Page 126 of Fated In Forever
His gaunt, ruined face twisted in confusion as he tried again.
And again.
“What's wrong with him?” Riordan asked, runningexpert hands over me as he checked my face, my side, my throat, his expression filled with a kind of bewildered relief.
“His ability to copy our magic—is gone,” Blake said, realization dawning in his voice. “Something's broken his connection.”
He was right, and whatever had severed Romulus's ability left him completely vulnerable. Blake's shadows bore down on him like a storm, and Romulus fell back, shaking his hands, like that might make his magic work.
Nope. Not even a little.
“Evie, Evie,look at me,” Riordan was hyper focused on the blood on my face, but my attention was torn between Blake's fight and the brutal dance happening between Malachi and his Maker. They moved with inhuman speed, a blur of claws and fangs, each strike potentially lethal. Malachi fought with a ferocity I'd never seen from him—and in this form…God, he was fucking magnificent.
Ravok was hurt, bleeding…I squinted. No, not bleeding. He was leaking black blood, like after I’d stabbed him. In fact, he was leaking ichor from the exact same place I’d stabbed him with that cold iron blade, right before I’d dove through the portal.
“Angel and Eldric,” I gasped, “Are they…”
“They’re alive. Knocked out, drugged, from the looks of things.” Riordan dragged me further away, jerked his head toward the still open cell door. “Your sister was sleeping and she looked unhurt…Eldric’s been...roughed up.”
He touched my cut cheek again, then paused, growling when he discovered my broken ribs. “If Malachi doesn’t kill that fuck, I’m going to gut him.”
“I’m already healing, don’t worry. We have to get my sister and Eldric out of here.” We both ducked as a slab ofconcrete crashed down, sending sharp chunks of masonry across the floor.
“Go,” Blake called over his shoulder, his shadows tightening around a flailing Romulus. “I've got this.”
Riordan grabbed my hand, tears rushing to my eyes for no reason whatsoever, then I was yanked into a tight enough hug I couldn’t breathe, but didn’t much care because there was no where I would rather be.
“You’re okay,” Rohr kept saying, face buried in my throat, body shaking. “You’re okay and you’re not dead and none of what I saw was real.”
I didn’t know what they’d seen—what horrors Ravok had shown them with his illusion—but whatever it was had shaken Riordan Graves to his core. I held on to this male who had always been nothing but a source of steady support, then brushed my fingers over his cheek, until he shuddered, finally opening his eyes. “I’m alright, Rohr. I’m right here, and everything is going to be okay.”
Then, just behind him, Eldric lurched out of the cell, white acrid smoke swallowing up his hands as he gripped the iron bars for dear life, his palms scorching.
“Ouch,” he blinked down at his blistered hands. “Who put those there? That fucking hurt.”
“That’s the drugs. He’s totally wasted,” Riordan murmured. “We have to take him…get the fuck down.” Riordan roared, and slammed me to the floor.
Another plume of fire—this one neither weak nor pale—roared over our heads like a rocket blast, heat washing over me, peeling paint off the walls. Riordan kept his hand flattened on my back, and I smelled burned skin, but that could have been from our resident idiot, Eldric, who I was seriously going to kill.
“Eldric,” I screamed—kind of hard to do with a collapsed lung—”Stop. You’re roasting us to death.”
The fire stopped, leaving behind superheated air that stank of brimstone.
“That was an accident,” he called, weaving on his feet. “I’m saving Angel. Did I win?”
Then he collapsed face first onto the concrete, and I definitely heard bones break.
Riordan and I rushed to him, flipped him over and winced. “Oh…that’s going to hurt when he wakes up.” I peered at his very broken nose. “Maybe it was already crooked?”
“Evie?” Angel's voice was so weak, I left the idiot behind to go to her, curled in the corner of the cell, looking more confused than anything. “How did you—where are we? I thought we were prisoners, but then I heard Blake’s voice.”
I crouched down, trying to block out whatever was happening outside the cell, though I could do nothing to smother Malachi’s roars. Or Ravok’s. There was another deep, resounding boom, and more dust sifted down over us, Angel coughing, pulling her shirt up over her face.
“I’m here,” I said quickly, helping her to her feet, “How do you feel? We need to get you to a healer, find out what drugs they used on you. Are you hurt?”
“Just a little bruised,” she managed, “Mostly from fighting, I think, when thatthingkidnapped me.”
“Romulus?” I asked, not really caring at this point.
