh, choppy gasps of air. Her blood pounded in her ears. Sweat coated her from her exertion.

  I’m so proud of you, James said. She felt his love flowing through her and she closed her eyes briefly to enjoy the sensation.

  They’re almost there, Liv, Gabriel added. Hang in there.

  You did good, thought Amber.

  Keep an eye on the door, Caleb instructed. If it’s one of us, they will identify themselves before entering the room.

  He didn’t have to finish his thought for her to understand that if the door opened without someone calling out to her that she would have to defend herself. She eyed the broken weapon for a moment, then simply held it at the ready.

  We’re here with you, Liv, Skye assured her in a gentle tone when her arms started shaking in reaction to the adrenaline rush she had experienced.

  The wait, as filled with tension as it was, was blissfully short. A couple of minutes later, the sounds of battle started outside the door. Her eyes widened. She listened to the crashing of blades against each other, shouts of anger, screams of pain and cries of victory. Then, when things grew quieter, shuffling outside the door.

  “Olivia?” It was Harold.

  “Yes,” she managed to call out over the emotion in her chest. For some reason, she couldn’t make her legs move to walk to the door.

  It opened and the room swiftly and silently filled with Estilorians. Harold and Alexius led the way, but she couldn’t see down the hallway for all of the warriors filling it. She realized then with a tremendous amount of shock just how many Estilorians had come for her.

  Glancing at the two bodies on the floor, Harold nodded. “Excellent work.” His burnt orange eyes moved to hers.

  “Thanks,” she said with a small smile. “I had the best training available.”

  “We should get you to your sisters,” Alexius said. “They are waiting for you.”

  “No,” she replied with a great flood of love filling her heart. “They’re already with me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  They maintained the connection with Olivia until she was surrounded by Estilorian warriors and on her way to where they still sat near the loading platform. As soon as the danger had passed, they all realized the connection was fading. It was evidently something that could only be invoked during a time of great need.

  James paced as Amber and Skye kept their thoughts open to Olivia. It was full-dark by then. The moon shone on the water, providing enough ambient light that none of them felt the need to generate balls of light to be able to see.

  It took more than an hour, but eventually he saw the advancing lights of hundreds of pairs of wings in the distance. His heart leapt and he rushed back into the cover of the trees where everyone else still sat.

  “They’re nearly here,” he said.

  “Thank goodness,” Skye breathed, pushing to her feet.

  Everyone else followed her lead. They walked with James out onto the beach and watched the group in the air approach. His emotions seemed to heighten the closer she got. The thin veil of emotional distance he had forced into place time and again throughout her ordeal completely evaporated as she again neared. The realization of how close he had come to losing her had his hands trembling.

  She landed ten feet from them. Her hair was still unbound and her fully healed arm was covered in dried blood. The tear in the middle of her tank top served as another stark reminder of what she had just gone through.

  Without pausing, she ran to him and threw herself into his arms. The moment he put his arms around her, she started sobbing. He held her tightly against him, squeezing his eyes shut and breathing in the sweet apple scent of her hair, his love for her coursing through him, and listened as she wept. He felt every shudder as if it was his own.

  “Please don’t cry,” he whispered in an anguished voice. The words could barely get past the tightness of his throat.

  She finally pulled away enough to look up at him. He opened his eyes to look at her and had to blink to clear his vision. Although her tears continued to flow, she managed a small smile. “Why not? You are.”

  He reached up with amazement and touched his face, felt the moisture there. He really was.

  “Quit hogging Olivia,” Gabriel griped from a foot behind them.

  Releasing his hold, James turned with her and watched as she gave Gabriel and Caleb each weepy, grateful hugs and then latched onto Amber and Skye in a three-way hug. All of the girls were crying and babbling, their emotions ranging from relief to happiness to remembered fear. As they stood together on the beach, the elders approached from the group that had landed behind Olivia.

  “We have to get back to Central,” Gabriel said as he intercepted the elders’ thoughts, though he was obviously hesitant to interrupt the sisters’ tearful reunion. “We’re not safe here.”

  Olivia nodded and wiped ineffectively at her face. Her wrenching sobs had stopped, but the tears continued to drip in a steady flow from her beautiful eyes. She was expelling a great deal of pent-up emotion.

  Turning, she faced the huge number of silent beings behind her. “There isn’t a way to thank all of you for coming to get me,” she said in a loud voice, wanting her words to carry. “You saved my life.”

  “Actually, Olivia,” Uriel said, giving her the first smile any of them had ever seen from him, “you saved your own.”

  It was nearly dawn before they made it all the way back to Central and got showered and ready for bed. Olivia had been greeted by the Estilorians still remaining at Central with more warmth and enthusiasm than James had ever seen. Brenna and Pavati had shed tears when they learned everything that had happened, prompting Olivia to shed even more of her own.

  Then there had been Olivia’s reconnection with Aurora. Watching her interact with the two panthers had been quite an emotionally-wrought experience. She had simply sat on the ground and clung to their necks as she wept.

  He knew despite his lack of experience with such things that by the time they got up to their rooms, she was emotionally wrung out.

  He and Caleb did their usual swap in listening for Olivia and Skye while they each showered. He moved his mattress into Olivia’s room while she showered, then took his turn to shower in his bathroom as soon as Caleb was out an
d on guard duty. Washing away the day’s grime was a welcome relief, but he hurried through the task so that he could get back to Olivia.

  After finishing his routine and dressing in a sleep tank and pants, he closed the door between his room and Skye’s, bid Caleb a mental good night and walked over to Olivia’s room, extinguishing all but a single ball of light as he walked.

  She was standing in the middle of the bedroom. The light pink nightdress she wore with a filmy, sleeveless overwrap served to enhance her innocence and vulnerability. He had never seen another being as beautiful as she appeared to him just then.

  When she held her arms up, he walked right to her and pulled her against him. The weight that he hadn’t even realized had settled on his chest suddenly eased.

  “I’ve been waiting for what feels like a lifetime just to hold you and tell you how much I love you,” he whispered as he pressed his cheek against the softness of her hair. “This entire experience has shown me how foolish I was to not acknowledge my feelings sooner.”

  He felt her smile against his chest and shake her head. “You’ve had nearly a century of life without any concept of love or similar emotions,” she responded. “How could you have understood all there is to know about such an emotion in just a few months? I was the foolish one for not considering that and placing such expectations on you.”

  Pulling away enough that he could look down at her, he said, “Olivia, I feel as though my life didn’t truly begin until you transitioned into it.”

  She slowly lifted her head and stared at him incredulously.

  Thinking she didn’t believe him, he explained, “When I think back to my life even four months ago, it seems…without color. Perhaps there were a few interesting lessons during my training just after I transitioned, and there was always the potential to grow and advance among the Gloresti. But I only accepted that depth of existence because it was all I knew. Now I know better.