Page 158 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

Gray walked to my side, a hand sliding from the bottom of my jaw to rest on my cheek. She forced me to meet her watery gaze. Through our bond, I felt her pride swell for me. “You did it. He’s gone.” Rising up on her toes, she pulled me in for a final, desperate kiss.

I broke the kiss, resting my forehead against hers. “I really wanted to hear him scream. Just once.”

Gray chuckled and pulled away, turning to face Cotton again. He still cradled Scarlett’s limp body in his arms.

Cotton’s eyes darted between us in nervous confusion, probably trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“I’m sure you’ve got a lot of questions, Cotton, but we need to get out of here,” Gray said and looked at me as we tried to figure out which direction to go next.

I knew all the nooks and crannies of this forsaken hellhole. I’d find a way to get us out. “Follow me.” I turned and headed back down the corridor we came from when Grim ambushed us. We passed by the Endarkened, who were lying down after Gray’s order.

Odd.

Gray and Cotton followed. I could feel Gray’s worry over Scarlett growing as she walked next to Cotton. “Redfern poisoning?” she asked from behind me. Cotton didn’t verbally answer her, but I felt Gray’s relief, so I assumed he shook his head in response.

A hand latched around my bicep and snatched me to a stop. I faced Gray, her jaw set, and eyes narrowed. “What? What’s wrong?”

Rolling her eyes, she slapped an antidote syringe in my palm. “Were you planning on taking care of that or just waiting until you damn near died from the poison?” she demanded with a raised brow.

In my rush to get them out of the King’s Palace, I’d push aside the wound. I didn’t have any antidotes on me but thank fuck Gray did. She must’ve had it left over from the battle.

“There you go, saving me again,” I murmured with a small upward tilt of my lips as I exposed my neck to her.

Gray rolled her eyes as she removed the plastic encasing on the needle before thumping the tube. But I saw the smile she fought to hide. “Of course, I’m saving your ass. Don’t forget it,” she said as she plunged the syringe into my carotid artery.

The antidote’s effects worked through my veins, soothing the rising burn that had been quickly building. During my time here, the king had ordered part of my training to be cut and stabbed daily with Kinetic blades.Sometimes, they’d bring me to the brink of death to see how far they could push me, so it was almost too easy for me to forget the wound in my rush. Because the pain wasn’t new to me, I’d grown somewhat of a tolerance to it. Still, it sucked until I got the antidote.

I breathed in deep, savoring the cooling of my veins. “Thank you,” I whispered, brushing a strand of hair from her bloodstained face.

Gray leaned into my palm. “Anytime.” She rose up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “Let’s go.”

Cotton stood behind us, looking haggard and exhausted, especially after refusing to put Scarlett down.

“Got a plan?” Gray asked as we continued rushing through the maze of the underground prison.

“Sort of. Just gonna ask that you trust me,” I said, directing a pointed look at her out of the corner of my eye.

Gray snorted but remained silent otherwise. I sensed she wanted to ask me something, yet she held back.

For once, I decided not to push the issue. Now wasn’t the time.

At the end of one of the cell blocks, a familiar door came into view. I rushed toward it.

“Chrome,” Gray said through gritted teeth. “What the hell? We’renotgoing into the interrogation room!” she hissed.

I didn’t acknowledge her protest; instead, I walked faster. There was a way out in there. I wasn’t even sure that Forest knew it existed, but since I’d spent so much time in there during my youth, I’d discovered every crevice in that room when left alone in there for days at a time.

I heard it before I saw it. A blade split the air apart as it sailed toward Cotton’s throat. It slammed into a compact air shield just as Cotton launched sideways with Scarlett in his arms. He stumbled but managed to stay on his feet.

I summoned my double-edged sword to my hand, searching for the intruder, but I knew exactly who it was by the poignant and cold energy that approached us from an adjacent corridor.

I worked my jaw tight, the cold savagery returning to my soul as I jerked my head to face the source of the knife that Gray had thwarted. Sharp heels clicked along the concrete floor in the shadows until the light of the main hallway exposed her sharp features and dark lips.

As if she had been waiting in the shadows, Amethyst sauntered into view. Her violet hair pulled tight at the top of her head in a pin-straight tail that kissed her lower back.

It had been years since I’d last laid my eyes on my mother. She hadn’t changed a bit. Still cold. Still a fucking cunt.

“It’s a shame about Grim,” she said about her now-beheaded husband, feigning the faux pity that she’d mastered at birth. “But he was growing quite tiresome.” She snapped off her silver bracelet, her energy assaulting me.

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